Go head to head with the largest prehistoric shark to ever exist when “The Meg” arrives on 4K UHD Combo Pack, DVD and Digital. Jason Statham and award-winning Chinese actress Li Bingbing star in the science fiction action thriller “The Meg” directed by Jon Turteltaub.
The 4K UHD features Dolby Vision HDR that dramatically expands the color palette and contrast range and uses dynamic metadata to automatically optimize the picture for every screen, frame by frame. It also features a Dolby Atmos soundtrack remixed specifically for the home theater environment to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead.
You can own “The Meg” right now on Digital and everywhere else physically November 13th.
Plot: A deep-sea submersible part of an international undersea observation program has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and now lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific… with its crew trapped inside. With time running out, expert deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer, against the wishes of his daughter Suyin, to save the crew and the ocean itself from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon.
What no one could have imagined is that, years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now, teamed with Suyin, he must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below.
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Runtime: 113 min
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 45% & IMDB 5.8/10
Unboxing (see below)
Review:
This was shot with Arri cameras & Zeiss lenses & finished as a 2K Digital Intermediate. For this release it was upscaled and given a HDR color grade in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Let me just say this disc beautiful for being a upscaled because the majority of this movie is razor sharp… like crystal clear more times than not. If you told me that it was native 4K, I would have believed you without question.
With a razor sharp image comes nearly no grain at all. The only time where grain can be seen is when the camera goes underwater. I wouldn’t even call it grain, it’s more of an added atmospheric effect to designate the effects on the underwater scenes. It’s just enough to remove the illusion of the green screen.
As usual with the format all pores, beard stubble, wrinkles and sweat show great detail in UHD. The majority of the characters screen time and up-close shots are reference grade stuff. If it’s not reference grade, it’s close. There are also plenty of times where interior lighting is present (colors like red, white, blue) which gives a great effect that’s highlighted with HDR and enhanced with shadows.
As a side note: every time you get a distant shot of the ‘Mana One,’ it’s reference quality. Wow! Shockingly there were only a few times you could pick out that the particular scene was on a green screen and only one time did I notice banding in the water and it was very slight.
In Chapters 2, 5 & 9 you get different scenes in the main conference room on the ‘Mana One’ Research Facility — both during the day and night. During the day shots you get great sunlight bouncing of the walls and on their up-closely shot faces — while at night you get great shadowing and contrast with the lack of light. It’s the little things here like the colors in the room, the bamboo, red chairs and other accents that add to these scenes nicely — all while being nearly or razor sharp.
In Chapter 7 you get the open-ocean shark tank scene with Jonas & Suyin’s characters in and around the cage. The colors in this particular scene look great in contrast with deeper-darker blues vs. surface-lighting blues. Also, as a side note: the white ‘interior-lining’ lighting from inside the cage looked amazing in contrast with the dark void all around them.
A negative to point out: as rare as this seems to me, there was TOO MUCH HDR in some of the ‘out on the ocean daytime scenes.’ A few times the white was WAY too bright and the characters faces were literally washed out. You will see this the most when they are all out on the boat pursuing the shark. It’s still razor sharp, just too bright. You will also see a bit of this again in the Sanya Bay scene…. there are tons of colors present across the spectrum sitting on a blue ocean — but, the HDR is too much. Let me know if this is something that caught your eye as well!
Conclusion:
‘The Meg’ is not going to win any awards at the Oscars or be on the Top 10 list of films at the end of the year — but it knows that. What this movie is, is a fun-action-summer-blockbuster that every shark fan will love. It’s a great popcorn flick and worth a watch it you didn’t catch it in theaters. It made over $527 million worldwide, so you can bet a second ‘Meg’ is in the works.
Beyond all of that — one thing’s for sure, regardless on how much you may or may not like the movie, it’s a great looking 4K UHD disc to add to your collection. Make sure you pick this up when it hits the shelves November 13th in both 4K, Blu-Ray & DVD. If you can’t wait, you can own it right now Digitally.
Cheers,
Matt.
While your here, check out more of my 4K & Blu-ray reviews. Even more, see the newest trailers, press releases, music and more on the rest of the site. Follow me for faster updates on Twitter and Instagram.
