7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.4 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Lured back into action by his agency superiors, Ethan Hunt faces his deadliest adversary yet - a sadistic weapons dealer named Owen Davian. With the support of his IMF team, Ethan leaps into spectacular adventure from Rome to Shanghai as he races to rescue a captured agent and stop Davian from eliminating his next target: Ethan's wife, Julia.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup, Michelle MonaghanAction | 100% |
Adventure | 72% |
Thriller | 51% |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
German: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: España y Latinoamérica, Portuguese: Brasil
English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
UV digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Paramount has released the J.J. Abrams/Tom Cruise Action film 'Mission: Impossible III' to the UHD format. The disc replaces an aging Blu-ray which first released in 2007 with an MPEG-2 video encode and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. While this UHD adds no new extras, it does feature new 4K/Dolby Vision video and a new Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack.
The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.
Seeing that the film's Blu-ray -- even as its was released more than a decade ago and encoded in the MPEG-2 format -- wasn't all that bad, certainly
for its time and even today, there wouldn't appear to be room for the sort of massive leap forward from Blu-ray to UHD, as was the case with the first film, or even the moderate yet very successful 4K take on the second. Indeed, this UHD's textural improvements over the Blu-ray are more
incremental than they are substantial. The image's refinements are there and not difficult to see, but they are not drastic. Take a look at the film's very
first shot of a bloodied and bound Ethan Hunt, his face filling the right half of the screen. The UHD offers a refined and very strong image here. It's
organically and complimentary grainy, skin textures are finely complex, blood and sweat are clearly visible, and the colors are bold and accurate, down
to
the finest, slightest gradations. But it's not a huge leap from the 1080p image, at least texturally. The modest boost in sharpness is obvious, but not
substantial. And so remains the quality of the entire image: visual excellence, but not a major leap upward from the Blu-ray. Look at a number of
headstones seen during an establishing shot for a funeral scene around the 30-minute mark. The increase in sharpness and clarity are obvious, but not
massive. That doesn't make this image a disappointment. "Refinement" has often been the case with the UHD jump, and that's definitely the word to
use here.
On this disc, the improvements brought by the Dolby Vision color enhancement are more substantial than the image's textural qualities. Take a look at
a
scene in a convenience store early in the film. The multitude of colors, even if they're not the scene's focal point, are much more refined on the UHD.
While they are not garish on the Blu-ray, the UHD adds a new level of depth and accuracy -- even under the harsh store lighting -- that gives the scene
a much more balanced, a more tonally even, appearance. Skin tones enjoy a healthy improvement as well, appearing a bit warmer but naturally so.
Black levels are a strength, and whites dazzle, particularly various title cards. The image does reveal a handful of pops and speckles here and there and
a few shots appear intermittently and inherently soft (such as shots of Laurence Fishburne during his revealing scene), but source and encode flaws are
not particularly
problematic. While this disc doesn't offer a significant improvement from the Blu-ray, it's certainly a much better image overall, and it makes for a
solid, if not a bit ordinary (meaning it hits the baseline for quality), UHD.
Mission: Impossible III originally released on Blu-ray with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Paramount has replaced that with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack for the film's UHD debut, foregoing the opportunity to offer a more expansive 7.1 lossless or Atmos presentation. While the track is an improvement over the Blu-ray, it's not quite as robust and dynamic as it might have been. Action scenes do offer plenty of strongly defined surround support details. Chaotic elements scream through the stage with impressive zip and zoom and width and depth and stretch along both axes. Gunfire and explosions lack that last little push into the "thunderous" category, though, failing to really punch as hard as possible. Action scenes are very enjoyable, but they're not quite at reference levels with the bass just a little too tame, a touch too flat, for that. Environmental elements are crisply defined and organically inserted. Music follows much the same presentation standards as the action. It's loud, fidelity is terrific, but it's just a tad short on low end engagement and intensity. Dialogue is clear and refined with natural front-center placement and seamless prioritization.
Mission: Impossible III's UHD disc contains no supplements beyond regurgitating the audio commentary track, but the pair of bundled Blu-ray
discs, identical
to those released back in 2007 (disc artwork is different), bring over all of
the previously released content. For convenience, below is a list of what's included on that disc. For full supplemental reviews, please click here. A UV/iTunes digital copy code is included with
purchase.
Mission: Impossible III remains this reviewer's favorite film in the franchise to date. Abrams finds just the right balance between the first film's faithfulness to the source and blend of old school-meets new school action and John Woo's fun, but tonally offset, action-packed sequel. Paramount's UHD release is solid, but in no way spectacular. The image offers a modest textural boost and a more substantial improvement to color. The TrueHD track is good-not-great, and it remains disappointing that it, and the others, were not remixed to Dolby Atmos. No new extras are included but this three-disc set does carry over all previously released content. Recommended.
2-Disc Collector's Edition
2006
2006
2006
2006
2006
2000
2018
1996
2015
2011
2017
2002
2015
2020
2023
Deluxe Unrated Edition
2010
2015
2015
Collector's Edition
2021
2012
2008
2012
2019
2018
1999