Avengers: Endgame UHD disc release comes under media attack (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

People are saying this is too dark.

I watched this film 5-6 times in a movie theater. It's a dark movie and I've grown tired of such complaints by people that don't acknowledged its darkness when it comes out on disc.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

All of the Russo MCU films seem to be set on overcast days

 

[Jake Lipson]

I just watched all the bonus features with exception of the commentary (which, due to the length of the film, will be its own separate sitting.) I really hope the commentary is good because I was underwhelmed otherwise.

The introduction to the movie on the first disc, which you can select to play at the beginning, includes shots from the end of the film, both finished footage and behind-the-scenes stuff. This seems weird for a movie where avoiding spoilers was a centerpiece of its marketing campaign. I realize of course that so many people saw this in theaters that this isn't much of an issue but it's still weird.

The Stan Lee tribute with clips of his cameos was very nice. It was a slightly longer version of what I remember from the re-expansion of the film in June.

But the other featurettes -- one each for Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, the Russos and the women of the MCU -- didn't really add up to a substantial look at the making of the film at all. They basically amounted to the interviewees singing the praises of the actor (or directors, in the case of the Russos) in question, including various clips from other films leading up to Endgame talking about their arc and what great work they've done to bring it to life. It's not that any of this is bad, but it's just fluffy and promotional and doesn't really do anything to expand your appreciation for the movie. In many cases, when they talk about what caused the person to get that job in the first place, they're not even talking about Endgame. For example, talking about Chris Evans being cast and how he was initially hesitant to take the role is about making The First Avenger. It has nothing to do with Endgame specifically.

The gag reel is cute. The deleted scenes are good inclusions, but they don't have commentary explaining why they were removed, even though the film does have that. They are also incomplete; the deleted scene involving the Hulk saving people from a fire is not included, even though it was made publicly available on the big screen during the re-expansion. Neither is the Katherine Langford deleted scene which has been discussed at length.

Of course, everything that is here is very consistent with the style of bonus features that Disney has been putting out for a good while so none of this is surprising. It also doesn't feel like all that much more than Infinity War got, so I'm not sure why they made this one a two-disc set without doing more. However, it's still disappointing that the #1 film of all time couldn't get a more comprehensive set of extras. If ever there was a MCU title to go all out for, this one is it. Oh well.

 

[Ashly Yeo]

I didn't notice anything.

No hiccups here at that point. Panasonic UB9000.

No hiccups or stalls for me, either. Sony UBP-X800M2. Review forthcoming....

Thanks guys. I took it back to Best Buy and they exchanged it without even checking as they have been getting quite a few incidents of discs with playback glitches. The new disc played perfectly.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I just watched all the bonus features with exception of the commentary (which, due to the length of the film, will be its own separate sitting.) I really hope the commentary is good because I was underwhelmed otherwise.

I agree. There is little to know behind the scenes info on the bonus disc, because most of the featurettes are retrospective looks at the characters who met their ends in this movie, looking back across all of the MCU movies they were featured in. The remaining few are, as you say, "fluffy and promotional" that don't "really do anything to expand your appreciation for the movie."

The deleted scenes are good inclusions, but they don't have commentary explaining why they were removed, even though the film does have that.

All of the included deleted scenes felt like they deserved to be deleted.

However, it's still disappointing that the #1 film of all time couldn't get a more comprehensive set of extras. If ever there was a MCU title to go all out for, this one is it. Oh well.

Agreed.

 

[Tino]

People are saying this is too dark.

What people?

 

[Jake Lipson]

All of the included deleted scenes felt like they deserved to be deleted.

Oh, I agree, but it still would have been nice to have commentary on them. The only one that I thought might have been valuable is

Spoiler

the Avengers kneeling for Tony because it decisively shows Gamora alive after Tony's snap

which was left ambiguous in the film. There was no doubt in my mind about this, but during the theatrical release, one of the writers or directors (I don't remember which one) was being cagey about this, so it's interesting to see that they did in fact film a more definitive version of it. However, the scene itself was not needed.

 

[Brian Husar]

Can someone explain why Disney only puts the Atmos track on the UHD disc? The UHD disc looks great but being that it was completed in 2K I would have been happy with just the standard blu ray, but it’s only DTS Master Audio. And Disney isn’t the only one who does this.

 

[Brian L]

Can someone explain why Disney only puts the Atmos track on the UHD disc? The UHD disc looks great but being that it was completed in 2K I would have been happy with just the standard blu ray, but it’s only DTS Master Audio. And Disney isn’t the only one who does this.

I could not agree more. I am not 4K yet, nor do I expect to be in the near term, but I do have a 5.1.4 Atmos setup, and it chaps my ass to have to buy a 4K disc to get Atmos. I won't do it with every purchase, but I have on occasion.

Having said that, if you partake in Movies Anywhere, the code that comes with the standard BluRay of Endgame does redeem with Atmos. Weak sauce, but I am happy to have it.

 

[Malcolm R]

Can someone explain why Disney only puts the Atmos track on the UHD disc?

And Disney isn’t the only one who does this.

I think you've sort of answered your own question. The studios want you to buy the more expensive disc to get all the features.

 

[Sam Favate]

The kids and I watched this today. What a treat. It was only my third time seeing it, their second. As for the disc itself, I thought perhaps in the beginning it was a tad dark, but that feeling went away pretty quickly and never occurred to me again. However, refresh my memory for the sequence at the end where the actors' names pop up over their characters - were the images always so stretched? Often it seemed the heads were offscreen. Otherwise, the presentation is flawless.

 

[Bryan^H]

I was going to order this from Amazon but they are in another dispute with Disney so didn't get it. Instead my friend rented it, and I watched it with him yesterday.

I'm glad I didn't purchase it. One viewing was plenty. I will never watch it again.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I was going to order this from Amazon but they are in another dispute with Disney so didn't get it. Instead my friend rented it, and I watched it with him yesterday.

I'm glad I didn't purchase it. One viewing was plenty. I will never watch it again.

To each his own as I simply love this film.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm glad I didn't purchase it. One viewing was plenty. I will never watch it again.

What made you dislike it so much?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Oh, I agree, but it still would have been nice to have commentary on them. The only one that I thought might have been valuable is

Spoiler

the Avengers kneeling for Tony because it decisively shows Gamora alive after Tony's snap

which was left ambiguous in the film.

I definitely wouldn't have minded a quick shot of 2014 Gamora slipping away in the movie, but I'm glad this scene was left out because it was too overwrought.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm glad this scene was left out because it was too overwrought.

We're not in the spoilers thread here, but I have a hard time believing anyone who has not seen the film would read five pages into a Blu-ray discussion thread. Still...just in case...

Spoiler

I feel like it would have worked if we were not going to see the funeral. Since we did see that, they didn't need to have both since they essentially serve the same function of honoring Tony. And the funeral was more effective, so they made the right choice between the two. I would have liked Gamora to appear after the snap, but that is the only thing this scene included that the funeral scene didn't do better.

That being said, this was a fully complete and scored deleted scene. Seeing it, I'm surprised that Disney didn't opt to screen it during the June re-expansion of the film instead of the unfinished Hulk one. The Hulk one (which incidentally does not appear on the Blu-ray at all and should) was a fun little moment, but since they had a deleted scene that was this polished, you would think they would want to display the most professional-looking footage in a theatrical release setting.

 

[Bryan^H]

What made you dislike it so much?

A few things

Spoiler

Never been one for watching my favorite good guy characters die in any movie

I hated the hulk

The time heist stuff was goofy mainly because of Ant Man. I wasn't digging it.



The heavy handed mood music score (and I usually like Silvestri's work)

Running time never bothers me unless it is a movie I just can't get in to, and this felt overly long to me, and dragged so that explains it.

I did like The Falcon getting the shield in line for the new Captain America though. That was a nice touch

I'm not saying it was a bad movie, it just wasn't for me.

 

[Todd Erwin]

My review of the disc is now up!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I made it through the Blu-Ray movie disc tonight.

The intro with the directors was a very odd and potentially catastrophic choice by Disney. While the Russos are talking, the video intercuts with finished shots from the movie and behind the scenes footage. This footage spoils most of the major reveals in the movie, including the climactic moment of the picture and the biggest death in the picture. To do that in a video designed to be watched before the movie really left me scratching my head. Obviously I'd seen the movie in theaters and watched the UHD disc a couple nights ago. But if this were my first time watching the movie, I'd have been really pissed.

The audio commentary with the directors and screenwriters is easily the most valuable extra in the entire set. It's another masterclass on screenwriting and story construction. I hope whoever picks up the baton for the next Avengers movie, however many years down the road, puts as much thought into every moment as these guys did.

It also finally answered a major mystery from Infinity War: All of the trailers for that movie included footage of the Hulk in the final battle in Wakanda, but in the movie itself Bruce still couldn't get "the green guy" to come out and fought using Tony's Hulkbuster armor.

It turns out that until very late in the game, Bruce and the Hulk merged to become Smart Hulk early in the final battle of Infinity War. That was the case well into test screenings. But Smart Hulk didn't play with audiences. There were issues with the test audiences not understanding where Smart Hulk came from, and there were tonal issues with giving Bruce a victory when the rest of the ending is one of abject defeat. So they came up with the idea of Bruce in the Hulkbuster armor, and used Smart Hulk as Bruce's big change during the five year time jump.

On the other hand, it didn't resolve the controversy of whether Steve Rogers was folded back into the main MCU timeline after he returned the Infinity Stones -- so that he was Peggy's secret husband this entire time -- or whether he had his life with her in an alternate timeline and only jumped back into the primary timeline at the end to pass on the shield.

 

[Mark Mayes]

UHD stuck in chapters 2 & 19 and then skipped about 30 seconds each time. I hate that they spindled it on top of the bonus features disc and wonder if that caused the problem; I tried it on 2 UHD players, it stuck in the same places in both.
The blu-ray is fine.