Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Great Gatsby 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Most of the big shore places were closed now...but this UHD is open for business.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 19, 2018

Warner Brothers has released Director Baz Luhrmann's flashy and visually extraordinary adaptation of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel 'The Great Gatsby' to the UHD format. The disc includes a largely striking 4K/HDR image but curiously retains the DTS 5.1 soundtrack from the previous Blu-ray. No new extras are included.

The Great Gatsby is a film of narrative opulence, character opulence, and moviemaking opulence. It’s the “roaring twenties” not necessarily embodied, but certainly realized in a hyperkinetic, fantastical, and adventurous sort of way. The film is occasionally anachronistic, aurally in particular, as it blares contemporary music to accentuate the film’s golden age delights, a device that makes use of something more familiar to today’s audiences to convey the extravagance and party-hard atmosphere and lifestyle at Gatsby’s house. The film builds narrative cohesion and characterization at the same time, particularly later in the movie, even as Director Baz Luhrmann (who previously delighted in Moulin Rouge!), cuts fast and the movie plays faster. It’s a unique experience if it’s anything, worth watching if only to revel in an often askew but nevertheless cohesively constructed example of lavish modern filmmaking excess.

For a full film review, please click here; note that the "movie" score above reflects my own and not that of the previous reviewer.

The Great Gatsby 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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

For its UHD release of The Great Gatsby, Warner Brothers presents the film with an upscaled 4K transfer, presumably based on a 2.5K digital intermediate (that sourced from a 5K native resolution shoot), and standard HDR-10 color enhancement. The results are, generally, spellbinding, as lavish as both Gatsby's world and Luhrmann's production design. The transfer approaches best-case scenario for an upscaled image, certainly aided by the high-yield native photography and precise attention to detail in the film's core technical construct. Core textural complexities are generally off-the-charts wonderful, boasting insanely complex skin textures, period clothing, and location extravagance with eye-popping intensity and inherent intricacy, all besting the 1080p Blu-ray, sometimes significantly. That said, the movie's production and construction yields a fairly artificial, flat, and smooth appearance. Through all of the textural wonders, there's an unmistakable gloss and sheen to the movie, offset by occasionally more gritty scenes, a handful of vintage shots, and several others made to appear somewhere between grainy vintage and contemporary clear. Gatsby stands as one of the most hyper and heavily stylized films to appear on the UHD format thus far. Even within the same shot one will encounter a flat artificiality blended with appreciable image complexity, say two deeply dimensional and detailed characters against a terribly smooth, phony looking background. Generally speaking, however, the picture's inherent textural qualities are only accentuated here, and the result is some of the most enjoyably intimate and razor sharp material yet to make its way onto UHD. But the trade-off is a more pronounced reveal of many of the film's smoother, phonier elements.

The film's HDR-enhanced color palette adds an appreciable zest and brilliance to colors. It's perhaps not the most immediately striking boost to color the format has seen, but the added depth and punch are much appreciated and only serve to add sometimes significant spectacle and color separation. Often the finest moments take place when a single color stands out against otherwise similarly colored, and usually darker and more drab, backgrounds. Teal attire against a largely red room. Gatsby's yellow car cruising through the streets. Green grasses bountifully exploding off the screen. Storefronts and neon signs deliver rich, deep colors of impressive nuanced diversity and stability. Black levels are scrumptiously deep and and accurate, perfectly absorbing and complimentary. Flesh tones often capture a fairly warm, occasionally borderline hot, appearance, through to be sure there are plenty of more neutral and creamy complexities on display as well. Artifacts are few; a hint of shimmering can be seen on the would-be three-dimensional graphics that open the film, but such is the extreme exception to the rule. The Great Gatsby is a formidable UHD, besting an already top-flight Blu-ray with sometimes significantly improved sharpness and detail revelation and firmer, punchier color. The movie's structure and extreme stylization make it perhaps not a definitive reference disc if one is wanting a more streamlined visual experience, but it's an experience to be sure and a must-see for any UHD-capable movie fan.

I did experience a momentary pause and jerk in playback at the 1:34:00 mark, not repeatable on rewind, on the Oppo UDP-203.

The Great Gatsby 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This UHD release of The Great Gatsby joins a handful of other catalogue UHD releases not to feature a new soundtrack; rather than a Dolby Atmos or DTS:X presentation, Warner Brothers has opted to release the film with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack that is a carryover from the previously issued 1080p Blu-ray. For a full audio review, please click here.

The Great Gatsby 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Great Gatsby's UHD disc proper contains no bonus content, but Warner Brothers has bundled in the previously issued Blu-ray disc, which houses all of the bonus features. For full supplemental reviews, please click here, but see below for a quick run-through of what's included. This two-disc UHD set also includes a digital copy redemption code.

• The Greatness of Gatsby
• "Within and Without" with Tobey Maguire
• The Swinging Sounds of Gatsby
• The Jazz Age
• Razzle Dazzle: The Fashion of the '20s
• Fitzgerald's Visual Poetry
• Gatsby Revleaed
• Deleted Scenes
• 1926 The Great Gatsby Trailer

The Great Gatsby 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Great Gatsby is not a film for all tastes. It's hyper-lavish and often visually and sonically frenzied. Narrative almost necessarily takes a backseat, particularly early on, but the film never feels like only an exercise in cinematic excess and frivolity, though it's certainly that first and foremost. Warner Brothers' UHD release is splendid, besting an already superior Blu-ray with stout textural brilliance and improved color saturation. The package, however, sees no change in either audio presentation or supplemental content. Highly recommended to newcomers buying for the first time on UHD, but those who own the Blu-ray might be wise to wait for a sale before upgrading.