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Release Date: March 20th, 2018 Movie Release Year: 2017

Downsizing - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Overview -

Alexander Payne's Downsizing proves that a clever and witty social satire can only go so far if it doesn't have anything to say. What could have been a silly and fun social satire about the current state of the world and economic discrepancy, the film loses itself on an overly long journey of self-discovery for star Matt Damon and has little of anything to say. While the project is ambitious and the cast is wonderful, the satire didn't wear its dentures. While the film may not be as great as it potentially could have been, Paramount brings Downsizing to 4K UHD in fine form with improved resolution and a nice Dolby Vision presence. The same strong audio mix from the Blu-ray is included here. If you're curious about this film, this 4K UHD Blu-ray release is certainly Worth A Look.

When scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall as a solution to over-population, Paul (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in order to get small and move to a new downsized community — a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.

OVERALL:
Worth a Look
Rating Breakdown
STORY
VIDEO
AUDIO
SPECIAL FEATURES
Tech Specs & Release Details
Technical Specs:
4K UHD/Blu-ray/Digital Copy
Video Resolution/Codec:
2160p HEVC/H.265
Length:
135
Aspect Ratio(s):
2.39:1
Audio Formats:
Dolby Digital 5.1 (French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Czech)
Subtitles/Captions:
English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Icelandic, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Special Features:
6 Featurettes
Release Date:
March 20th, 2018

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Ranking:

"OK fine you want to help but do what I did and just give a semen sample."

"I did it too. A much more pleasant way to help."

It's a tough day when you really, really want to like a movie but just don't. Alexander Payne is usually an on the ball solid filmmaker who can churn out heartfelt human drama with a delightfully dark humor punch. Downsizing starring Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Kristen Wiig, and a host of other cameo appearances stretches itself with its comedic near-future science fiction shenanigans. It starts out strong but forgets to bring the bite to the humor and loses its sense of direction as the film slowly rolls to the finish. 

The world is about to change in a big way. Well, a small way actually. Esteemed Norwegian scientist Dr. Asbjornsen has discovered the way to solve the world's looming overpopulation and environmental catastrophes. By shrinking people down to about five inches, man's impact on the environment will be greatly reduced - not to mention the economic benefits that arise for those who undergo the procedure. For Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig), living a smaller life could lead to big things. As they struggle to make ends meet and climb the economic ladder, the chance to have their income scale upwards of 1000% by shrinking down in physical size all the while helping the planet is too good an opportunity to pass up. Almost. When Audrey backs out of the procedure leaving Paul standing a hair below five inches tall, Paul will have to navigate his situation and discover his place in this new tiny-big world.

Downsizing

In all due credit to the cast, director Alexander Payne and his co-writer Jim Taylor, the first 40 minutes of Downsizing is terrific. It sets up an absurd near-future science fiction neo-dystopian premise, introduces the cast and establishes their motivations. We get to know Matt Damon's Paul who is just trying to do the right thing at all times by everyone but often sacrifices his own needs in the care of others. The film tools along as a silly but relatable satire of modern economic times and how people are getting rich off of selling the idea of the "good life" through timeshare properties and other first world problems. Once that 45-minute mark hits and Matt Damon moves into his very own gigantic personal mini-mansion, the pace of the film just grinds to a halt. Where that first 45 minute was a breeze, the final hour and a half is a real slog.

Part of the problem with the film is that it frequently jumps ship on its ideas. Just when you think the film is going to delve deeper into an intriguing topic or idea, it jumps onto something else without really saying anything beyond mere talking points. When Paul goes from being an occupational therapist in the big world to a Lands' End telephone operator, I was hoping they'd dig into wealth discrepancies now that small people have taken jobs from big people, or something like that, but nothing really comes of it. 

Downsizing

When Paul meets up with Christoph Waltz's black market smuggler Dusan Mirkovic and his partner Konrad played by Udo Kier, I thought that was going to go somewhere how even in a new smaller world there is still a criminal element, but that gets dropped. Then Paul meets the Vietnamese revolutionary-turned-cleaning lady Ngoc Lan Tran played by Hong Chau, I thought for sure the film would have something to say about the value of helping others and understanding how the people that clean our houses or care for our lawns live - but even that plotline gets dropped. It all becomes frustrating as the film just doesn't know how to settle down and live in the world that it's created. 

Throughout it all, I couldn't help and wonder at what Downsizing could have been if it had been directed by Terry Gilliam twenty-five years ago. Or, if it had been overseen by someone like Charlie Kaufman. Downsizing feels like a movie better suited for those filmmakers and their natural idiosyncratic storytelling natures. I feel like Kaufman would have found the bite while Gilliam would have nailed the visual absurdity of the premise. I still have a great love for Alexander Payne and his humanist touches he brings to relatable characters, but here, the material stays just out of reach. I suppose it's one I would say is worth watching, but at the same time, I can't shake the very real sense that this was a missed opportunity. For this review, I effectively watched the film twice and I just kept hoping it would get better the second time, thinking I might have missed something. Unfortunately, I didn't miss anything. It's a well-shot, well-acted film with a clever story that doesn't have any teeth to the satire and loses any weight it was attempting to carry. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Downsizing arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray courtesy of Paramount Pictures is a two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital set. Pressed onto a BD-66 disc, the discs are housed in a standard black two-disc UHD case with identical slipcover artwork. The disc loads to a static image main menu with traditional navigation options. All of the bonus feature content is located on the included Blu-ray copy.

