Why So Blu?

It Ends with Us (Blu-ray Review)

It Ends with Us, based on the global phenomenon by Colleen Hoover, tells the empowering story of Lily Bloom (Blake Lively). Grappling with a painful past, Lily embarks on a new life in Boston, embraces her artistry, and passionately pursues her dream of opening her own flower shop. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her dangerous father. With the support of her friends and allies. Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar) and Alyssa Kincaid (Jenny Slate), Lily must find her own strength to break the pattern or the pattern will break her. It Ends with Us is now available on Blu-ray!

Film 

It Ends with Us is Blake Lively’s new film chronicling a woman in an abusive relationship. Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) leaves her father’s funeral in which she was to deliver a eulogy but walks out when she is unable to deliver it. She ventures back out to Boston, where she’s from, to open her own flower shop.

On one uneventful evening, hanging out on the roof of an apartment building, she meets hunky Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni), a neurosurgeon, and it’s seemingly love at first sight. Later on, she will open her flower shop and hire her first employee, which turns out to be Ryle’s sister and their paths will cross again.

It Ends with Us was really never on my radar, because after watching the trailer, I didn’t really feel anything. It just didn’t seem like it was up my alley. I understand that the themes highlighted in the film deal with physical and sexual abuse. I am also aware about some failed optics when the film was taken out for promotion and how that didn’t fare so well for Blake Lively.

As for the film itself, I guess it looks good and it has a good-looking cast. I am familiar with Blake’s work and think Baldoni is a competent director but the film overall is flat. Lily, at times, comes off as ditzy and aloof, if there is such a thing, and I really couldn’t take her seriously during these episodes. I guess her inner issues is what made her come off that way. Ryle, on the other hand, was played with a brooding undercurrent – the guy is a good looking and a successful neurosurgeon. Once their relationship escalates and becomes hostile, he really lays down the dread.

The film runs 130-minutes long and feels every minute of its bloated running time. There is no redeeming story arc, because the film, at least from my perspective, doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a rom-com, chick-flick, character study on co-dependency, etc. It’s all over the place and I had a hard time keeping track.

It End with Us is based on the novel by Colleen Hoover and as I understand it, there is a sequel novel out there, which takes place after the events in this film. It was a successful feature film, so whether the sequel ever gets made, only time will tell.

 

 

Video 

NOTE: Stills are provided for promotional use only and are not from the Blu-ray.

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

HDR: N/A

Layers: BD-50

Clarity/Detail: It Ends with Us is presented in 1080p. The Blu-ray looks great. It is free clear and detailed, with no signs of post-production tinkering.

Depth:  There’s a lot of nice cinematography on showcase and the Blu-ray accentuates these details – it’s a terrific looking Blu-ray release.

Color Reproduction: The film does have a vibrancy that would have looked phenomenal on 4K disc, but even so, on Blu-ray, the color palette shines.

Black Levels: Black levels were nice and stable – the film takes place at night as much as it does during the day. Crush was not a problem on this Blu-ray disc.

Flesh Tones: Everyone looked nice and natural. No one looked out of place or sickly unless the scene called for it.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.

 

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English Audio Descriptive Service, French DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, Korean, Spanish, Thai

Dynamics: It Ends with Us on Blu-ray sounds great on Blu-ray. The big city is alive with sounds of love and despair – many scenes taking place at restaurants and bar, etc. It’s a very, pardon the pun, lively soundtrack.

Height: N/A

Low-Frequency Extension: The subwoofer beefs up the bass a bit in the scenes involving music — it’s not that kind of film, so do not expect there to be thunderous bass rumble.

Surround Sound Presentation: The rear channels handle the ambience well enough, with several scenes involving crowds, one feels like they are a fly on the wall.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue levels are clean, clear, and crisp.

 

Extras

There are no special features included on the Blu-ray. Considering the major success of this film I am shocked.

 

• Digital HD Copy

 

Summary 

It Ends with Us did nothing for me in the end. It meanders for most of its long running time and I found some of the characterizations and scenarios trite and boring. The Blu-ray is reference in the video and audio department but they tanked the release by making it a bare bones edition. Again, should you be at all curious about the film then a rental would be advised.

 

 

It Ends with Us is now available on Blu-ray!

 

ORDER NOW!

 

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