7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
On the eve of D-Day, American paratroopers are dropped behind enemy lines to carry out a mission crucial to the invasion's success. But as they approach their target, they begin to realize there is more going on in this Nazi-occupied village than a simple military operation. They find themselves fighting against supernatural forces, part of a Nazi experiment.
Starring: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, Pilou Asbæk, John MagaroHorror | 100% |
Action | 84% |
Sci-Fi | 81% |
War | 11% |
Mystery | 9% |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
German: Dolby Atmos
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Castilian and Latin American Spanish. Brazilian Portuguese. German Atmos track also encoded on Dolby TrueHD 7.1
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The video game franchise Wolfenstein centers around a lone American hero named B.J. Blazkowicz whose sole purpose in life, it seems, is to not only rid the world of Nazis, but fight and put an end to their horrific experiments that have created grossly mutated creatures and an army of super soldiers. The franchise got its start on the PC back in the early 1980s, but it was 1992's Wolfenstein 3D that would truly propel the franchise forward and reinvent the video game landscape forever, a landmark release that ushered in the era of the first-person shooter. The franchise has recently enjoyed a critically acclaimed rebirth that continues to put players in control of Blazkowicz, fighting the same battles with more detailed plots and characterizations and, of course, all of the modern gaming horsepower transforming his enemies from digital sprites to fully realized characters and the environments from spartan layouts to complex worlds. Mention of the game series is practically unavoidable when discussing Director Julius Avery's (Son of a Gun) Overlord, a movie awash in the Wolfenstein spirit that focuses on American soldiers who face off against Nazi mutants in one of the most bloody and pulpy World War II films ever made.
The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.
Paramount's 4K/Dolby Vision color graded UHD release of Overlord delivers a modest upgrade in terms of both detail and color over the
excellent Blu-ray release. According to IMDB, the film was shot at resolutions of 2.8K and 3.4K, so it's reasonable to assume that the film was finished
at 2K. Viewers will note subtle improvements to sharpness and color depth but little more. Neither offers a drastic increase over the 1080p
presentation, but the slightly firmer textures and modestly more impressive colors do help round the presentation into a more polished viewing
experience. The film is very dark but also texturally rich. The Dolby Vision color grading solidifies the palette, grants it a little more depth, improving
shadow detail and fine-tuning both the drab earthy colors as well as the rare more pronounced shade, resulting in an image that is both more precisely
colored and to the film's tonal benefit, a little more unforgiving and inhospitable. The deepest blacks enjoy more stability and skin tones appear slightly
refined. The textural increases are not subtle but they are not dramatic, either. Across the board, viewers will note improvements to the density and
detail of the well-worn military uniforms, sharper facial textures, and more realistically rough rubble and stone work around the French town where
most of the action takes place. Improvements to clarity allow greater visibility of wounds and gore and more detail around the terrifying Nazi labs.
Noise management is slightly improved on the UHD as well. As with the Blu-ray, no serious encode or source artifacts are readily apparent. While this is
not an eye-opening leap over the Blu-ray, the touch-up improvements do make this the definitive Overlord home video experience.
Overlord's Dolby Atmos soundtrack can be summarized in a single word: bonkers. The track is a delight of sonic mayhem, stage expansion and extension, potent bass, and intensely and insanely fun full-stage saturation. Every action scene is a delight, cranking up the sonic mayhem and making full use of every speaker in the configuration, including the subwoofer, to paint a chaotic picture of wartime insanity. Right from the outset on the plane full of paratroopers, the track struts its stuff, which includes engine hum and interior rattle and eventually features bullets ripping through the plane's bottom half, explosions popping all around the aircraft, screaming men, all variety of wartime chaos that the track introduces and executes with startling precision, placement, and clarity. Such holds true for every shootout throughout the film and particularly in the film's climactic action scene. Every inch of the stage is filled with perfectly defined and carefully placed sound details that instantly and fully draw the listener into the battles and environments, where every shot, scream, crash, bang, and bullet slam find their proper, harmoniously balanced place. Overhead speakers are mostly folded in rather than discretely used, though some loudspeaker announcements do offer some nice and obviously positioned overhead usage. "Reserved" is not in this track's vocabulary, though lighter support effects do help better define various scenes when the action isn't front-and-center. Musical clarity and stage saturation are terrific and dialogue is clear and detailed from its natural front-center position. This is a reference quality track from start to finish.
Overlord's UHD disc contains no extras but the bundled Blu-ray houses a single extra titled The Horrors of War that branches down
into six featurettes which are outlined
below. An iTunes digital copy code is also included with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.
Overlord offers amplified World War II mayhem built for entertainment, not historical record. The picture stutters through a relatively slow-paced second act but offers a terrifyingly dense, intense, and bloody open and a gloriously gruesome finale. Much of the film is stock, relying on the chaos, violence, viscera, and relative novelty of it all, not character depth or narrative purpose, to draw audiences. The film is fine in that context. It would have been better with tighter editing and a little more balance between traditional War movie stylings and comic book absurdity, but it's still a fun time at the gory movies. Paramount's UHD delivers a good 2160p/HDR video presentation that offers modest improvements over the Blu-ray, a reference quality Atmos track, and a few extras. Recommended.
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Ultimate Collector's Edition
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