To Infinity and Beyond

The fourth highest-grossing movie in history, Avengers: Infinity War, lands today on Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray and 4K-UHD.

Unlike the previous entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther, the 4K-UHD disc of the 19th MCU movie doesn’t have a Dolby Vision option (even though you can stream it in this format).

And although the Dolby Atmos audio apparently isn’t demo-worthy, critics say it improves on Black Panther’s and other recent Disney 4K-UHD releases.

“Disney has been dropping the ball pretty spectacularly with the audio tracks of many of its recent 4K Blu-ray releases,” Forbes’ John Archer writes.

They’ve sounded weirdly compressed and short of dynamic range. The Dolby Atmos track exclusively found on the Infinity War 4K Blu-ray sounds better to some extent than previous horror shows such as Black Panther and, especially, Thor: Ragnarok … Infinity Wars marks a step in the right audio direction, but there’s still work to be done.

But Archer reckons Disney has done a “solid job” with the extras, especially with the filmmakers’ commentary (even if, annoyingly, it’s only on the Blu-ray and not the 4K disc) and four deleted/extended scenes.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige claims the deleted scenes for are amazing.

In particular, there are a couple of deleted scenes with the Guardians called The Guardians Get Their Groove Back that we really loved. The scenes played really well when we screened early versions of the movie—but they ultimately took away from the overall story and the flow of the movie. It’s depressing when you realise you’ve shot something really cool and you think that no one’s ever going to see it, but then you remember you have the option to add it to the in-home window.

In the other footage, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts squabble over the details of their upcoming wedding — until a hassled Happy Hogan pulls up with an urgent request (Happy Knows Best); Wanda Maximoff and a wounded Vision try to hide from Thanos’ brutal allies on a darkened Scottish street (Hunt for the Mind Stone); and Thanos confronts Gamora with a vision from her past (A Father’s Choice).

Disney is using the release of Avengers: Infinity Wars to re-issue The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron on 4K-UHD.