Why So Blu?

Transporter 3 (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Before you ask, “Where’s The Transporter and Transporter 2 on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray?”, remember that those are 20th Century Fox films and…I guess soon to be Disney’s. Lionsgate distributed the third film in the Jason Statham action franchise which sorta kick started his whole “action man” persona following some popular turns in Guy Ritchie films. As Lionsgate isn’t waiting for anyone when it comes to releasing catalog titles (And good on them, too), here comes Transporter 3 aligning itself with the release of Statham’s summer sharketacular film The Meg. This one gets the picture and audio upgrade (Atmos) and retains all of the prior bonus materials on the 4K Ultra-HD disc. You’ll be able to grab this one on August 7th, 3 days before The Meg. So now, the ball is in your court to put out The Transporter and Transporter 2 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray Fox!

Film 

Mob courier Frank Martin’s latest assignment pairs him with Valentina, the cynical daughter of a Ukrainian official. While her father ponders what to do with three boatloads of toxic waste, Frank must guard the problematic woman and prevent her from wandering too far from his vehicle, or risk triggering the explosive shackles they both wear.

I really like what Transporter 3 is offering in terms of a simple action story, but at the helm of Olivier Megaton, it just can’t quite deliver. There’s good stuff to be had in the transporting mission that also includes the whole “If your bracelets get X-amount of distance away from each other you blow up” motif. Statham, as always, delivers and Natalya Rudakova gives it the film some pop. These things are enough to almost get the movie by, but this is a Jason Statham movie, I want the action to be satisfactory first and foremost.

Its a wonder where the action goes wrong. Is it during the shoot or is it in post production. They have some wonderful stuff thought out and staged, but the execution is terrible. Megaton’s work includes some neat shots, but I don’t get to see them enough or long enough. The film is full of light flashes, quick cuts, zooms, sped up film and no sense of geography. Blend that all up together and that’s how every sequence is told. No shot lasts for long than just a second if not just mere frames. There’s not sense of direction as to where its headed or where everything is in relation to one another. Some shots in the action sequences and camera movements make me feel like there was a better sequence there or it was understood, but they decided to rely on gimmicky stuff because its what was popular at the time.

Statham is back and game for one last go at his Frank Martin character, though, making the trip worth the one time watch. And in the film keeps him in the car transporting majority of the time. His cold humor and wonderful demeanor that has made this series and him as a star enjoyable is fully intact. They’ve paired him with Natalya Rudakova’s Valentina who is every bit the opposite of his character. I could see her annoying some, but I really like the liveliness and silliness she brought to many scenes. She also played off of and pushed Statham in many moments as well.

Transporter 3 seems less offensive than the other action franchise sequel efforts from Olivier Megaton with Taken. But, that’s not much of a compliment. Sure, you could say its not all him, but I’ve seen his work 3 times and he’s a common factor. This one gets by for me because I dig the two characters’ chemistry and Natalya Rudakova is good, fun presence. But, the action is amateur, of the generic “Make it like Bourne” variety, when all I’m asking for is to “Make it like The Transporter”.

Video 

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: Transporter 3 gets a 4K upscale coming from a 2K DI source and utilizes HDR10. The film sorta easily lends itself to 4K with a vivid, polished and sorta washed out look. Details are quite strong with strong colors and a razor sharp image. The film already had a terrific Blu-ray presentation and while this is a bit more of a cosmetic upgrade, its still a pretty solid one.

Depth:  The image looks a bit more confident now with movements appearing more smooth and the camera sweeps revealing a bit more distance between characters and the background environments they do battle in or race a car through.

Black Levels: Blacks are an improvement with their darker, natural look to them. No real detail is lost as a dark fight scene in a garage showcases with guys in all sorts of black clothing still maintain all their details. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors pop quite a bit here in this. Natalya Rudakova’s hair looks stunning as door some of the vehicles with color. HDR is mainly applied to lights, displays and skies, this film being vivid but with a more realistic approach.

Flesh Tones: DKin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. Holy freckles, too, as you can count them on ANY actor. stubble, wrinkles, scars, lines, make-up and lip texture all come through in window-like fashion no matter the scene or distance.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, French 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics: With Transporter 3, Lionsgate once again rewards those upgrading to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray with a new Dolby Atmos track to accompany the new picture. And once again, they give a loud and booming track that rocks and really helps enhance the viewing of the film. Its a balanced mix where every aspect of the sound design gets to rock your socks off while the others are still more than efficient. The intricacies between speakers may not be overbearing, but this is still a nice in your face listen, which is what you want from a B-level Jason Statham trashy action movie.

Height: From above you get things falling, destruction, whizzing bullets, musical beat and more. Water filling up in a sinking car is a pretty cool highlight.

Low Frequency Extension: Destruction, punches, kicks, explosions, gunfire all put a hurting on your subwoofer. Seriously, this gets deep.

Surround Sound Presentation: This has a smartly woven mix that doesn’t really overdo it to force an environment to have a 360 experience just to have one. There are unique sounds and travel is quite fun and accurate but its more patient and calculated.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are plenty loud and crisp in the ear as if you were mixing them with a pair of headphones on.

Extras 

Transporter 3 4K Ultra-HD comes with the standard Blu-ray edition and a digital copy of the film.

Audio Commentary

• With Director Olivier Megaton

Special Delivery: Transporters In The Real World (SD, 13:49) 

Making-Of Transporter 3 (SD, 16:16)

Storyboard Compare (SD, 2:47)

Visual Effects (SD, 2:33)

The Sets (SD, 2:10)

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:04)

Summary 

Transporter 3 has a solid throughline with Statham fun to watch as always, but is like much of Olivier Megaton’s catalog, with poorly executed action sequences that disappoint because they all seem to have the best of intentions and ideas. This 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray is pretty well executed with a nice uptick in the picture quality and a booming, in your face Atmos track. You also get all the bonus material ported over. If you’re a Transporter fan looking to upgrade, its a pretty solid one and at a low pre-order price currently.