kal
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| Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 6:58 pm Post subject: Transformers: Age of Extinction |
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Transformers: Age of Extinction
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| Quote: | 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' is exactly the type of movie you think it's going to be. It's loud and aggressive and tonally wild. Honestly, you can't help but be impressed by the scale of this production, particularly after watching the feature length making of documentary. Many people love these movies. For me, I have a hard time connecting to the emotions, tone, and the way it approaches the structure of action set-pieces. You probably already know whether or not you're going to enjoy this movie.
The Blu-ray offers a reference quality video and audio along with the world's first Dolby Atmos track. While it might not be The Best Atmos Ever, it's still a powerful surround sound experience. Add in three hours of bonus features, and fans are guaranteed to love this. The only question is to pick up this version (or one of its many limited edition sets), or the 3D IMAX Blu-ray. For franchise fans, this Blu-ray comes Highly Recommended. For the rest of you who want to experience the high quality picture and audio, but may not want to revisit again and again, Give it a Rent.
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
'Transformers: Age of Extinction' explodes onto Blu-ray with a stunning AVC MPEG-4 encode framed at the film's original 2.40:1 aspect ratio.
Your high definition display is going to love this Blu-ray. It's a sumptuous visual feast of razor sharp details and bright, bold colors. Everything from the farmlands of Texas to Monument Valley to Chicago to Hong Kong and other China locations looks fantastic. Primary colors are warm and saturated and lush. Skin tones are often a little exaggerated, but reflected the story environment. Black levels are also on point, from the inside of the Yeager barn to the Lockdown's spaceship interior to the CIA assault on a Riverboat. This movie on Blu-ray is visually flawless, though some of the visual effects are less than perfect.
The Audio: Rating the Sound
While we have already enjoyed over 100 titles released to cinemas, 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' is the first Blu-ray to feature a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, an object-based surround format which has, until now, been exclusive to commercial cinema venues. In this Blu-ray's settings menu, Dolby Atmos is the default audio selection, and can only be experienced by bitstreaming to an Atmos-capable AV Receiver amplifying A) additional overhead speakers OR B) Atmos-enabled speakers that reflect overhead channels off flat ceilings. If you do not have a Dolby Atmos equipped AVR or the required speakers, selecting Dolby Atmos defaults to 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, which will downmix to 5.1 TrueHD if you do not have a 7.1 setup. There are also discrete 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital (lossy) mix options.
Dolby Atmos -- 4.5/5.0 Stars
Atmos has proved to be my favorite surround sound format after experiences like 'Gravity', 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes', 'Guardians of the Galaxy', 'Iron Man 3', and 'Life of Pi'. Some say Atmos is a gimmick. To that I respond, yeah, no kidding, welcome to motion picture entertainment. It's all a gimmick, designed to enthrall, dazzle, and entertain. To transport audiences into other worlds where we get to emote and empathize with our favorite character, feeling the heartache, sweating the close calls, cheering the big wins, and mourning their losses. Atmos is one of many tools that, when used in titles like those above, disappears and perfectly suspends disbelief.
In other words, I can't wait to upgrade.
Since all of this is pretty new, and because many of the new AV Receivers and Atmos-enabled speakers won't be available until 'Age of Extinction' hits retail floors (or later this fall), I was able to coordinate, through Dolby, a trip to Pioneer a facility to demo Atmos on some new Pioneer gear (thanks again to Chris, Katherine, and Jaed!).
For this review — using a 9.2-channel Pioneer Elite SC-89 9.2 channel AV Receiver paired with four SP-EFS73 Elite Floorstanding Speakers to bounce the height channels off a 10-foot ceiling — I experienced 'Age of Extinction' in 5.1.4. That's a standard 5.1 arrangement of ear-level channels combined with front and rear stereo overhead channels. During the movie, I was able to toggle Atmos off and on to compare it to a traditional 5.1 setup.
