Shazam: Fury of the Gods director David F. Sanberg has discovered something odd going on with the 4k iTunes digital version of his film.
Sandberg made a post on Twitter explaining that because he owns multiple versions of the film, he decided to compare the different formats to see which one is best. He viewed and captured footage from the 4k Blu-ray release, the standard Blu-ray release, the streaming version on Max, and the 4k iTunes digital version.
To his surprise, he found that the iTunes 4k version was actually the worst quality of the lot, lower even than the standard Blu-ray version. Since the standard Blu-ray version should technically be a lower resolution than any 4k release of the film, the discovery is an odd one to be sure. Unsurprisingly, the 4k Blu-ray version proved to be the highest quality.
Another surprising discovery Sandberg made was that the Max version of Shazam 2 actually held its own much of the time and was even comparable to the 4k Blu-ray release in more basic scenes.
I must admit I didn’t see Shazam: Fury of the Gods in theaters because I have kids at home, and it isn’t always easy carving out the time for every film that comes out. But when I finally did watch Shazam 2 on Max, I was pleasantly surprised at how entertained I was. I truly want to see Billy Batson and the other members of the Shazam family, as envisioned by Sandberg, continue having adventures. That’s why it made me sad to hear Sandberg is throwing in the towel when it comes to helming any more superhero films in the near future.
Do yourself a favor and check out Shazam: Fury of the Gods, but maybe avoid the iTunes version.