Titanic 4K Blu-Ray Review — The best and most complete 4K upgrade ever

James Cameron started his career as a truck driver, but when he saw Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope back in 1977, he knew that he had to direct movies. Getting his big break on a movie called Galaxy of Terror back in 1981, he started his career as a second unit director, shooting scenes of a maggot-covered dismembered arm that needed to twitch on command. A little bit of juice to the arm gave the movie exactly what it needed for the scene, but the producers of the film were so amazed with his work that they immediately started looking for bigger projects for him to tackle.

His first full-length film was Piranha II: The Spawning — hardly a huge crowd draw, but his next films were The Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss, then Terminator 2: Judgement Day, True Lies, and the subject of this review — Titanic. Today, a full 26 years after its massive worldwide phenomenon of a release, we take a look at the 4K restoration of one of the most successful movies ever made. Avatar has scored 2.9 billion, Avengers: Endgame is #2 at 2.8 billion, Avatar: The Way of Water at 2.3 billion, and finally Titanic at $2,264,743,305 at the time of writing. For those playing the home game, that’s James Cameron with three of the top four grossing films in cinema history. Not too shabby for what Cameron jokingly referred to as his “190 million dollar chick flick”.

If you live under a rock, or just need a refresher on Titanic, the film gives us a fictitious take on one of the most storied ship sinkings of all time. It also tells the forbidden love story of a young socialite named Rose DeWitt Bukater and vagabond Jack Dawson. Inspired by real people, these two star crossed lovers were among the 2,240 people that left on the Titanic’s maiden voyage from Southampton on May 31st of 1911, but also among the 1500 passengers who never made it home.

Cameron isn’t comfortable just being on the cutting edge of camera and cinematography techniques. No, instead he is often inventing entirely new techniques, even building completely new cameras and lenses to fit his purposes. Titanic is no exception, being one of the few movies filmed at 48fps (most movies are shot at 24fps) and on a combination of some of the best cameras available at the time. This meant using Panavision Panaflex Gold II Cameras, Panavision Panaflex Platinum Cameras, and Panavision Primo Primes spherical lenses.

Shot in 2.39:1 aspect ratio, this widescreen format represents the widest aspect ratio used in modern cinema, but is most often reserved for sweeping landscape shots you’d find in a nature documentary. Combined with Russell Carpenter as cinematographer and editing by Conrad Buff IV, James Cameron, and Richard A. Harris, the team would go on to win 11 Oscars and be nominated for 14 more in all sorts of technical and non-technical categories alike. Frankly, I feel sorry for anyone who released a film in 1997 – you stood no chance.

Despite the ultra-wide aspect ratio and gorgeous 35mm film shots, the displayed resolution in the original theatrical release was 1080p, whether you saw the 48fps or 24fps version. While it is coming to 4K for the first time, sadly the industry refuses to update their UHD player hardware, meaning Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, and now this release of Titanic (as well as 22 other films, including an incredible upgrade to another Cameron film, The Abyss) will be locked to 24fps, even at 4K resolution. A man can dream…

From the opening scenes to the closing credits, this visual upgrade is absolutely phenomenal. Running at 4K with an H.265 HEVC encoding, and at the original 2.39:1 aspect ratio, the 4K UHD captures every gorgeous detail present in the theatrical film. Whether it’s the deep and inky blacks and blues of the bottom of the ocean, or the rich mahogany and polished brass of the Grand Staircase and her distinctive clock, iron scrollwork, and intricately ornate balustrade, the movie comes to life in a way that somehow seems worthy of the tragic majesty of the Titanic. The film makes the transition to HDR, naturally, so you can expect incredible color depth, the darkest of black saturation, and very natural skin tones for all of the players. It’s not a surprise with Cameron at the helm, but frankly the clarity is beyond the usual restorations. It’s in the realm of Jaws and Alien, and that’s rarified air indeed.

In terms of audio, there’s an equal amount of work as the video. A new Dolby Atmos presentation was more than enough to literally rattle things off my shelf as the ship roared to full speed. Additionally, you’ve got a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit), and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit) for English, and Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) for both French and Spanish.

The audio commentary is a direct pull from the 2005 release on Blu-Ray, giving us a Director’s Commentary with James Cameron, a look at the history of Titanic with Historians Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, and some additional assorted commentary from the cast and crew. In addition, there’s a bonus feature called “Stories from the Heart” where the cast and crew reflect on the legacy of Titanic, as well as a Behind-the-Scenes presentation with Jon Landau to touch on the incredible special effects that hold up a whopping 25 years later. A smattering of additional vignettes about the incredible dives needed to film the wonderful underwater sequences, deleted scenes, fan art, as well as a closer look at the miniatures that bring it all together round out a very complete package across the board. In fact, there are more than 15 HOURS of bonus content beyond the ample runtime of the film here, making this release the most complete version of the film we’ve ever seen.

Blu-ray™ Bonus Disc

• TITANIC: Stories From the Heart—NEW!
• Director James Cameron, producer Jon Landau, and star Kate Winslet share memories and favorite moments and recount the challenges of making the greatest love story in cinema history. Go back in time with film clips, photos and behind-the-scenes moments.
• TITANIC: 25 Years Later with James Cameron
• James Cameron explores the enduring myths and mysteries of the shipwreck, and mounts tests to see whether Jack could have fit on that raft and survived.
• Behind-the Scenes presentation hosted by Jon Landau—NEW
• Jon Landau introduces a series of behind-the-scenes segments showcasing the making of TITANIC.
• Trailer Presentation hosted by Jon Landau—NEW
• Jon Landau shares an inside glimpse into the marketing of TITANIC with a story of how a 4-minute trailer overseen by the filmmakers was delivered to theatres, instead of the original “action” trailer.
• Fan Poster Art—NEW!
• Reflections on TITANIC (4 parts)
• Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by James Cameron
• Additional Behind-the-Scenes
• Deep-Dive Presentation narrated by James Cameron
• $200,000,001: A Ship’s Odyssey (The TITANIC Crew Video)
• Videomatics
• Visual Effects
• Music Video “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion
• Still Galleries

4K Ultra HD Disc

• Director Commentary by James Cameron
• Cast and Crew Commentary
• Historical Commentary by Don Lynch and Ken Marschall

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of a film like Titanic. Whether you are a fan of the film or not, you have to admit that it pushed the envelope when it first came out, and with this 4K release, it’s done it again. It was easy to recommend before, but now it’s easily the best 4K restoration we’ve ever seen.

Unless otherwise stated, the product in this article was provided for review purposes.