Like I just did for Fellowship, I’ll just come out and say it: this is still a 5 star flick. No more to say on it.
Except here’s what I have to say about the 4K Blu-ray.
Everything I said about Fellowship’s treatment is still true, but the troublesome areas are less frequent and the stunning spots are more frequent. HDR here astounds. Lots of wide colour gamut moments that looked amazing on our system. Some weird waxy faces like before, but only a small handful of moments where it distracted.
This is still not a great 4K disc, but an improvement over Fellowship for sure. My preference would be to leave all the film grain intact and avoid digital cleanup anywhere. I suspect that would also help the visual effects blend. Back in these days, they used to add digital film grain to CGI so it would blend in — and it really worked! I miss that.
Anyway, much like the original Star Wars trilogy, I’d pay twice what they’re charging now for superior, true to the source reference 4K discs. These are timeless films. They deserve better.
Oh, and the sound continues to be reference quality amazing. I got excited and cranked our home theatre louder than normal. Didn’t realize till it was over that my father in law had put in earplugs. But man, these films and their soundtracks and sound effects still absolutely slap. A feast for the ears.