8.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Sci-Fi | 100% |
Mystery | 23% |
Western | 14% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1, 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish
Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Digital copy
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
What's in a name? Fans of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie may be acquainted with another of Barrie’s stage successes which went on to enjoy several film (and television) adaptations, The Admirable Crichton. What some may not know is that there was an actual, honest to goodness real life person who had earned that nickname centuries before the Barrie play co-opted it. James Crichton was a 16th century genius whose interests were so varied and far reaching that they became the stuff of legend even before he was murdered (possibly by the son of his patron) at the tender age of 22. For those of you who put stock in things like surnames, another Crichton, Michael, would seem to be a spiritual if not actual relative of James, since Michael, too, was a genius with interests that spanned a huge gamut of subjects and whose multimedia achievements would certainly qualify as being admirable. Among Crichton’s protean accomplishments were any number of novels that combined science fact with science fiction, often in a context of mystery and intrigue, including such well remembered works as The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, and probably most famously Jurassic Park. Crichton’s overwhelming success with The Andromeda Strain most likely helped grease the wheels for a rather audacious debut as a writer and director for film with Westworld in 1973, in a story that actually presaged at least some salient plot points of Jurassic Park, including a high tech amusement emporium where technology most definitely goes awry. Westworld was followed three years later by Futureworld (which did not have the imprimatur of Crichton). Though few may remember it, this HBO Westworld was not the first television adaptation and/or continuation of the stories told in Westworld and Futureworld, as there was a very short lived television series called Beyond Westworld which ran for only three episodes on CBS in 1980 before it was quickly canceled (kind of incredibly, Warner Archive has released Beyond Westworld: The Complete Series on DVD).
Westworld: Season Three: The New World is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of HBO and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.78:1 (as mentioned above, some moments, often involving Maeve, shift into a 2.39:1 aspect ratio). While the majority of this season was shot on good old fashioned film, location shooting in nighttime or dimly lit environments necessitated some digital capture this year, as is mentioned in this interview with cinematographer Paul Cameron I found while doing background research for this review. This is another really stunning looking season on Blu-ray, one that benefits from some incredible practical locations in places like Spain and Singapore. Real life futuristic environments are blended seamlessly with some rather nicely detailed looking CGI to offer some evocative visions of mid-21st century life. Fine detail is perhaps most expressive, though, in the practical elements like some of the stonework in the Spanish village filling in for Italy in some of the World War II material. There are a number of interesting grading choices made throughout the season, with blues, greens and teals especially prevalent, but what's commendable about these stylistic flourishes is how they rarely if ever materially affect detail levels.
Westworld Season Three: The New World has an excellent DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that I'm "cheating" a little on by assigning a 4.5 rather than a 5.0, so that I have a bit of "wiggle room" for the 4K UHD's Atmos presentation, which does offer some regular engagement of Atmos channels. Otherwise, though, this surround track is consistently immersive, both in the expected action sequences, but just generally with regard to a lot of both the futuristic environments, where things like zooming "airpods" pan convincingly, or even some of the World War II material, where sounds of battle can echo in both the side and rear channels. LFE is frequently mixed rather evocatively with lower score choices. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly, and when various episodes veer into non-English territory, subtitles appear automatically, but there are optional English subtitles (in addition to other languages) available for the presentation as a whole.
Disc One
- Parce Domine (1080p; 6:36)
- The Winter Line (1080p; 7:18)
- The Absence of Field (1080p; 6:05)
- Genre (1080p; 3:54)
- Decoherence (1080p; 4:48)
- Evan Rachel Wood and Aaron Paul - Analysis (1080p; 3:46)
- Evan Rachel Wood and Aaron Paul - Who Said It? (1080p; 3:43)
- Thandie Newton and Tessa Thompson - Analysis (1080p; 3:22)
- Thandie Newton and Tessa Thompson - Who Said It? (1080p; 2:57)
- Passed Pawn (1080p; 4:09)
- Crisis Theory (1080p; 9:03)
Westworld continues to surprise, and if this season doesn't quite have the mindbending qualities of the second season, it's still a multilayered trek through both reality and illusion, with a nice helping of metaphysics as everything from consciousness to predestination gets explored. Performances continue to be involving, and the series has one of the more elegant aesthetic sensibilities of anything on either broadcast or cable television right now. Technical merits are solid, and the supplementary package very enjoyable. Highly recommended.
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