Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Pan 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Blackheart Is Not Blacker

Of the four titles with which Warner Brothers has chosen to launch its venture into 4K, Pan is the poor stepchild. The other three films—Mad Max: Fury Road, San Andreas and The LEGO Movie—are bona fide hits guaranteed to whet the appetite of prospective upgraders, but Pan was one of 2015's biggest flops (whether fairly or not is beside the point). The only possible incentive to acquire Pan on UHD would be a quantum leap in image quality over Warner's Blu-ray (and, preferably, its 3D release). Technophiles have been known to acquire films of dubious quality just for the "wow!" factor.

Unfortunately, Pan's UHD release isn't going to wow anybody, even the minority, like me, who had something good to say about the film. The UHD disc is only a marginal upgrade over the Blu-ray. Compared to the 3D version, it's a step backwards.

Pan did add a new wrinkle to my continuing UHD adventures. Midway through the film, my Samsung UBD-K8500 player suddenly lost its connection with the Sony XBR-75X940C display, and the screen went blank. Re-selecting the appropriate HDMI input usually fixes this problem, but this is the first time I have encountered it during playback. It typically occurs when the player is switching from an introductory logo to a menu, or from a menu to the feature. HDCP 2.2 copy protection is the likely culprit.

Screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Pan 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Like the other films in Warner's initial UHD wave, Pan was shot digitally, and it was finished on a 2K digital intermediate. Except for an occasional shot, the up-converted 4K image does not reveal superior detail or clarity, and the HDR encoding has done nothing to alter or enhance the film's black levels and contrast. Pan has many dark sequences, beginning with the film's opening, when Peter's mother deposits the infant on the orphanage steps, and continuing with the entire first act in the orphanage, where the dim light and monochromatic palette are intended to reflect the dull sadness of the orphans' existence. Scenes in Blackbeard's mines are almost as dark, though with more color, and a number of key scenes in the wilds of Neverland appear almost black-and-white (e.g., the journey by Peter, Hook and Tiger Lily to Mermaid Cove). I approached Pan on UHD with the hope that HDR treatment would give these sequences darker blacks, more refined contrast and an enhanced sense of depth, but no such improvements appeared.

Where the HDR encoding provides a noticeable uptick in quality is in such wildly colorful sequences as the gathering of Tiger Lily's tribe after they capture Hook and Peter or the battle between the tribe and Blackbeard's pirates, with their weapons that fire a rainbow of explosive rounds. As a general rule, the more brightly colored the scene in Pan, the more noticeable the difference created by HDR. (Whether or not such a difference constitutes an accurate image or an altered one is another matter.)

In my review of Pan's 3D release, I noted that the film's visual design was obviously intended to exploit the 3D format, and I was struck again on viewing the UHD version by the frequency with which the flatter image achieves less of an impact. This isn't a situation like Mad Max: Fury Road, where 4K upscaling and HDR coding sufficiently enhance the illusion of depth to compensate for the loss of the third dimension. As an exciting visual experience, Pan's 3D disc remains unsurpassed.

Pan 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Pan's soundtrack was exciting and impressive when I listened to it in Dolby TrueHD 7.1, and it is even more so in Dolby Amos. Everything I previously praised about the mix still applies, but the height channels expand the sound field for even greater impact.

Pan 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The UHD disc contains no extras. The included standard Blu-ray is identical to the previous release of Pan and contains the same supplements previously reviewed here.

Pan 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I approached the UHD release of Pan with the hope that it might expand the film's audience to include 4K early adopters, but I am disappointed to have to report that there's no special urgency in acquiring the disc. If you already have the standard Blu-ray, the UHD won't provide a major improvement. And if you want to see Pan in its best available presentation, get the 3D.