For a full review, take a look at our coverage for the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray Release.
Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Warner Bros. delivers Superman: Red Son to Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy. The discs are housed in a hard, blue, plastic case with identical cardboard slipcover of some wonderful artwork. There are a couple of inserts for the digital code and survey.
Superman: Red Son comes with a 1080p HD transfer on Blu-ray with a colorful palette of primary colors that have some red overtones in certain scenes.
Colors are for the most part bright and vivid with some great sequences that utilize some fantastic reds, blues, and greens. A lot of the time, the color spectrum looks a little anemic and pale, but that's a style choice to showcase the Russian universe Red Son is creating. The result is a more muted palette in certain scenes. That all changes though when Superman wears the tights or when the Green Lantern ring appears on the screen, which illuminates the image very well.
Wider shots of the city look vibrant as well with cooler tones dominating. Black levels are mostly deep, but there was some evidence of crush and some murky dark levels. Shadows look fine though and there was very little in the way of banding or aliasing. Animation lines were smooth and edges were spot on. This was a great looking Blu-ray image, although the 4K presentation is a bit better.
This Blu-ray release features the same amazing DTS-HD 5.1 track as the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.
Superman: Red Son boasts a very good lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track that delivers on action and some of the quieter moments. Sound effects are robust and constant throughout, flowing through each speaker with a well-balanced sound. Explosions, bullets, punches, and takedowns all pack a good punch with some fantastic directionality. The low end comes into play during the heavier action scenes with vehicle engines roaring and missiles taking off and destroying their targets. All of Superman's alien powers have the necessary reverb and great sounding noises as well.
Ambient sounds in the city of people walking and talking sound off nicely on the rear speakers as well. The score by Wiedmann always adds to the suspense and cold war mentality of the time, which never drowns out any other sound element. Dialogue is presented cleanly and free of any audio problems. This is an English track, however, the lack of a Russian audio mix is sorely missed, given the premise.
There are about 114 minutes of bonus material here, including some great behind the scenes footage, interviews, and history lessons on Russia, along with some extended trailers, and old episodes of DC cartoons.
Superman: Red Son is one of the better comic book stories of recent memory. It's original and pits some fan-favorite characters on the other side of the spectrum. The film adaptation is top-notch, despite some glaring differences from the original source material. The 1080p video and lossless audio mix are great and there are some wonderful bonus features to boot. This comes Recommended!
