Spider-Man: Homecoming 4K UltraHD

In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker (Holland), who with the help of his mentor Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.), tries to balance his life as an ordinary high school student in New York City while fighting crime as his superhero alter ego Spider-Man. Living with his Aunt May (Tomei), Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine—distracted by the thought of proving himself to be more than just our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man—but when the Vulture (Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened. Based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. (Gary Reber)

Special features include The Spidey Study Guide and photo gallery; and on the Blu-ray Disc, 10 deleted and extended scenes (HD 16:17); a gag reel (HD 02:17); seven featurettes: A Tangled Web (HD 06:11), Searching For Spider-Man (HD 08:04), Spidey Stunts (HD 05:48), Aftermath (HD 04:47), The Vulture Takes Flight (HD 06:01), Jon Watts: Head Of The Class (HD 05:29), and Pros And Cons Of Spider-Man (HD 03:28); Rappin' With Cap: Captain America PSAs (HD 02:26); a photo gallery; trailers; upfront previews; and an UltraViolet digital copy.

The 2:39:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 4K Ultra HD HDR-10 picture was photographed digitally using the Arri Alexa Mini and Arri Alexa XT Plus camera systems with a resolution of 2.5K and a master format Digital Intermediate at 2K (not 4K). As the 2K Digital Intermediate has been unconverted to 2160p, there is no real gain in native resolution. Still, the picture is amazing! Sharpness and clarity are exemplary throughout. Resolution is absolutely incredible, with the finest details perfectly resolved. Visible is the finely textured fabric of Spider-Man's powered suit as well as the fabric composition of other clothing. Object detail also is excellent, revealing material compositions. Facial features, skin pores, and hair strands are finely resolved. Hours could be spent on examining the degree of detail in each scene. The color palette exhibits a wide color gamete, with vivid primaries and secondary hues, for an impressive color presentation. Also HDR effectively enhances the range of contrast with bright white highlights as well as other more colorful highlights and deep, extended black and revealing shadow delineation. This creates a greater sense of realism. The ending scene depicting an aircraft crash and subsequent firestorm with puffs of blackish gray smoke really shows the worth of HDR and a wide color gamut. Spatial dimensionality is also excellent, further enhancing the sense of realism. Fleshtones are also perfectly articulated throughout. This is an exemplary picture that is reference quality throughout. Spider-Man fans will be mesmerized by the image quality. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel (48-kHz/24-bit) soundtrack is dynamic sounding with a crisp presence emanating from the special effects mayhem. Alien gunfire and Spider-Man and Ironman antics rip though the soundstage and soundfield. The added two surround channels enhance such directionality. These are powerful effects with exciting sonics. Such ear-level sonics are aggressively directional during the action scenes, especially during the dynamic sequence involving an attack on a ferry boat. The action segments create a terrific holosonic® experience. Atmospherics also are nicely presented, which enhance the realism of the soundscapes depicted on-screen. The music score is reserved to the background generally, but is quite active throughout and extends more subtly to the surrounds. The exceptions are the brief segments of rock music. Deep bass at times is strong and effectively extended by the .1 LFE channel at sub-25 Hz frequencies. Dialogue is intelligible throughout, though, at times sounding forward and wanting in spatial integration. As for the Immersive Sound element, the height extension is limited to a subtle extension of the music score, some ambience extension, brief ADR dialogue, and at times accentuated sound effects objects, which occur briefly during the action segments. Numerous opportunities for soundscape ambience extension and sound effects are not realized. Generally, the height layer is weak in terms of enhancing the overall immersive experience, and it is either too subtle or missing sound effect objects. Its most effective application is the ending action scenes. Still, this is a terrific soundtrack that delivers an exciting punch during the action scenes. (Gary Reber)