Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Please Note: My review and ratings are based on the quality of the new 4K versions of these films--images, sound, and extras and how these compare to the previously released Blu-ray versions of the films. I am not rating the acting, direction, set design, etc. which can be found in other places, but instead helping you decide to upgrade to 4K or pass. The new 4K UHD versions of the previously released Jurassic Park films contains eight discs housed in a “DigiBook” included in a box. The DigiBook has limited text, but photos from each of the films and a listing of the special features on each disc. It is a bound book and better than most releases which typically have just a frame for holding discs. With this DigiBook you can turn the pages, and slide out the disc of your choice. Four of the discs are the new 4K UHD versions of the following already-released Jurassic Park films: Jurassic Park The Lost World: Jurassic Park Jurassic Park III Jurassic World The remaining four discs contain the standard Blu-ray versions of these films and are exactly as they were released previously. All of the special features are contained on the standard Blu-ray discs. While there are a number of special features included, NONE are new for this release. They have all appeared in earlier boxed sets or individual discs of the Jurassic films in standard Blu-ray format. The only really new things included are the four 4K UHD discs and the DigiBook and box. Just so you are clear on this. I am going to summarize the 4K quality of all four films here. As these are brought to market individually I will post more detailed reviews of each. Overall the visual quality of the four films rates about a “4” out of “5” in comparison to other 4K UHD releases. This has not been a highly-reworked set and perhaps it does not need to be given that these are not films from the 60s or 70s. If you pay special attention you will still see minor grains, “pops,” speckles and lines as you will see in the earlier Blu-ray releases. It is all about getting the original negatives or first prints to start with, and then painstakingly working it to perfection. If you start with a copy of a copy and do not put in a lot of effort into cleaning things up, the 4K version will not jump out from the earlier Blu-ray despite having four times as many pixels. Universal put in an average effort with the video conversion to 4K. Having said that, three of the four films show better overall quality of detail, better clarity, more vivid colors, more contrast (these are HDR-10 films in 4K), and saturation than the earlier Blu-ray releases. However this is an overall impression of the films. Some scenes in three of the four films show little improvement from the standard Blu-ray versions, but most scenes are improved. The one film that does not show much improvement from Blu-ray to 4K is Jurassic Park III. Quite candidly I went back and forth between the two versions but just could not see much of a difference. Maybe that is appropriate, because this film was the least liked of the four by both viewers and critics. It is hard to say which is visually best in 4K, but I would say it is Jurassic World with the other two close behind. As for the sound upgrades, all four films are strongly improved from the earlier Blu-ray versions. The sound in the new releases is DTS:X Master Audio and it sounds great! Makes no difference if you are hearing dinosaurs, birds, “jungle” atmospheric sounds, dialogue, vehicles or whatever. There is a noticeable audio improvement everywhere with the 4K UHD releases over the standard Blu-ray versions. Of course, you have to have good speakers and a good amp to fully appreciate this, but I think people with modest audio equipment will notice improvements as well. Universal did do an excellent job with the audio. All in all, it is a worthy addition, even if you already own the standard Blu-ray versions of these films. Particularly since the 4K boxed set retails for less on Amazon than the standard Blu-ray boxed set, at least for now. If I were interested in buying only one or two of the four Jurassic films in 4K (once they are available individually), I would pick Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, not only because of visual and audio quality but the best story lines, plots and acting. However the entire set of four is a relative bargain when compared to how they will be priced individually.