Everything I say below about the 7.1 track holds true. This is a reference quality mix — detailed and aggressive and loud and bass heavy and abounds with demo material. I spent quite a bit of time with Atmos on and off, trying to compare certain sequences, revealing a few favorite Atmos effects that improve over their 7.1 counterpart:
15mins: CIA hunting Rachet (the whole sequence).
36mins: Attack on the Yeager Farm.
1hr, 16mins Breaking glass.
1hr, 30mins Flying into Lockdown's ship through a waterfall.
1hr, 38mins Jets passing over the humans
2hrs, 22mins The entire climax.
Basically, the best directional effects are mini drones buzzing your ears, helicopter rotors and jets blazing overhead, and much taller explosions (particularly that Rachet scene as the big boom is punctuated by a preceding moment of silence).
Atmos object-based effects definitely compliment an already outstanding sound mix. That said, while walking around to each speaker to hear when the upwards-facing driver was actually firing, I was surprised by how infrequently the overhead channels were used. Granted, I don't know what this mix would sound like with in-ceiling speakers, but, despite being able to pick out some bonus effects…
The Atmos mix is not overwhelmingly different from the 7.1 mix.
I have a few theories about this. First, my 7.1 side and rear surround speakers are above ear level so that might cancel out some of the need for rear height channels (though when I was comparing 5.1.2 to 5.1.4 later in my demo, I definitely missed the rear heights).
Second, in my personal experience, Atmos is best suited in delicate moments or precise panning effects. It fills a room with the sensation of drizzling rain punctuated by thunder claps. A single arrow or bullet or jet streaks over our heads. Yet, in full blown action sequences, in movies like 'Age of Extinction' or 'Edge of Tomorrow', it's sometimes more challenging to pick out these individual effects as the sound field becomes complex and crowded.
Third, this mix is exactly how the filmmakers want it to sound. There's no reason for them to jam a gimmick down our throats when it doesn't serve their needs.
So how do we rate this Atmos track?
While it matches the reference quality 7.1 mix perfectly, and even enhances a few moments, which would imply the need to give this another 5-star grading, my Atmos expectations are higher than normal. Maybe too much so, but given that this is pretty much the world's first Atmos-for-the-home sound mix review (for a full movie), I think we can do better because I've already heard better Atmos. Not only in the movies listed above, and not just theatrically, but even listening to Dolby trailers 'Leaf' and 'Amaze' on this $6800 5.1.4 Pioneer system (not including Display) revealed nuances I hadn't noticed in commercial Atmos spaces.
I know that's probably confusing to some of you. How can something better than a 5-star 7.1 track get 4.5 stars?
Think of it this way. You can enjoy a 3D version of the movie more than its 2D counterpart while admitting there are better 3D Blu-rays available. That's what I'm looking for in a 5-star Atmos mix. That's what we'll hopefully get by year's end -- an Atmos Blu-ray that's wholeheartedly a better experience than the traditional channel-based sound mix. At present, 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' in Dolby Atmos is not quite there. But I'm still looking forward to see what titles come next to see how this format can expand on Blu-ray and HD streaming.
7.1 Dolby TrueHD -- 5.0/5.0 Stars
'Transformers: Age of Extinction' explodes onto Blu-ray with a highly articulate, bombastic, reference quality 7.1 Dolby TrueHD sound mix.
No surprise here. Each 'Transformers' Blu-ray has been a go-to demonstration disc to test out and show off your surround sound gear. Despite the non-stop onslaught action and visuals and kinetic movement, this soundtrack is wonderfully subtle, using smaller, precise sounds to pull viewers into the on-screen action. I love the way the metallic sounds swirl around the entire room, how the LFE fills the room at certain moments you wouldn't expect. This is a track that evokes the sensation of chaos and destruction, but never overwhelms the whole system. This precision is impossibly immersive while keeping dialog levels audible too. There are demos a-plenty all over the place, but I suggest checking out chapters 1, 13, and 20 for some really fun audio sequences. |
Kal
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