| Let's just sort out the color grading versions: The one with the blown out highlights and leaning often way too much into the blue is the most recent remastered version done for the UHD BD release. Beside a few scenes outside the matrix it is the version furthest away from the theatrical presentation. It's the only one currently available in UHD though. The green tint version is the color grading that was done to bring the first movie in line with the planned look of the sequels. This is the HD version most people know and was widely available on DVD and of course on BD. It was not well done, as digital color correction was in its infancy back then and there are many issues with the color grading overall - but never received an official correction. This is version was also used for digital screening later on. Now onwards to how the movie actually looked theatrical: The theatrical release looked very close to the first R1 NTSC DVD (well as far as telecining goes of course) - and only this one (VHS and LaserDisc are naturally more off). Cannot speak for other than US releases though. Also the same version as on the initial R1 DVDs was broadcasted on cable at least back 2000/2001 in HD. Minor differences, but more off than the DVDs (looks like color space conversion round trip from Rec.709 to 601, back to 709), though unless you have a trained eye for color grading and a reference like display you probably won't notice the sublte differences here at all. Anyway, the theatrical release does not have the the strong green tint as released later. It has a slight green and an amber vibe instead (to reflect amber and green monochrome monitors), but not as pronounced as the later release most people know from BD and streaming services or later DVD releases. In fact the green is very sublte, but giving you a monochromic vibe back in the days and the amber is more pronounced, sometimes almost yellowish, but not reddish. Some scenes are almost neutral. It gives you the best impression how the movie looked in cinemas when it came out, though due to telecine it is naturally a bit off. Some of the green is getting lost and the amber is tad more pronounced than it should be. How do I know that exactly? I have an EK print in my collection. Don't get fooled by some scans of 35mm you see on youtube. Even though you can still the absence of the strong green tint, the print from which these scenes came are way off in color as these prints already deteriorated. And most companies offering scan services do some color correction as the prints are often really bad that people buy. What is the best version? Take your poison. None is probably how it was envisioned. For theatrical they couldn't achieve the look with classic color timing and digital color correcion was not really feasible in 99. Then with the sequels they overdid it, with the new toy "digital color correction" and the recent UHD remaster when totally overboard emulating a bad 35mm scans often for whatever reason. The vision probablty lies between theatrical and BD somewhere. I personally always prefer theatrical, but well what do you expect from people collecting actual prints... |
Blew away all the other versions IMHO