Yorgos Lanthimos makes movies that feel like a fever dream you don't necessarily want to wake up from. Poor Things is exactly that—a Victorian steampunk odyssey that looks like a neon-drenched oil painting. When it hit theaters, people couldn't stop talking about the production design, the costumes, and Emma Stone’s fearless performance. But now that we’re well into the digital age, a big question pops up: do you actually need the Poor Things Blu-ray, or is the 4K stream on Hulu or Disney+ "good enough"?
Honestly, it depends on how much you care about the texture of a film.
Streaming compression is a real jerk. It eats up the fine details in the shadows and flattens those incredibly lush, saturated colors that cinematographer Robbie Ryan worked so hard to capture. If you've spent thousands on a nice OLED TV, watching a compressed stream is like buying a Ferrari and only driving it in school zones. The physical disc gives the movie room to breathe.
Why the Poor Things Blu-ray Quality Hits Different
Let's get technical for a second, but not in a boring way.
The movie was shot on a mix of 35mm film, including some very specific Ektachrome stock for those surreal, high-contrast sequences. On a standard digital stream, that grain often looks like digital noise or "blockiness." It's distracting. On the Poor Things Blu-ray, the grain structure remains organic. It looks like film.
The disc handles the 1.66:1 aspect ratio beautifully. You get those slight black bars on the sides, which gives it that classic European cinema vibe. If you’re a stickler for bitrate, the physical disc peaks way higher than anything Netflix or Hulu can push through your Wi-Fi. It stays stable. No buffering. No sudden drops in resolution when your neighbor starts downloading a 100GB game update next door.
There is a catch, though. And it’s a weird one.
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Search for the 4K UHD disc in the United States and you might come up empty-handed. For some reason, Searchlight Pictures (under Disney) decided to skip a wide 4K physical release in the US initially, opting for a standard 1080p Blu-ray and a digital-only 4K version. It's a baffling move for a movie that won the Academy Award for Best Production Design. You can find 4K imports if you're willing to pay the "collector's tax" and deal with shipping from Europe, but for most folks, the standard Blu-ray is the path of least resistance.
The Design and the "Vibe" of the Packaging
Physical media isn't just about bits and bytes. It's about holding the thing.
The Poor Things Blu-ray isn't just a plastic case with a boring stock photo of Emma Stone. The artwork reflects the chaotic, beautiful aesthetic of the film itself. It looks great on a shelf. For people who treat their movie collections like a home library, that matters.
Inside, you get the standard stuff, but the menu design is actually pretty slick. It uses that same eccentric typography from the film’s credits. It feels like an extension of Bella Baxter’s world rather than a corporate product.
What about the Special Features?
This is where things get a bit polarizing. We live in an era where "boutique" labels like Criterion or Arrow Video spoil us with three-hour documentaries and five different commentary tracks.
The official release is a bit more... restrained.
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- Possibilities: The Making of Poor Things: This is the meat of the extras. You get interviews with Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and Mark Ruffalo. They talk about the "rehearsal process," which apparently involved a lot of theater games and bonding. It’s not just fluff; you actually see how Lanthimos builds a weirdly cohesive world by making his actors feel comfortable being uncomfortable.
- Deleted Scenes: There are a handful. They’re interesting, mostly because they show a bit more of Bella’s journey through London and Paris, but you can see why they were cut for pacing. The movie is already a chunky two hours and twenty-one minutes.
- Costume and Production Featurettes: These are short but essential. Seeing how they built those massive sets—especially the Lisbon sequence—without relying entirely on CGI is mind-blowing.
The Sound Quality Factor
People always talk about the visuals, but the audio on the Poor Things Blu-ray is a sleeper hit. Jerskin Fendrix’s score is intentionally discordant. It’s squeaky, breathy, and strange.
On the Blu-ray, you’re getting a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track.
While it’s not a "Dolby Atmos" explosion-fest like a Marvel movie, the clarity is vital. The soundstage is wide. You hear the rustle of those absurd Victorian sleeves and the wet footsteps in the puddles of a surrealist London. The dialogue is crisp, too. Mark Ruffalo’s hilarious, increasingly desperate performance as Duncan Wedderburn relies on a lot of vocal nuance that can get lost in a muddy TV-speaker mix. If you have a decent soundbar or a surround setup, the disc wins every single time.
Is there a "Best" version to buy?
If you are a hardcore collector, the standard US release might feel a little "budget."
There have been rumors and limited "prestige" editions from places like HMV in the UK or specialized steelbooks that pop up on eBay for triple the price. If you have a region-free player, it is almost always worth looking at the international versions to see if they bundled in a 4K disc.
But for 90% of people, the standard Poor Things Blu-ray is the most reliable way to own the film without worrying about it disappearing from a streaming service because of a licensing dispute or a tax write-off. We’ve seen it happen. Physical ownership is the only way to ensure you can watch Bella Baxter punch a baby (metaphorically, mostly) whenever you want.
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Common Misconceptions About the Release
Some people think that because it’s a "Blu-ray" and not "4K," it won't look good on a 4K TV.
That’s just wrong.
Modern 4K players and TVs have incredible upscaling tech. Because the Blu-ray has such a high bitrate and low compression, your TV can "guess" the extra pixels much better than it can with a crunchy 4K stream. Sometimes, a high-quality 1080p disc actually looks better than a low-bitrate 4K stream.
Also, don't believe the "physical media is dead" hype. Releases like this, which sell out in their initial runs, prove that there's a massive audience for tactile cinema.
The Actionable Verdict
If you loved the movie, buy the disc. If you only liked it, maybe wait for a sale. But if you’re a cinema nerd who wants to study how Lanthimos and Ryan used those "fish-eye" lenses and distorted perspectives, you need the highest quality source possible.
Next Steps for the Collector:
- Check the "Sold" listings on eBay if you're hunting for a specific Steelbook version; prices fluctuate wildly based on who’s currently trending on TikTok.
- Verify your player's firmware is up to date. Some newer Searchlight/Disney discs have been known to "handshake" poorly with older Sony or LG players.
- If you’re importing a 4K version from the UK or Germany, double-check that the standard Blu-ray included in the "combo pack" isn't region-locked to Region B (Europe). The 4K disc itself is almost always region-free, but the bonus disc might not be.
- Set your TV to "Filmmaker Mode" or "Cinema" before hitting play. This movie uses very specific color temperatures that "Vivid" mode will absolutely ruin.
Owning the Poor Things Blu-ray isn't just about having a movie on a shelf. It's about preserving a specific, weird vision in its best possible form. In an age where digital libraries can be deleted in an instant, that feels like a smart move.