Fully Immersed, Volume 8
Welcome to summer, campers. That means hot sun, cool drinks, and a slew of tentpole blockbuster movies eager to melt our brains. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and Alien: Covenant led the charge last month, Wonder Woman is kicking ass this weekend, and Spider-Man: Homecoming is guaranteed to make a big splash during the 4th of July holiday weekend. Better yet, each of those titles (plus others too) feature a Dolby Atmos presentation, available in select cinemas. (See the complete list at Dolby.com.) Better still is the strong likelihood that those same films will arrive on Blu-ray Disc sporting a Dolby Atmos soundtrack before the end of the year. While we wait for those titles to arrive, there's plenty more good stuff to keep us busy. Here's just a handful of the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive audio titles that have been released recently or are coming soon:
I plan to cover at least a few of the above titles soon, as well as Warner's recent Fantastic Beasts Blu-ray and several of the Harry Potter films on Ultra HD Blu-ray. Until then, here's what I've listened to most recently...
The Great Wall
Universal | Buy Now | Dolby Atmos available on Blu-ray, 4K UHD
Visible from outer space, the Great Wall of China is a marvel of human engineering and one of the great wonders of the world. And while the history books may tell you it was built as a barrier to protect the Chinese empire from armies of nomads and barbarians, Matt Damon knows better. The real enemy was an army of dragon-like dog monsters controlled telepathically by their queen beastie. Uh huh. Just go with it. Yimou Zhang (Hero) directs The Great Wall, an utterly ridiculous, man-versus-monster adventure yarn in the same vein as Tremors and Starship Troopers - and like those films, The Great Wall is surprisingly fun, not to mention beautiful to look at. The highlight, however, is the highly immersive Dolby Atmos soundtrack from Universal, one of the most complex and spacious soundtracks I've ever listened to.. Flaming arrows and spears soar overhead, panning is incredibly accurate, and battle scenes exhibit tremendous range including a robust low end. The quieter moments are almost more impressive, from the subtle reverb of footfalls in stone hallways to loud speech echoing and carrying within the warriors' great hall. The film may not please everyone but its soundtrack is beyond reproach.
Live By Night
Warner | Buy Now | Dolby Atmos available on Blu-ray
Ben Affleck may be the caped crusader these days but his most compelling work tends to be behind the camera. Live By Night fails to reach the heights of Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo, but this Prohibition-era gangster flick is handsomely photographed and its Dolby Atmos soundtrack delivers the goods when necessary. The son of a cop (Brendan Gleeson), Affleck plays Joe Coughlin, a Boston outlaw ("not a gangster") who relocates to south Florida where there's truckloads of money to be made and revenge schemes to be hatched. After an exciting car chase early in the film, the middle stretch of Live By Night isn't particularly noteworthy on the audio front. However, the climactic hotel shootout between two armies of Tommy Gun-wielding thugs is a gangbusters sonic assault. Bullets zip across the sound field, shards of broken glass fall from overhead, and shotgun blasts dig deep with resounding oomph.
Logan
Fox | Buy Now | Dolby Atmos available on 4K UHD only
Ever since Bryan Singer's exceptional X2, the cinematic adventures of Wolverine and his team of Marvel mutants have been a decidedly mixed bag. Fortunately, after 17 years playing this iconic character, Hugh Jackman has been given a golden opportunity to hang up his adamantium claws with honor in James Mangold's Logan. Some have said that Logan's (well-deserved) R rating made all the difference, but Logan succeeds in its quieter moments, and the many lovely character beats along the way. (I'm not crying. You're crying!) Once again, Fox has frustratingly reserved the superior Dolby Atmos mix for its Ultra HD offering, but thankfully it's a fantastic soundtrack. As soon as the comic book pages in Marvel's logo start flipping, it's apparent that the overhead channels have been put to good use, a fact that's never more apparent than during Charles' bone-rattling seizure at the casino. The additional channels serve to further envelop the listener and add another dimension to this already riveting sequence. Overall though, this is a highly effective Atmos mix with excellent panning and directionality, a robust low end, and a surprising degree of nuance in those aforementioned quiet moments. Highly recommended.
XXX: Return of Xander Cage
Paramount | Buy Now | Dolby Atmos available on Blu-ray, 4K UHD
Vin Diesel returns to the role of Xander Cage, an extreme sports version of James Bond, substituting a skateboard for an Aston Martin and a cranberry club soda for a vodka martini. If that doesn't sound like progress, you may not be the target audience here. Traditional Bond fans are apt to pull something rolling their eyes here, as XXX is much closer in tone to the Fast and the Furious films than anything else. That means huge, ridiculous action set pieces, lingering shots of scantily-clad women, and a family-above-all messsage ("X takes care of its own.") Thankfully, it also means that this is a team effort and the supporting players around Diesel get numerous opportunities to shine, especially martial arts superstar Donnie Yen. And the sound! Oh my. Paramount's Dolby Atmos soundtrack, available on both the standard Blu-ray and the Ultra HD disc, is incredibly aggressive and entirely immersive, elevating this otherwise middling action flick to a thoroughly entertaining experience. Overhead channels are used constantly and effectively, bass hits hard and deep, and panning and directionality is spot-on throughout the film.
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