Wonder Woman 4K UltraHD

Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana (Gadot), princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on her shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny. (Gary Reber)

Special features on the Blu-ray Disc include 11 featurettes: Epilogue: Etta's Mission (HD 02:41), Crafting The Wonder (HD 16:26), A Director's Vision: Themyscira: The Hidden Island (HD 04:56), A Director's Vision: Beach Battle (HD 04:56), A Director's Vision: A Photograph Through Time (HD 05:07), A Director's Vision: Diana In The Modern World (HD 04:39), A Director's Vision: Wonder Woman At War (HD 05:03), Warriors Of Wonder Woman (HD 09:53), The Trinity (HD 16:05), The Wonder Behind The Camera (HD 15:34), and Finding The Wonder Woman Within (HD 23:08); extended and alternate scenes (HD 10:08); a blooper reel (HD 05:37); and a digital copy.

The 2.40:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD HDR 10 picture was photographed on 35mm Kodak film in Super 35 with Arriflex 235 and Arriflex 435 cameras and digitally with Arri Alexa 65 (6.5K some scenes), mastered to a 2K (not 4K) Digital Intermediate, and reviewed on a Sony Bravia Z9D 4K Ultra HD HDR display. While exhibited theatrically in 3D, with a conversion by GENER8 and released for home viewing, no 3D Blu-ray Disc was provided for review. The imagery, depicted in period pieces, exhibits a natural rendering in colors, with generally warm and rich hues. The opening scene is a bit color exaggerated at times and, as well, a bit unnatural in terms of CGI visual effects. Chromatic highlights tend to be effective, though. The bedtime scene is rendered in exaggerated golden tones, which reflect off faces. The slow motion action of the painting of gods appears more natural but is cut back and forth with the exaggerated live action. As Diana matures, the color palette appears more natural. Shift to the plane crash and the subsequent battle on the beach followed by the Nazi installation, Diana's departure from her sheltered island paradise, and the scenes in London, and the color palette exhibits more natural hues that are rich and warm, though, still stylized. Thus, once past the opening scenes of Dana's training, leading to maturity as Wonder Woman, the palette is far more appealing and intriguing. Fleshtones throughout retain a natural, healthy hue. Contrast delivers a sense of added dimension to blacks and shadow delineation, as well as a tasteful enhancement of bright elements, such as lighting, explosions, the bright orange of Diana's whip, and lightning rays in the battle near the end. Such HDR enhancements are often brightly intense, such as in the final battle scene. The wider color gamut enhances the blue primary hue of Diana's dress that she wears to the Nazi dinner party and the dark green fabric with red accents of Ludendorff's uniform. Throughout, spatial dimensionality is excellent. Resolution is also excellent, with fine detail exhibited in object textures of exterior and interior sets and various accompaniments, clothing, and facial features, especially during close-ups. Overall, while the color palette is not always realistic, most of the picture is quite satisfying, especially in the darker scenes in which light is mixed with shadows. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is credited as a remix specifically for the home theatre environment. