Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Resident Evil: Apocalypse 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Sony has released Director Alexander Witt's video game adaptation film 'Resident Evil: Apocalypse' to the UHD format. New specifications include 2160p/HDR video and Dolby Atmos audio. The UHD contains a single new supplement, but the bundled Blu-ray, identical to that which Sony released nearly 14 years ago, includes the stable of legacy supplements. See below for a review of new content. The UHD is currently only available as part of a 'Resident Evil' franchise collection box set.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

Apocalypse is an even bleaker film that its predecessor. This is another steely blue and gray movie but with a much darker tone and even greater color desaturation. Nevertheless, the 2160p/HDR UHD presentation is quite strong. The picture is pleasantly filmic, maintaining an organic grain structure that is very flattering of the material and quite cinematic. It's consistent in density, helping to bring out exquisite film-like detailing in every shot. Clarity abounds well beyond the aged Blu-ray, offering firm, tactile definition to faces, clothes, and environments. This is inherently not the sharpest movie on UHD, but there's an unmistakable firmness and fidelity about the image. It appears perfectly true to its film roots, delivering the rather challenging low light imagery with great faithfulness and a willingness to hold fast to the organically cinematic qualities. It's attractively stable and sure.

The HDR color spectrum helps to deepen and solidify the movie's inherently bleak color timing which favors extreme blue, gray, and black output. Contrast through this spectrum is impressive, boasting excellent tonal detail, separation, and gradation. The added depth reinforces the material compared to the lighter, less dynamic Blu-ray which gets the point across but never truly explores the material with the sort of color accuracy it truly demands. HDR brings with it more finely nuanced tones within the available spectrum of lighter and brighter, mostly coming through healthy, full flesh tones, some red blood, and fire in the form of explosions and barrel flashes during gunplay. Film's end brings with it the most aggressive burst of color to be found, seen only briefly in a choppy crash sequence and more stabilized for a few moments afterwards. Here, colors remain somewhat reserved but there's no real want for added vitality without making for a completely jarring transition. Within the movie's intended visual characteristics, it seems as if Apocalypse couldn't look a whole lot better.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack offers endless extremes at reference volume. It's insanely aggressive, delivering one of the more blatantly overamped yet exceedingly fun tracks in recent memory. Music spills through the speakers with abundant volume and extreme depth. Yet it maintains its subtleties, too, with clarity extending to even the more minute supports rather than expend all of its energy on the most prominent pieces. Still, those most engaging components do find ridiculously generous spacing through the entire stage, saturating the listener with a rare example of thunderous depth and tremendous detail. Action elements are no different. Gunfire, prodigious throughout the picture, tears through with extreme punch, hitting hard as shots ring out from a weapon and impact surfaces and flesh alike. Gunfire explodes from all around, though with purpose and precision placement, not just popping in for random effect. Subwoofer output never relents in action. There's always a gunshot, something or someone crashing hard, a structure breaking, or an object being thrown around the stage. And the total sense of immersion, right in the middle of the action at all times, may be this track's greatest engineering feat. Light ambience is constantly in play, too, even if it's just an eerie sound effect, a slightly echoing footfall, or any number of spooky sound effects that ease the listener into the coming Horror maelstroms. Overheads engage with frequency, both in support of established elements and offering a number of discrete effects, such as when public address announcements about medical scanning are heard in the early minutes. Expect sounds to come into the stage from all over and move through its every available corner and layer. Dialogue is perfect, too. For hardcore audio, this one's tough to beat.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Resident Evil: Apocalypse's UHD disc contains two cuts of the film: Theatrical Version (1:33:47) and Extended Version (1:37:46). Two new extras are included: the film's Teaser Trailer (1080p, 1:24) and Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:30). The bundled Blu-ray includes the extras outlined below. Please click here for full coverage.

• Audio Commentary: Director Alexander Witt, Producer Jeremy Bolt, and Executive Producer Robert Kulzer.
• Audio Commentary: Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, and Sienna Guillory.
• Audio Commentary: Writer/Producer Paul W.S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt.
• Game Over: Resident Evil Re-Animated
• Game Babes
• Symphony of Evil
• Corporate Malfeasance
• Deleted Scenes

Resident Evil: Apocalypse 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Resident Evil: Apocalypse may very well usher in the end times if its soundtrack has anything to say about it. This thing is devastating, in a good way, offering one of the most active and intense audio experiences yet. The 2160p/HDR picture quality is terrific, too, and fans will enjoy the return of all the carryover extras. Highly recommended.