Oppenheimer 4K review

Nov 23, 2023- Permalink

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who is often called the “father of the atomic bomb” for his work leading the Manhattan Project in its development of nuclear weapons during World War II. The biographical film also stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh. It was the third highest-grossing film of 2023 (behind Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie) and its release on the same weekend as Barbie led to the cultural/marketing phenomenon known as Barbenheimer, in which cinema audiences were encouraged to see both films on the same day. Universal has now released Oppenheimer on 4K and I had a chance to take a look.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with HDR10 is presented in shifting aspect ratios that go between 1.78:1 and 2.20:1. Nolan is a physical media fan, so rest assured that the utmost attention was paid to the transfer of this film. The image is crystal clear, with unbelievable detail in facial features, textiles, environments and the mostly practical visual effects. The colour palette is vibrant, from reds and greens to the flaming orange of the atomic bomb. The image has brilliant whites and deep blacks with no loss of detail in the shadows.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack as well as French and Spanish DTS 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English SDH, French and Spanish. Getting into why Nolan doesn’t currently do Atmos mixes for his movies requires some extracurricular reading, so a 5.1 soundtrack is what we get. It’s a powerful mix with plenty for your surrounds to do and powerful LFE usage as well. The score sounds great and for the most part the dialogue is well prioritized in the mix.

The Oppenheimer 4K set comes with three discs: the movie on 4K, the movie om Blu-ray and a Blu-ray disc with the bonus features. A digital code is included in the US, but once again, the Canadian version is lacking a digital code. The extras include a 72 minute doc on the making of the film, an 87 minute doc on Robert Oppenheimer, a featurette on the inclusion of black and white IMAX scenes, a Q&A panel with Christopher Nolan, Kai Bird, Dr. Kip Thorne, Dr. Tom Mason, and Dr. Carlo Rovelli, and multiple trailers.

A great cast directed by Christopher Nolan combined with stellar audio and video and impressive extras make the Oppenheimer 4K easy to recommend.