Interstellar 4K Blu-ray delivers stunningly beautiful video and superb audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history: traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether humanity has a future among the stars.
For more about Interstellar 4K and the Interstellar 4K Blu-ray release, see Interstellar 4K Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on December 22, 2017 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.5 out of 5.
Interstellar is one of seven films by director Christopher Nolan being issued on UHD in a
massive technical undertaking by one of today's most successful and influential filmmakers. The
immediate occasion for the project was Nolan's historical wartime epic, Dunkirk, but the
inclusion of every feature film that Nolan has made in the last twelve years also reflects the
director's conviction that 4K UHD is the definitive home video technology of our era and the
best way for his films to be seen outside of theatrical venues. In support of that conviction, Nolan
has personally overseen every aspect of these releases, from element selection to film transfer to color correction to
HDR grading to choice of sound formats�and even packaging. Rarely has the notion of
"director approved" been more apt or more literally true.
Nolan's 2014 space odyssey was a co-production between Warner Brothers and Paramount, with
the latter retaining domestic rights for video distribution. Outside the U.S., this new 4K version
of Interstellar is being distributed by Warner, and, in a special licensing arrangement, it is also
being included in the
seven-film collection
that Warner is issuing worldwide. In the domestic U.S. market, the disc is separately available from Paramount.
My colleague Martin Liebman has explored the many complexities of Interstellar�in his review
of its initial Blu-ray release, to which I refer the curious reader. The standard Blu-ray included
with the UHD disc is a reprint of the disc that Marty reviewed. I have retained Marty's rating for
the feature.
Interstellar�was director Christopher Nolan's first collaboration with cinematographer Hoyte Van
Hoytema, who would go on to photograph the director's Dunkirk. The film saw Nolan's most
extensive use of IMAX cameras up to that point, and it was released to theaters in a variety of
aspect ratios, ranging from 2.39:1 for standard 35mm projection to 1.43:1 for IMAX 70mm. As
on many of his other projects, Nolan has chosen a shifting aspect ratio for home video, with
IMAX scenes framed at 1.78:1 and non-IMAX at 2.39:1. As I noted in reviewing Dunkirk, the
practice remains controversial, with some viewers finding it unacceptably distracting, while
others barely notice it.
Interstellar is a good example of the pitfalls of relying on IMDb for technical information. The
film's IMDb entry claims that it was finished on a digital intermediate at 4K, which initially led
me to believe that Nolan had departed from his usual insistence on both shooting and finishing
his works on film. In fact, Interstellar was finished photochemically, and Warner holds the reels
of original cut negative in its archives. For this 2160p, HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD disc, the
film has been newly scanned at 4K, followed by color correction and HDR grading reviewed
by the director at every stage.
The result is an image of jaw-dropping clarity, in both the 35mm and IMAX scenes. The fineness
of the dust seeping into the Cooper household in the early Earth-bound scenes is as beautiful as it
is threatening, and the fields of corn that surround the farm are made up of individual stalks
rather than blending into a green mass. The mechanical textures of the several spacecraft in
which Joseph Cooper and his fellow astronauts hurtle through space are so minutely rendered
that you feel as if you can reach out and touch them, and the blackness that surrounds them is
deeply inky and black as it frames both the manned vehicles and a variety of celestial bodies. The
alien landscapes on which the team lands are even more beautiful and threatening, the one with
its vast rippling oceans and the other with its forbidding mountain peaks. In the climactic
sequence where Cooper finds himself in what can only be described as an alternate dimension,
the individual strands of pulsating light that comprise the environment are separately rendered,
each with its own rhythm and frequency, simultaneously lovely and strange.
Interstellar's Blu-ray presentation was excellent, and it still is. But put on the Blu-ray after
watching the UHD, and you immediately sense that something is missing. By comparison, the
image is dim, soft and sometimes even mushy (a phenomenon that Marty noted in his review).
No such softness infects this 4K presentation. Its gorgeous images remain sharp, tactile and
immediate from first to last.
(Note: The original version of this review incorrectly stated that this UHD was derived from the camera negative. That assertion was
based on incorrect information supplied by Warner Brothers. It has now been confirmed from multiple sources that the 4K/HDR master was derived
from an interpositive, at Christopher Nolan's express instruction and contrary to Warner's standard policy, which provides that 4K scans should utilize
the existing element with the greatest resolution. We regret the error; the scores for Video and 4K have been adjusted.)
The UHD disc has no extras. The package includes the same separate disc of extensive extras
previously released with the Blu-ray of Interstellar and discussed here.
Paramount's separate release of Interstellar comes with a digital copy. Due to licensing limitations, no digital copy is
included with the
seven-film Christopher Nolan
Collection.
Interstellar remains an ambitious, provocative, sometimes maddening entertainment. It struggles
mightily to strike a balance between the majesty and grandeur of 2001-style epic filmmaking and
the kind of intimate and personal drama that has sometimes been sacrificed in Nolan's work but
is here given more room to unfold than in any of the director's films to date. The balance
sometimes wobbles, but Nolan gets much more right than wrong. This wonderful UHD
presentation reveals new layers in the film's intricate visual design, while at the same time
shining a brighter light on the moving performances. Even more than Dunkirk, it's a 4K disc to
play for your friends if you want to show them what all the fuss is about. Very highly recommended.
Interstellar: Other Editions
4K
3-disc set Wal-Mart
4K
3-disc set
4K SteelBook
3-disc set Wal-Mart
4K
3-disc set
4K SteelBook
2-disc set Best Buy
Blu-ray
2-disc set Wal-Mart
Blu-ray
2-disc set
Blu-ray
3-disc set Wal-Mart
Blu-ray
3-disc set Best Buy
Blu-ray
3-disc set Wal-Mart
Blu-ray
2-disc set $8.99
SteelBook
3-disc set Target
Blu-ray
2-disc set
Blu-ray
3-disc set
Blu-ray Bundles/Box Sets with Interstellar 4K (1 bundle)
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to Interstellar. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to Interstellar in the search box below.
Paramount Home Media Distribution will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014) with a brand new Limited Edition 4K Blu-ray release, which is scheduled to arrive on the market on December 10th.
Blu-ray.com and Paramount Home Entertainment are offering three members the opportunity to win a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray copy of director Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014), starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Ellen Burstyn, and John ...
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has officially announced that it will release on 4K Blu-ray seven acclaimed films from dierctor Christopher Nolan: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Dunkirk will be available courtesy of from Warner ...
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to Interstellar. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to Interstellar in the search box below.
