Mission: Impossible – Fallout 4K Blu-ray Review
By Chris Heinonen on
Audio Quality
Video Quality
Overall
Mission: Impossible – Fallout Summary
On a dangerous assignment to recover stolen plutonium, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) chooses to save his friends over the mission, allowing it to fall into the hands of a deadly network of highly skilled operatives intent on destroying civilization. Now, with the world at risk, Ethan and his IMF team (Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson) are forced to work with a hard-hitting CIA agent (Henry Cavill) as they race against time to stop the nuclear threat. Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—FALLOUT also stars Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan and Alec Baldwin.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout Movie Review
The Mission: Impossible series has had an interesting run. After a good first movie, the second movie went a bit too far with John Woo at the helm, and then after the third everyone just took a break for a while. With M:I – Ghost Protocol, the series had a fantastic reboot and Rogue Nation was possibly the best of the series so far. Fallout continues that run of success and is almost certainly the best film in the series to date.
With well-established character backgrounds from the prior films, Fallout is able to start going without having to spend the first third of the film developing a backstory for you to be interested in. It certainly is recommended that you watch the prior films before this one, with Rogue Nation as the minimum starting point. Because of that established knowledge, you can understand every decision that characters are making and it’s able to show them as very complex, interesting people. The story itself is quite good and moves along at a healthy clip that keeps the film from ever having a dull moment.
If you haven’t watched a Mission: Impossible movie recently, you owe it to yourself to catch up and watch Fallout. It is one of the best action films of the year, and watching it for a second time was just as enjoyable as the first.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout Technical Review
Most of Mission: Impossible – Fallout was shot on 35mm film except for a few IMAX sequences that are shot digitally at resolutions past 4K. It used a 4K digital intermediate and has a Dolby Vision transfer, so all that detail should be captured well on the disc. When it comes to the film sequences, it MI: Fallout can be a bit of a mixed bag. Bright, daytime sequences look very good, with some very mild film grain there but good detail and color. There isn’t excessive HDR use which helps it avoid the excessive film grain noise that can happen in titles that do so. When you shift to darker or nighttime scenes, which is a lot of the movie, the image doesn’t hold up quite as well. There is more noise, and it is a bit murkier compared to the daytime scenes. Having seen it in theaters, this wasn’t noticeable, but since I saw it in 2K DLP projection, I was seeing it without great black levels or high details, to begin with.
When the movie shifts to IMAX, it moves from a 2.40 aspect ratio to 1.90 and the clarity of the film makes a huge jump. The IMAX sequences are simply stunning, with perfect clarity, resolution, and color, and are some of the best looking 4K material you’ve seen to date. In the final action sequence, this is particularly obvious as the movie switches from a bright IMAX scene to a darker interior film scene and the change in resolution and details is obvious. The colors are also very different as the image has been given a more golden hue for home release except the IMAX scenes looked to remain the same. Grading this is hard as the film scenes are only very good to OK, but the IMAX is perfect. I’m leaning towards the higher grade of a 4.5, but a 4.0 is more appropriate for the film sections.
The audio suffers from no questions on how to rate it. It is dynamic throughout with continual use of the Atmos channels for a fantastic, reference quality experience. Vocals are easy to understand, it puts you right into the environments, and action sequences happen all around you. The soundtrack never lets up and it is certainly worth coming back to when reviewing speakers or receivers in the future because of how great it sounds. Just a fantastic sounding film all around.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout Special Features
- Behind the Fallout
- Light the Fuse
- Top of the World
- The Big Swing: Deleted Scene Breakdown
- Rendezvous in Paris
- The Fall
- The Hunt is On
- Cliffside Clash
- Deleted Scenes Montage with Optional Commentary by director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton
- Foot Chase Musical Breakdown
- The Ultimate Mission
- Storyboards
- Theatrical Trailer
- Commentary by director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise
- Commentary by director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton
- Commentary by composer Lorne Balfe
- Isolated Score Track
Mission: Impossible – Fallout Review System
Sony A1E OLED, Panasonic UB820 UltraHD Blu-ray Player, KEF Ci5160RL-THX Fronts, Ci3160RL-THX Center, 2x Ci200RR-THX Surrounds, 4x CI200RR-THX Atmos Speakers, Anthem MRX 1120 Receiver, Power Sound Audio subwoofer.
Pros
Fantastic film, reference quality soundtrack, IMAX scenes that are some of the best 4K footage you've ever seen.
Cons
Some of the film scenes have excess grain noise and can be a bit murky.
Summary
Mission: Impossible - Fallout is a fantastic action film, one of the best of 2018, and the 4K Blu-ray disc delivers. The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is about as good as they come, and the IMAX scenes will leave you amazed with the level of clarity and detail they offer.
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