Westworld Season Three: The New World [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Aaron Paul

Release Date: November 17, 2020

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 9/10

 

Synopsis:

Following the aftermath of last season’s Westworld massacre, “hosts” Dolores, Maeve, Bernard and Charlotte Hale begin a new chapter – outside of the park – exploring the “real world” and who they will become in the wake of their liberation. Over the course of eight hour-long episodes, Season Three finds Dolores prepared to wage war on humanity and Bernard trying desperately to stop her, while Maeve reunites with familiar faces in a new realm – and all discover that the world outside is as full of deception and predetermination as the one they’ve always known.

Please Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

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Newcomers to ‘Westworld’ are strongly encouraged to consider starting at the beginning due to the show’s serialized nature and various continuing story elements within. You can find our reviews of the previous season Blu-ray releases below!

Westworld Season One: The Maze (Blu-ray Review)

Westworld Season Two: The Door (Blu-ray Review)

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The third season of ‘Westworld’ rejoins host Dolores who having escaped the constrictions of the park, has now begun to wage war against those responsible for her life; utilizing her benefits of AI in order to work her way into the systems of some of the world’s most powerful individuals and corporations as well as claiming the contents of their hefty bank accounts to fuel her revolution. Before long Dolores meets an average down on his luck human named Caleb and intrigued by his kindness enlists his help in her cause. Meanwhile, other surviving hosts try to find their own places in the new story of their lives as Bernard heads back to Westworld to enlist the help of Maeve, the one person (or host) that might be capable of stopping Dolores. But others in the real world have similar ideas, especially once Dolores starts getting a little too close for comfort in her goal.

The third season of ‘Westworld’ subtitled ‘The New World’ massively expands the scope of the series and while only continuing the story of a handful of characters from the previous two seasons, it also finally provides viewers with our first real glimpse of the outside world in the show’s futuristic placement. The latest run (which was unsurprisingly only eight episodes instead of the usual ten likely in part due to the cost and time required in order to so carefully construct this expansive futuristic world) is a very different beast in many ways, still offering up some smart twists and turns that will keep fans guessing but at the same time taking a much more direct approach in many other areas including the quest many of these characters find themselves on which is pretty straight forward. On the other hand, it still occasionally keeps things feeling like the mind-twisting craziness of the first season in particular, especially with the progression of the Man in Black this season which is quite the wild mental ride alone. Unlike many shows with a more limited budget, ‘Westworld’ never disappoints when it comes to bringing its futuristic world to life as it serves up visually breathtaking effects and viewpoints around every turn which are a continually stunning treat in their own right. Any fans of this impressive series that haven’t yet had the opportunity to check out season three will definitely want to make a point of doing so at your earliest convenience.

Overall, season three of ‘Westworld’ is a visually stunning and action-packed new season that immerses viewers in the futuristic world outside of the park while continuing the quest of Dolores as she fights to take over now that she’s finally escaped her captivity. It may not be the best season of the series as a whole, but it certainly has more than enough action, twists, turns, surprises and excitement to keep fans enthralled every step of the way. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s 3-disc Blu-ray release of ‘Westworld Season Three: The New World’ in particular brings home all eight episodes from the third season sporting magnificent high definition video and audio presentations that look and sound outstanding every step of the way, in addition to a healthy collection of bonus content that dives into bringing the new season to life; and all wisely spread between three discs in order to deliver the best possible quality across the board. For anyone considering a purchase, the release is definitely highly recommended and shouldn’t disappoint in the slightest.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Westworld Season Three: The New World’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio (with the exception of a few scenes throughout that are presented in Cinemascope) on all of the third season’s episodes. The video presentations look wonderful in every way, providing clean, smooth and beautifully detailed presentations on each episode that never suffer from any noticeable troubles of any kind along the way. They hold up flawlessly even during the various darkly lit, fast moving and heavily populated moments throughout, never resulting in anything onscreen becoming negatively affected. Overall, these are phenomenal high definition video presentations that shouldn’t have any trouble whatsoever thrilling fans.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 8 Season Three episodes. These multichannel soundtracks are equally fantastic and deliver clean, crisp and wildly aggressive audio presentations on every episode. They constantly take full advantage of all five available channels in order to send music, action effects, nature elements and dialogue, along with a great deal more consistently whipping throughout the various speakers whenever appropriate and never allowing any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible along the way. Overall, these are wonderful 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that only exceed expectations while constantly contributing a lot of additional fun and excitement to the overall viewing experience.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Westworld Season Three: The New World’ includes a nice collection of bonus content spread between all three discs. Included on the release are ‘Creating Westworld’s Reality’ episodic Behind the Scenes Featurettes for 7 of the season’s episodes (running approximately 42 minutes in length altogether), along with a handful of additional behind the scenes Featurettes that explore various aspects of bringing the latest season to life. They include: ‘Escape from Westworld’ (running approximately 2 minutes), ‘Exploring Westworld’ (approximately 4 minutes), ‘We Live in A Technocracy’ (14 minutes), ‘A Vision for the Future’ (14 minutes), ‘Rico: Crime and the Gig Economy’ (7 minutes) and ‘Westworld on Location’ (11 minutes). We are also treated to ‘Welcome to Westworld’ which includes two sets of conversations with members of the cast discussing the series: the first set of conversations features ‘Evan Rachel Wood and Aaron Paul’ and includes ‘Analysis’ (approximately 4 minutes) and ‘Who Said It?’ (4 minutes), while the second set features ‘Thandie Newton and Tessa Thompson’ and once again includes ‘Analysis’ (3 minutes) and ‘Who Said It?’ (3 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 9/10

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‘Westworld: Season Three: The New World’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from HBO & Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

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