SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE (4K UHD Steelbook Review)
Sisu: Road to Revenge is ready to pump oil and gunpowder straight into your bloodstream. It detonates a minefield of pure adrenaline that buzzes even after the final shot is fired. The returning hero, Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), is a walking ballistic event, so the film wisely loads its emotional ammunition into the villain. Stephen Lang’s Draganov demonstrates a casual, practiced cruelty, ready to pull a trigger without hesitation.
Film ★★★☆☆
The story moves with the straight line velocity of a bullet. It’s simple but director Jalmari Helander uses it to his advantage. Aatami returns to the house where his family was murdered, only to find borders shifted and his memories marooned on hostile land. Rather than abandon it, he dismantles the house plank by plank, loads it onto a truck, and drives toward Finland with his loyal dog. Tommila communicates loss and resolve with more force than dialogue ever could. When the Soviets take notice, their response is immediate, and Draganov is released as if a spent round ejected back into circulation.
Helander directs with a sharp instinct for rhythm, pacing the film like a marksman. He knows when to let a moment breathe and when to squeeze the trigger again. He escalates the action in carefully spaced bursts, running the gamut from motorcycles to planes, to tanks, and trains. It’s relentless. But never exhausting.
The tone embraces excess with a grin, blending brutal violence with slapstick absurdity that would make the Roadrunner blush.
Aatami absorbs punishment that would end any ordinary man, leaving bodies and wreckage behind like shell casings on a firing range. He’ll take a (literal) whipping and keep on ticking, sometimes forced to roll over on broken glass, digging into his already bloody, mangled back.
As mentioned, Tommila conveys grief, exhaustion, and fury almost entirely in silence. There is a clear understanding of what he’s thinking in any given scene.
Stephen Lang gives Draganov a hard, unblinking menace that makes his final reckoning feel earned.
Periodically, Richard Brake drifts into the film like a bad omen, a sneering authority figure providing a complementary menace that sharpens Draganov’s brutality. Lang is a blunt force, so Brake’s venomous line deliveries keep the pressure constant even when the action momentarily shifts elsewhere.
Sisu: Road to Revenge is lean and unsentimental, exiting right before repetition dulls the blade. You’ll feel like the viewing experience has left behind scorch marks, ringing ears, and an adrenaline rush that’ll leave you with a smile ya can’t quite kick.
Video ★★★★☆
Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Clarity/Detail: This presentation really stretches its legs. The image is loaded with micro-detail that rewards large screens and close seating distances. Textures in wood, metal, fabric, and skin resolve beautifully, with splintering debris and environmental damage rendered in sharp, tactile bursts. Landscapes appear expansive and richly layered, while explosions carry real dimensional weight. Highlights remain controlled even in the brightest scenes, with no clipping or loss of information. Dirt, scars, rust, and grime are reproduced with striking fidelity, giving the image a rugged, lived-in authenticity. The overall presentation is crisp and razor-focused, with disciplined color choices and naturally stable black levels that feel tailor-made for reference-grade panels.
Depth: Wide shots emphasize scale and distance, allowing open environments to breathe, while close-quarters combat scenes retain a strong sense of spatial separation between foreground and background elements. The image maintains excellent dimensional layering, giving scenes a three dimensional presence. Motion is smooth and fluid, even during rapid action, with no noticeable distortion, smearing, or breakdown in fine detail. Camera movement feels confident and unrestrained, giving both actors and environments room to exist naturally within the frame.
Black Levels: Black levels are consistently impressive. Nighttime sequences display deep, inky blacks that never swallow detail, while shadowed areas retain texture and clarity. Dark interiors, particularly during stealth-heavy moments, remain fully legible without appearing lifted or washed out. Gradations within shadows are smooth and nuanced, revealing subtle environmental detail and facial contours. There’s no evidence of black crush, and contrast remains stable across the entire runtime.
