James Cameron 4K UHD Reviews – The Abyss, Aliens, True Lies

An update now that these are out on physical 4K UHDs. These pretty much look like the digital releases. They’re all a crisp blue, with some digital smoothing over especially on True Lies. It’s maybe not the purest but it’s hardly Star Wars special edition revisionism

The Abyss is still majestic. Aliens conveys the deep void of space and sleek tech battling gritty creatures. The physical packaging leaves a bit to be desired. Aliens and Abyss stack discs on top of each other and that never works but first world problems.

While I’m here, the December physical releases of the Avatars are the crispest, brightest 4K rendering of Pandora with no streaming lag. I mean it really looks like you are there, which is saying a lot since it doesn’t actually exist!

Digital reviews from Dec. 18, 2023

It was big news that three of James Cameron’s 20th Century Fox movies would finally come to 4K UHD. The disc editions won’t be out until March so we’ll have to tide ourselves over with the 4K digital releases of The Abyss, Aliens and True Lies now.

The Abyss is clearly the one that got the most loving attention to the restoration. They were also getting it ready for theaters. The deepest depths of the ocean contain pure black voids, in the corners of the flooded sub and corridors of the oil rig too.

The blue and red light of the submarine is beautiful on 4K faces. The crane collapse is all practical so it captures the sense of impending disaster. On the surface, it looks like the hurricane is on a background screen with water spraying on the set. Now the layers are more distinct but it’s still a better illusion than modern green screen or The Volume.

The Abyss also has an enveloping sound mix. The score chants behind you. You’ll hear crew chatter from distant corners and machinery whirring. The hurricane wind and heavy breathing in diving suits are equally surrounding. The creatures whiz around and alarms sound all around. The crane cables coil in all the speakers, ticking down to the disaster. Flooding and dripping too envelop the room. Bud’s screaming in the CPR scene echoes as well.

Aliens starts out well too in deep space discovering Ripley. The interior of her powered down pod is full of exquisite shadow. The scanner beam is insanely sharp.

White lab rooms both on Earth and LV-246 are a sterile pale. The shiny yellow mech loader is of a peace with all the shiny metallic corridors in various states of disrepair. They only get slimier in the alien-infested one and there’s lots of deep shadow in all of them. The comms room also has lots of shadow as Ripley and Gorman speak to the squad remotely.

Faces are sharpened but I still see grain in the backgrounds.

Surround sound gives us beeps of the spacecraft pinging in the rear, the loader stomping off screen, the wind on LV-426 and the flame thrower among other mechanical sounds.

True Lies probably didn’t get the loving attention to detail as it was more just a silly action vehicle, and a controversial one at that. I still think the point is Harry is a bad husband and the comedy is in how wrong he is, depiction not being endorsement. Plus, the plot is faithful to the French original La Totale! which no one ever talks about, but hey, if most people don’t feel that way my read is probably wrong. The 4K is a little bit softer than the others, but it holds up and I do see some film grain in scenes.

The DC night sky never gets fully black, and the terrorist hideout in the Florida Keys flickers. The hotel room is the fanciest looking location, but explosions glow aflame and you can really see the real horseback rider doubling for Arnold Schwarzenegger now.

No complaints about the sound though. Explosions echo, bullets hit the snow or bathroom tiles distinguishing all the different types of ricochet. Helicopters and Harriers swirl and even debris from the bridge falls in distinct channels.