The Incredible Hulk 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Incredible Hulk 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Universal has released the Superhero film 'The Incredible Hulk' to the UHD format with a new 2160p/HDR-enhanced video presentation as well as a new DTS:X Master Audio soundtrack. The film was originally released to 1080p Blu-ray in 2008 and was, for its time, a reference quality release, packed with extras and featuring top-line video and audio. Universal has carried over all of those supplements for this release. Find more details below.

The Incredible Hulk 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.

The Incredible Hulk muscles up on 4K with a 2160p/HDR-enhanced transfer that's a different animal on the UHD format. The HDR-10 colors create an added dynamic to the palette. There's a depth and intensity here that's missing from the Blu-ray. While the image is a little darker, that darkness comes with an increase in firmness, color certainty, and accuracy that is obvious both in brightly lit daytime scenes -- such as at the college -- as well as shadowy low light interiors or nighttime exteriors. There's greater vitality to brighter colors, such as natural greens around the college campus, which truly dazzle, especially within a longer overview shot at the 48-miniute mark. Fireballs are intense, neon signs dazzle, green liquids in the bottling company look primed to burst out of the screen. Black levels are deep and true with only the slightest hints of crush. Skin tones do push a little warm.

The 2160p image, which is reportedly an upscale from a 2K digital intermediate, does offer a solid improvement in general textural efficiency and clarity as well as overall sharpness. The image is enjoyably filmic, lightly and consistently grainy, and a pleasure to watch come to life at home with a commendable cinematic flair and flavor. That said, it lacks the absolute tack-sharp and readily apparent intimacy of the best the format has to offer. The movie is a little soft by its nature, but the UHD does accentuate its cinematic bonafides. There's a definite jump -- and sometimes a leap -- to overall image definition. Skin textures, natural environments, even digital constructs and debris during the final battle all look very firm and largely refined. But skin and clothes and some environmental details just never do reach the format pinnacle. That said, both in terms of detail and color, as well as stability and sharpness and filmic qualities, the UHD handily bests the Blu-ray. It's not a major leap, but all of the moving pieces earn enough of a bump to make this a worthwhile upgrade that fans are sure to find delightful.

The Incredible Hulk 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Incredible Hulk's incredible DTS:X Master Audio soundtrack is a much easier review. This things rocks. The previous Blu-ray's 5.1 track was killer, but this takes things to another level. The bottling factory springs to life with an abundance of surround information and even some overhead support, none of it all that distinct but very much a critical part in shaping the general din -- conveyor belts, steam, alarms, clanking bottles -- that bring the environment to life. Rainfall in chapter six saturates with full surround engagement and some overhead love while little examples of atmospherics around campus or on city streets draw the listener in. Action, of course, dominates, and wow does this track deliver. For all the intensity, surround chaos, and top end madness, there's a balance to it all, a pull that brings the listener into the middle of the excitement to feel every hit, scatter from every piece of falling debris, to experience the environmental and monster-on-monster carnage. Gunfire is loud and rip-roaring but never sounds overly engineered. Bullets pop with depth, zip with speed, and impact with a rush, and no speaker and no inch around the stage is off limits. The climactic battle between Hulk and Abomination is, of course, the major highlight, and it's just a rush of sonic excitement, the sort that's really rare even amongst the most elite tracks but here just another day at the office. Dialogue is never lost in the shuffle or drowned out by the madness. This one means business, but it also brings a critical refinement to its intensity. They don't come much louder, clearer, better than this.

The Incredible Hulk 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The UHD disc carries over the legacy commentary track, and all extras can be found on the bundled Blu-ray, which is identical to that released in 2008. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. For convenience, below is a list of all included extras. For a full supplemental review, please click here.

• Alternate Opening
• Deleted Scenes
• The Making of Incredible
• Becoming the Hulk
• Becoming the Abomination
• Anatomy of a Hulk-Out
• From Comic Book to Screen
• Audio Commentary

The Incredible Hulk 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Incredible Hulk may be one of the more under-the-radar of the Marvel movies of the past decade-plus. The MCU never did recast Norton as the Hulk, eventually transitioning to Mark Ruffalo, both of whom are good but Norton owns the part in this film. The movie is great fun, extremely well paced, and highly re-watchable. Universal's UHD features a well-rounded HDR-10 color palette. It's also home to modest-to-significant improvements in detail and a more refined and enjoyable cinematic texturing. The soundtrack is a beast. No new extras are included, but the carryover supplements are still very good. Highly recommended.