Cyberpunk movies available on 4K Blu-ray, ranked by transfer quality.
dir. Denis Villeneuve
Warner Bros. steelbook has people talking about the Dolby Vision version again. A special edition floats around the secondary market for serious money. The transfer is already S-Tier, so collectors buying this one are buying it for the steel.
Sony Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Alex Proyas
S-Tier Arrow Video 4K. Alex Proyas' sci-fi noir. Arrow's release is loaded with extras and the dark cityscapes work well in HDR.
Arrow Video · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Marco Brambilla
S-Tier Arrow Video 4K. Stallone and Snipes in the future. Arrow gave it a proper 4K with extras.
dir. John Carpenter
S-Tier from Shout Factory. There are multiple packaging options but the discs are identical across the standard edition, steelbook, and collector's edition. If you're new to this one and the black levels look crushed, that's normal. It was shot almost entirely at night on a low budget, and Carpenter himself has said that's just how it looks. The Eagle Pictures Italian release is a better-looking transfer for anyone willing to import. The steelbook art is a love-it-or-hate-it situation, some people think it looks more Mad Max than Snake Plissken.
Shout! Factory · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. David Cronenberg
Vinegar Syndrome S-Tier 4K. Cronenberg's virtual reality body horror got the Vinegar Syndrome treatment and it's one of the label's best transfers. The slab packaging is the usual VS quality.
Vinegar Syndrome · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Paul Verhoeven
Arrow's 4K transfer is called a reference disc for the format in collector circles. The grain structure is preserved, the practical effects are still effective, and the ED-209 stop-motion pops in a way it never did on Blu-ray. The 4K actually reveals too much for some people, like RoboCop's rubber chin guard and plastic armor textures. The original Arrow LE Blu-ray owners felt burned when the 4K came in identical packaging shortly after.
As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.
dir. Katsuhiro Otomo
A-Tier 4K with the Japanese import being the best release. The big question for Western buyers is whether the Japanese disc includes English subtitles. Hand-drawn animation at this resolution shows every individual cel, which is the point.
Japanese Import · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Robert Rodriguez
A-Tier 20th Century Studios 4K. The Best Buy steelbook is out of print and the design is one of the more thoughtful efforts in the format. CGI from 2019 still tracks and the HDR pass pulls extra detail out of the neon-lit Iron City streets. People are still waiting for a sequel announcement.
20th Century Studios · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Ridley Scott
A-Tier Warner Bros. 4K. The Final Cut is what's on the 4K disc. A new steelbook pre-order went up alongside Enter the Dragon and V for Vendetta. If you already own the older 4K pressing, the disc is the same.
Warner Bros. · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Mamoru Oshii
A steelbook haul post on r/Steelbooks. 'Whoa. That's a nice one I haven't seen before.' 'You are correct, this is the best one.' Comes with a case and slip. If you're buying this on 4K, buy this edition.
Bandai Visual · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Rupert Sanders
dir. Steven Spielberg
A-Tier Paramount 4K. Spielberg's sci-fi thriller, and the 4K announcement alongside Catch Me If You Can was one of the biggest Paramount reveals of the year. The Catch Me If You Can artwork was universally panned while Minority Report's was better received. The steelbook inner photo is oddly from a 2009 Empire magazine shoot, not the film itself.
Paramount Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray
When the creator of a popular video game system dies, a virtual contest is created to compete for his fortune.
dir. Duncan Jones
When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
dir. Mamoru Hosoda
GKIDS A-Tier 4K. Mamoru Hosoda's animated film about a virtual world gone haywire. The steelbook-only release from Shout Factory follows a frustrating pattern for anime 4K titles where standard editions don't exist, but the artwork is excellent. Hosoda fans are hoping this leads to steelbooks for the rest of his catalog.
GKIDS · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Tarsem Singh
A psychotherapist journeys inside a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.
dir. Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Warner's 2018 4K has been around since launch but the Matrix Trilogy 4K set drops to around $24 USD regularly, which makes it the obvious pick if you want all three. The Titans of Cult release uses the same disc as the standard, so you're paying purely for the packaging. The Animatrix still has no 4K release and probably never will.
The Resistance builds in numbers as humans are freed from the Matrix and brought to the city of Zion. Neo discovers his superpowers, including the ability to see the code inside the Matrix. With machine sentinels digging to Zion in 72 hours, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must find the Keymaker to ultimately reach the Source.
dir. Lana Wachowski
Plagued by strange memories, Neo's life takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself back inside the Matrix.
dir. Lilly Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.
Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Recall, a company that manufactures memories. When his memory implant goes wrong, Doug can no longer be sure what is and isn't reality.
Eagle Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Steven Lisberger
Disney A-Tier 4K. The original's early CGI has a handmade quality that HDR actually enhances, and the Light Cycle sequences are the demo moments. Pairs nicely with Legacy for a double feature.
Walt Disney Studios · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Joseph Kosinski
Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy and daring son of Kevin Flynn, investigates his father's disappearance and is pulled into The Grid. With the help of a mysterious program named Quorra, Sam quests to stop evil dictator Clu from crossing into the real world.
dir. Cameron Crowe
David Aames has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia, his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That's just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred.
Paramount Pictures
dir. Brett Leonard
The Law Enforcement Technology Advancement Centre (LETAC) has developed SID version 6.7: a Sadistic, Intelligent, and Dangerous virtual reality entity which is synthesized from the personalities of more than 150 serial killers, and only one man can stop him.
dir. Pete Travis
C-Tier Lionsgate 4K. Karl Urban as Judge Dredd. The C-Tier is a letdown for a film this visually stylized.
Lionsgate · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Hiroki Yamaguchi
Luchino's routine morning elevator ride up from her subterranean home on level 138 to her school many stories above turns horrific when the elevator operator is ordered to pick up two passengers from floor 99, the maximum security level. What starts as psychological manipulation soon turns wholly physical as both the cruel convicts and Luchino's own dysfunctional past are unleashed. And then every passenger must fight for his or her survival.
Treasured Films (UK)
dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
When the son of an American man and a Japanese women is killed in a car crash, the man transforms into a rageful metallic being thirsty of blood and vengance.
