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I'm a huge proponent of home media, and when I see that a director fights for physical media, it's great. Christopher Nolan is one such director, and he makes sure the home viewing experience is still great. His latest physical release, Oppenheimer, looks phenomenal on 4K Blu-ray, and the included IMAX scenes are a treat. There's no doubt that this is great news, but I still have some nitpicks.
Movies that shift aspect ratios a lot can be distracting, and it's one of the reasons why IMAX enhanced films on Disney+ are rough. I still remember Black Widow's aspect ratio constantly shifting, and as it turns out, this is something that applies to home releases as well. Some movies are bigger offenders than others, and it's the main thing that's stopping me from completely loving these IMAX home releases. What makes it even worse is that you can't turn off the shifting ratio, so it's something you just have to deal with.
I love the IMAX ratios, but they can be distracting
They don't always enhance
I'll admit that later Nolan releases aren't as bad with the shifting ratios. My main problem with the IMAX scenes at home stems from The Dark Knight. That movie feels like the ratios change often enough for it to be deeply distracting, and it doesn't help that the picture quality looks like it takes a noticeable leap forward as well.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout is another one that comes to mind, and while I love the movie, it was another one of those scenarios where the screen getting bigger and smaller abruptly was distracting after a while. I'm sure many people have no problem with any of this, and don't get me wrong, I'd rather have the shifting ratio than not, but it's not a perfect world.
There are some ways around this, however. I think the biggest thing you can do is get a TV with excellent black levels, like an OLED, and just hope you don't notice the bars showing up and leaving. A projector could also work in this scenario, provided you can get the room to be dark enough.
Ultimately, this is a good problem to have. Home viewers should have a good experience, and I'm glad that it's still possible on disc. Disney+ and Sony Pictures Core are some of the only streaming services to offer the IMAX ratios at home, so it's just nice to have it as an option to own. This won't be a problem for a lot of people, I'm sure, and I'm happy for you if it's not. To be clear, it's not something that bothers me with every movie either. If a movie stays with the IMAX ratio for large stretches of time, it's obviously great. It's just when the cuts are so rapid that it becomes distracting.
Nolan's latest release, The Odyssey, was filmed entirely with IMAX cameras, so this should hopefully be a non-issue. I'm expecting the entire movie to have the IMAX ratio, so there will be no cutting back and forth. Of course, this can only happen if the studio decides to do that for us, but Nolan home releases have typically included the IMAX ratios, so I don't see any reason why it'd be different here.
This is why physical media is important
A big selling point
With movies cycling through streaming services quite often, it's never too long of a wait for a Nolan film to hit Netflix. What you'll notice right away is that these IMAX ratios don't come with the releases. While that doesn't automatically disqualify a movie or make it bad, I'd much rather have these ratios than not. Physical media will always have them, so if I ever want to watch Dunkirk, I can just put my disc in and be treated with the expanded scenes in a way that Netflix won't deliver.
Strangely, there are situations where this isn't the case. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has a scene where the aspect ratio slowly transitions to fill up your entire screen, and Netflix actually includes it. You'd think your 4K Blu-ray would also have the same functionality, but that's not the case. Catching Fire keeps the same aspect ratio throughout, and let me tell you that I was highly disappointed in that decision. This changing ratio is something that seems to go viral on social media every now and then, and it's a reminder of something that streaming has over physical media. It's not enough for me to swap over to Netflix to watch this movie, but it's annoying that it's not on the disc. Thankfully, I can count situations like this on one hand, so it's not like it's something completely widespread, and if it is, then it's just not affecting much of what I watch.