Video Review

Ranking:

Downsizing makes big use of 4K with this 2160p 2.39:1 transfer with Dolby Vision. Now I've come across some reviews where some folks had issues with washed out black levels and whites with their Dolby Vision and their LG televisions. I don't know what their setup was, but with my Oppo 4K player and my C6P series LG set, I didn't encounter that black level issue. For my experience, I felt the 4KUHD transfer was striking, well-detailed, and at times stunningly beautiful. Sourced and upscaled from a 3.4K DI, I felt this transfer afforded a much stronger presence for the fine details of the image. Facial features - in particular when people are being prepped for shrinking and their hairless aftermath was a joy to watch. It made me really focus to try and discern if they actually shaved Matt Damon's face - eyebrows and all - for the scene in question. Skin textures really come through here. While I will say that there isn't an overwhelming improvement in detail clarity over it's 1080p SDR counterpart, I will say the differences are noticeable. Those green screen effects still stick out, but that's not something that can be fixed on this end.

Downsizing

With its Dolby Vision presence, I only really noticed a moderate uptick in color vibrancy, black levels, and whites. Where some films enjoy a drastic and notable difference, here Downsizing only experiences a modest refinement. Primaries do get to pick up some extra punch and presence, yellow is especially vibrant. The Full Size rose that Paul has in his apartment is actually a nice improvement as you can pick up more shading in the yellows and the details within the petals. It helps that it was an actual scaled physical prop and not a digital effect. Once the film moves to Norway and we get to see the original small colony, the scenery is absolutely majestic with the image taking on a rich and vivid presence with the water, mountains, and the green rocky hills. With the wider color gamut and enhanced black and white levels, these scenes make you want to check your accrued travel miles and blackout dates. Downsizing may not have the most dramatically enhanced 4K UHD presence, but I will argue that it is still a very beautiful presentation and offers a notable improvement over its 1080p SDR counterpart. 

Audio Review

Ranking:

Downsizing boasts an effective and lively DTS-HD MA 7.1 mix. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout, even when big people are talking to little people and their teeny tiny voices become a little higher pitched and harder to hear. This is an area where you can tip your hat to the mix because you never have to adjust the volume to compensate. Sound effects aren't of the dramatic action-heavy sort, but they're enough to help build a sense of a world and active enough to keep the surrounds moving. The best sequences are the ones that feature the most amount of people in a single location. The Leisureland presentation, the sales floor, and then at the big party sequence where Paul is on drugs and starts really feeling the music punches the activity and the pulses give a nice LFE presence. For much of the film, things keep to the Front/Center channels letting the sides handle atmospherics while the score by Rolfe Kent layers in nicely to keep the sense of mood in play. All around a clean clear mix with terrific levels. 

Special Features

Ranking:

Considering all of the creative world-building efforts and some of the many visual jokes of the film, I was let down by this rather anemic assortment of EPK-friendly bonus features. Some of the material is worthwhile, but much of it is merely the talking head, stock question and answer nonsense. All bonus features are located on the included Blu-ray disc. 

Working With Alexander (HD 12:22) This is a love piece about how the cast and crew enjoy working with Payne.

A Visual Journey (HD 14:02) This is perhaps the meatiest bonus feature as it's a quick but good look at the film's impressive production design.

The Cast (HD 11:30) This is another puff piece but focuses on the impressive cast and what they bring to the show. 

A Matter of Perspective (HD 9:06) Like the production design segment, this is a very quick but good look at the film's visual effects.

That Smile (HD 6:27) "Who doesn't love Matt Damon?" Basically, that's what this feature is all about.

A Global Concern (HD 6:39) I swiftly pandering look at the environmental issues the film attempts to raise.

Final Thoughts

If you're like me and saw the trailer to Downsizing you were probably excited to see a pseudo-science fiction dark comedy from Alexander Payne. Unfortunately, the final film simply doesn't measure up to its high concept. There are a lot of great big ideas throughout the film that are interesting, thought-provoking and would serve as the perfect bedrock for any dark satire. Unfortunately, there are too many ideas to fully explore in an already overlong film. It has its charms, and I did enjoy chunks of the film, but it never cooks into a satisfying finished cinematic meal. Paramount Pictures shrinks Downsizing onto 4K UHD Blu-ray with a nice upscaled 4K UHD video presentation with a modest but effective Dolby Vision push. With a strong audio mix in the soup, the movie certainly looks and sounds great. Bonus features are a bit lacking but worth taking a look at. If you're curious about the movie, give it a chance, but keep your expectations in check before giving it a spin. Worth A Look