Babylon 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 3/5

Quick Hit Review: Generally I like movies about movies and with a filmmaker like Damien Chazelle behind the camera, as well as the sole credited screenwriter, it seemed Babylon would be an amazing cinematic experience. And while it does have a grand feel to it, especially with its incredibly lengthy 3-hour running time, the result was a film that I could appreciate the production and costume designs, as well as the performance from Margot Robbie, however I found less than engaging and emotionally hollow, not to mention a bit forgettable, albeit never quite dull at least.

Forgettable, that is, outside of the first 30-minutes which was wild and insane and I kind of wish Babylon was entirely comprised of that sequence, something like taking place over the course of a night and following a variety of colorful characters. But past those scenes, there’s not a whole lot that stands out.

Damien Chazelle is a fine director doing great work with First Man, Whiplash and La La Land, and even though I could see what he was trying to accomplish with Babylon with a dark love letter to old Hollywood, plus shining a spotlight on that silver age’s less than angelic lives behind the camera, yet in the end it was overly long with a good hour that could’ve been cut.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 3/5

This three-disc release comes housed in a Steelbook packaging and inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. All of the features are on a bonus Blu-ray disc.

The Panoramic Canvas Called Babylon (30:50) — Is a behind-the-scenes featurette with interviews by the cast and crew discussing the story of the roaring 1920s Hollywood scene.

The Costumes of Babylon (2:51) looks at the costume design. A bit too short.

Scoring Babylon  (1:50) is on the score from Justin Hurwitz.

Deleted and Extended Scenes (9:15) — There are six scenes in all, (two extended), that really didn’t add a whole lot to the characters and were rightfully removed in an already lengthy movie…

4K VIDEO – 4¾/5, BD VIDEO – 4½/5

Paramount releases Babylon onto 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray where it’s presented in the original 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio. As I watched the film in its entirety in the 4K format, this portion will focus there and as such, the film does look pretty magnificent with sharp detail throughout and the 1920s period (and beyond) comes to life plus colors are bright and vibrant. There were no apparent flaws like artifacts or aliasing. Doing some spot testing on the Blu-ray disc, it equally looks great.

AUDIO – 4¾/5

There is a Dolby Atmos track available on both formats with the music and score making use of every channel while dialogue levels coming via the center speaker is crisp, clean and clear and there is some nice depth for off-camera elements.

OVERALL — 3/5

I can give some credit to writer-director Damien Chazelle’s vision and what he was trying to accomplish, and it does seem this was a passion project that got the greenlight thanks to the successes of La La Land and First Man, but with a 3-hour running time, there was a good chunk that could’ve been removed. That said, Margot Robbie does give a solid performance.