You would think that as technology advances, visual art forms such as film – including home media – would see a definite improvement in quality. But here we are yet again, getting bummed out over how studios have taken cleaning up transfers too far, polishing iconic movies into a “pristine” oblivion. And yes, they may have once more botched another James Cameron 4K Blu-ray. Game over, man!
The latest example comes via the 4K release of James Cameron’s Aliens, which came out on March 12th. As HD Report noted via a side-by-side comparison, even the high-definition transfer released 14 years ago is more respectable than the 4K one out just last week: “When comparing the two, the old Blu-ray is a better representation of celluloid at a time when filmmakers are trying to make images look less digital.” Hell, you can even see how Newt feels about it in the second image!
Look, we won’t necessarily say that these James Cameron 4K Blu-rays look terrible – they don’t and to a lot of people they’ll be great additions to their home video collection, something we’ll forever champion. But considering these releases were some of the most anticipated of the year, they are disappointing in how much they have been scrubbed of their authenticity.
Last week we took a look at Cameron’s True Lies, which, like these other 4K releases, has fallen victim to artificial intelligence being used to digitally “enhance” the video quality. Surely there are good intentions behind this move – and most reviews reflect this – but by doing so, there is an ultimate disregard for just what these films are meant to look like. As The Digital Bits put it in their breakdown of the Aliens disc, the film “looks very good in physical 4K, improving upon the 4K Digital presentation, but it’s been given modern remastering that belies the look of a 38-year-old film.”
There is a right way and a wrong way to do 4K releases and it’s truly unfortunate that, by and large, these James Cameron discs fall in the latter camp. No doubt these have been hot items (some reports say the discs were selling out online) and we wouldn’t want to tell you not to pick up any copy of your favorite movie, but there should be more uproar on how classics are being handled on home video. Also out last Tuesday was the 4K release of James Cameron’s The Abyss.
Have you picked up a 4K copy of James Cameron’s Aliens or do these transfers make you want to just stick with a previous release? Share your thoughts with us below.