Glass 4K UHD Review

Broken Glass

Glass considers that comic books cannot exist. Sarah Paulson’s character refuses to acknowledge their existence; they need to be fantasy, a disease, as represented by three interconnected people. The idea – that comics exist as a sub-par medium without attachment to the real world – is clever. But sadly, the dual twist ending leaves on unsatisfying note, a dour, Nazi-like finish that leaves this trilogy on an ailing note.

Read our full review of Glass for more.

Video 4K UHD

Shot at 3.4K then mastered at 4K, the results leave behind a remarkable, super-detailed image. The texture of Glass is quite special. Every close-up is cause for videophiles to celebrate, with marvelous facial definition. Exteriors of the brick hospital resolve each block, down to the texture of the concrete. Sharpness never wavers, aside from a few throwback shots from Unbreakable.

Absolute clarity gives Glass no impediments visually. Without source noise, the generous encode is able to process these shots without getting in the way.

The HDR pass livens up nighttime scenery with dazzling, rich black levels, countered by intense brightness as needed. Watching Sarah Paulson walk outdoors with only streetlights illuminating the background creates pinpoint light that stands out from the pure black everywhere else. That’s where the HDR hits in full, not discredit, say, the opening scenes in an abandoned warehouse where the depth of black creates needed tone and fear, sans crush.

It’s a film of cautious color too, lightly chilled by blue color grading without harming organic flesh tones or careful choices – say, the purple curtains in the home of Glass’ mother. Primaries stand out as needed, including the coordination between the main characters (purple, yellow, and blue) and an especially rich pink room. All around, a gorgeous 4K presentation.

Audio

In Dolby Atmos, this mix captures total and complete nuance. As Dunn opens his shop, the metal door tracks behind him. That’s followed by marvelous ambiance throughout, creating a lively city atmosphere with train horns, rain, and blasts of thunder panning around. Indoors, music fills the halls, voices reflect, and minor sounds all pop in the proper channel. It’s not only the rears. Listen late as Paulson picks up the phone toward the extreme right edge of the frame. Her voice follows, indicating the careful spread across the soundstage.

When action picks up, so too does LFE, creating hefty and substantial weight. Dunn feels powerful as he bashes down a door, aided by the amount of range given to each hit. Bass response is consistent, arguably too much so given the lack of variance, but still mammoth and satisfying.

Extras

A dozen deleted scenes include an intro from M. Night Shyamalan, running 25-minutes. Shyamalan mentions the original cut ran over an hour longer, but only a portion of those additional scenes make this cut. There’s also an alternate opening included separately, because like the rest of this disc, it’s a fragmented annoyance.

Credit to Universal for including the extras on the UHD in addition to the Blu-ray. However, other than a sit down with McAvoy and Shyamalan (five minutes) the rest of these bonuses only reach throwaway tier in their value. The few minutes long and numerous EPKs quickly irritate in their low value and marketing speak.

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our Patreon-exclusive set of 47 full 4K screen shots grabbed directly from the UHD: