T2: Trainspotting 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

T2: Trainspotting 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Some twenty odd years have passed since the original Trainspotting, making the gap between that film and this sequel one of the longest in the annals of the film. That two decade span of time plays an important part in the story, however, as a former gang of drug addicts have to face the peril of a perhaps even greater threat: middle age.

T2: Trainspotting 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.

T2 Trainspotting is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with a 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. As I outlined in our T2 Trainspotting Blu-ray review, the film was shot utilizing different Arri Alexa models at what I have to assume were variant source resolutions, but Boyle and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle also include a number of other source elements, including film, something that, along with whatever resolution differences of the digital capture there were, gave the 1080p presentation a rather heteregeneous look, something that is arguably only increased here. There's much more visible "fuzziness" in some of the supposed home movies (I guess which are supposed to be either 16mm or maybe even 8mm), for example. The film was finished at a 2K DI, and there are the expected upticks in sometimes subtle fine detail like the rough plaster on a hotel room wall Mark checks into or the stubble on Sick Boy's face. Some of the biggest changes come courtesy of HDR, though, with Boyle's stylistic proclivities getting a fuller and more nuanced accounting in terms of both general palette and especially some of the grading choices. There are some rather interesting differences between this presentation and the 1080p Blu-ray version, including things like a cooler purple tone in the late nightclub sequence where the final showdown gets underway. What this 4K UHD presentation alerted me most to, however, is how intentionally Boyle and his team have tweaked the imagery in a number of scenes, something which wasn't quite so apparent in the 1080p version. For instance, some of what I attributed to being video noise in the Blu-ray version now looks to me more like deliberate digital alteration, with a "distressed" look that includes some admittedly pretty noisy looking effects like digital grain (just to be clear, there are other moments that do in fact have noise). That said, there are a number of strange anomalies which were present for me, and which may cause some to downgrade their own personal scores for the presentation. Along with the sometimes swarming noise in some scenes, there were recurrent if often slight and transitory issues with horizontal bands running through certain scenes. It wasn't "banding" in the traditional sense in that gradations of light had nothing to do with it, but there were clear delineations of dark and light stripes that intruded occasionally.

T2: Trainspotting 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's really only one sensible response to T2 Trainspotting's Dolby Atmos track: surrender. I noted that the Blu-ray's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track was boisterous and exciting, but (to me, anyway) kind of overpowering at times. Well, as might be expected, there's no "kind of overpowering" with regard to the Atmos track: it is overpowering, from the first notes of the song accompanying Mark on his treadmill, through the often nonstop use of source cues, to some of the fight scenes, to some fun midair effects (including Mark's fall off the treadmill). There is simply an onslaught of activity here that will pretty much subdue any ordinary listener, and the use of things like scenes in nightclubs only offers more opportunity for both thumping LFE and near constant surround activity. Perhaps surprisingly, dialogue is rarely if ever buried even in the noisiest environments, and those equipped with receivers able to decode Atmos will have a new reference quality audio experience to share with other amazed audiophiles.

T2: Trainspotting 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is the first 4K UHD disc released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment that I've personally reviewed, so I'm not sure whether this is an unusual situation or something that Sony does with their releases, but while none of the supplements of the 1080p Blu-ray are ported over to this release, the 4K UHD disc does have some ostensible bonus material, though it's kind of hidden away via a clunky series of screens that force you to use the left, right, down and up arrows on your remote. These supplements include:

• Cast and Crew feature stills, accessible via the same up, down, left and right arrow movements outlined above.


• Moments is the potentially more interesting supplement, offering a clip show of sorts devoted to each of the four main characters:

  Spud (2160p; 16:53)

  Sick Boy (2160p; 16:18)

  Renton (2160p; 16:57)

  Begbie (2160p; 12:22)

T2: Trainspotting 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

T2 Trainspotting is a worthy successor to its now iconic progenitor, and as I mentioned in the review of the Blu-ray, I can't imagine any fan of the first film not enjoying this one. There are some curious differences between the Blu-ray and 4K UHD video presentations, some commendable, some not so much, but the Atmos audio is fantastic. Recommended.