Color Reproduction: The color palette is intentionally restrained, leaning heavily into earthy browns, desaturated greens, and weathered greys. This muted foundation makes moments of violence and destruction hit harder visually. Explosions, fire, muzzle flashes, and bursts of gore punch through the frame with heightened intensity, benefiting noticeably from HDR. Highlights bloom convincingly without overpowering the image, adding energy and contrast where it counts. Colors appear worn and aged by design, reinforcing the film’s harsh tone.
Flesh Tones: Flesh tones skew cooler and slightly desaturated, clearly a stylistic choice that aligns with the film’s brutal atmosphere. The level of detail in Aatami’s skin texture is unsettling in the best way. Wounds, scars, sweat, and grime are rendered with astonishing clarity, revealing every cut and abrasion. Facial features hold strong definition, and close-ups showcase pores, creases, and fatigue with striking realism. Consistency is excellent throughout, and the presentation never drifts into artificial or waxy territory.
Noise/Artifacts: Exceptionally clean. No visible noise, banding, compression artifacts, or edge enhancement issues. The image remains stable and pristine from start to finish.
Audio ★★★★☆
Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, French 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, English Audio Description Track 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
Dynamics: This mix is unapologetically aggressive and thrives on contrast. It swings hard between explosive chaos and near-silence, using that dynamic range to keep you locked in. Loud passages hit with force and scale, but what really sells the experience is how the quieter moments remain textured and alive, building tension before the next eruption. Layering is handled with confidence, stacking effects, score, and environmental detail in a way that fully envelops the listening position.
Height: Any sequence involving aircraft is an immediate highlight for the height layer. Planes slice through the overhead speakers with convincing placement, giving true verticality to the soundstage. While it doesn’t quite chase the constant aerial spectacle of Top Gun: Maverick, I certainly didn’t hold it against Sisu. Select explosions break upward into the height channels as well, adding brief but satisfying bursts of vertical energy that reward overhead speakers.
Low Frequency Extension: This is a relentless workout for subwoofers. The low end is deep, forceful, and constantly engaged. The moment where Aatami flips the tank lands with a thick, room-shaking impact. Explosions carry real mass, engines rumble with sustained weight, tanks grind and crush with mechanical heft, and gunshots snap with percussive authority. Even punches register with surprising low-end reinforcement.
Surround Sound Presentation: The surround field is active and precise, making excellent use of a full room layout. During the car chase sequences, trucks tear past from multiple directions, wrapping the listener in motion and speed. Explosions push air, with wind rushing around the room in a convincing wave of pressure. Aircraft aren’t confined to the height layer either; they bleed seamlessly into the surround speakers, reinforcing their scale and movement. There’s a standout moment where a plane audibly passes through every speaker in the room, front to back and floor to ceiling.
The train sequence is another highlight. When Aatami uses the rocket to catch up to the train car near the end, the sense of acceleration is palpable, with sound objects moving cleanly across the soundstage. During the shootout inside the train, bullets whistle past with pinpoint accuracy, each shot clearly assigned to specific speakers. While much of the heavy firepower remains anchored up front, the rear channels are far from passive, contributing strong directional cues and building a continuous, immersive ambience.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is sparse, but when characters do speak, it cuts through cleanly and confidently. Vocals remain crisp and intelligible, never getting buried under effects or score. Even amid heavy action, spoken lines retain focus and presence.
Extras ★★☆☆☆
Sony has offered Sisu: Road to Revenge in a nice 4K steelbook variant. The cover has our hero standing on top of a pyramid of destroyed vehicles. The back has both Aatami and Draganov staring each other down and the inside artwork depicts Aatami as almost angelic, holding up tow guns and haloed with weapons behind him. It’s a fun steelbook that matches the film’s tone.
Upping The Ante: This is a 3 minute featurette, so you won’t find anything too in depth here.
Alternate Ending: This is just a brief moment right before he begins building his home. It’s about 30 seconds long.
Summary ★★★☆☆
Sisu: Road to Revenge is a pretty fun 90 minutes. The 4K has really enjoyable tech specs, but the features are lacking. If you liked the first one, I’d say this is a safe purchase. Get the steelbook.
