Risen stars Joseph Fiennes stars as Clavius, a powerful Roman military tribune who along with his aid (Tom Felton) have been ordered to disprove the rumors of the man, named Jesus (Cliff Curtis), in the weeks following his crucifixion has risen as the Messiah of the developing cult known as Christianity because the Empire fears more uprisings in Jerusalem, an area already filled with a deep seated hate for the Romans by the indigenous peoples of the land. Although the films are very different, I cannot help but be reminded of The Robe, which basically dealt with a similar theme of finding faith even if it goes against everything you have been raised to believe. The 1950s and 60s had many religious epics, most notably The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, but they certainly were not the only films in that sub genre and with the increasing popularity of faith based entertainment going mainstream, I have a feeling we will see more films in the sub genre, but geared toward the Millennial generation and their parents as opposed to the baby boomers and their parents before them.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment presents Risen in both 4K Ultra High Definition on one disc and 1080p High Definition on the other disc, which also contains the extra vale materials, which is a manner not dissiimar to the Blu-ray 3D discs are packaged and presented, which is why I see 4K on Blu-ray as more of an extension of Blu-ray rather than a successor format like Blu-ray was to DVD. However with High Dynamic Range enabled, the 4K Ultra HD version of Risen is and will be the best way to see and hear movies like this in home theaters for some time to come. The minute details like face stubble to larger details like the vivid red of the Roman uniform simply pop in a way that 1080p HD simply does not match. The English Dolby Atmos 7.1 Soundtrack, which is backwardly compatible with Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Sound has a crisper and more aggressive quality when compared to the English DTS-HD MA Soundtrack found on the 1080p BD version.
Risen is presented in 2160p Ultra HD resolution (2.40:1) aspect ratio, which holds true for the 1080p HD Blu-ray as well. Parisian French Dubbed DTS-HD MA 5.1 as well as Spanish Language Dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound are encoded as options along with an English DVS track and English SDH as well as English, French, Polish and Spanish Language Subtitles.
Extra value features on the Blu-ray Disc include a retrospective audio commentary track with Producer and Writer Patrick Aello. Five deleted scenes, A deconstruction of a battle scene that takes place at the start of the film (5:03), a making of featurette (11:14), a production design featurette (9:29), a script-to-screen comparison (3:57) and some Sony previews wrap up the bonus features on the HD BLu-ray Disc. A limited time only redeemable code for an Ultraviolet Digital Copy is included within the black UHD BD two-disc case.
Risen: 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital is available now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
(C) Copyright 2016 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Rserved.
