Star Trek Beyond 4K Blu-ray Review
By Chris Heinonen on
Audio Quality
Video Quality
Overall
Summary: Star Trek Beyond finds the crew of the USS Enterprise continuing their five year mission to explore deep space. When a strange ship arrives at their newest starbase, Yorktown, the Enterprise sets off to help them rescue their crew inside of an uncharted nebula. This turns out to be an ambush, as a massive swarm of attack ships destroys the Enterprise, causing everyone to eject.
Now trapped on the planet Altamid with no way to signal star command, the members of the ship that have not been captured must try to survive while working to rescue their crew and stopping Krall from unleashing an ancient bio-weapon on the rest of the galaxy.
Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond starts out a bit slow and uneven but picks up as the movie progresses. I actually had never considered the mental effects of being at space for years at a time until it was brought up in the film, but then that fades away until the very end as basically bookends for the action. Krall wasn’t developed as much as I’d like to see, and how he wound up becoming who he is was never fully explained. It’s still an enjoyable film and one I might watch again, certainly more than the last installment, but the first Star Trek reboot remains the best in the series.
Technical Review: For a number of years, the original Star Trek reboot has been used as demo material for what HDR and WCG can do. From photon torpedoes to the color of the uniforms, Star Trek Beyond is full of content that a standard TV cannot display. Battles in space are fantastic thanks to their use of HDR and WCG, while the sunrise on Altamid is another example of what HDR can bring to the table. Unfortunately, the digital intermediate is only 2K while the film was shot on 3.4K and 6K digital cameras. Sharpness is good and better than the Blu-ray, but of course, it would be better if it was a true 4K master.
The Atmos soundtrack has no such issues. When battling a swarm of ships in outer space they easily fly around you and put you into the center of the action. The scene where the USS Enterprise docks at Yorktown in the beginning of the film can almost make you motion sick as the cameras twist and pan through the virtual landscape, but the Atmos channels follow along making you feel like it’s a real environment.
Special Features: Deleted scenes, 9 featurettes including tributes to Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin, and a Gag Reel.
Review System: Vizio P65-C1 display, Samsung UltraHD Blu-ray Player, KEF Ci5160RL-THX Fronts, Ci3160RL-THX Center, 2x Ci200RR-THX Surrounds, 4x CI200RR-THX Atmos Speakers, Anthem MRX 1120 Receiver.
Pros
Good use of HDR and WCG, very good use of Atmos for battles and other environments
Cons
Not a native 4K master so detail could be improved upon
Summary
Star Trek Beyond is a good addition to the series and looks great on UltraHD Blu-ray, but again a native 4K master could put it over the top.
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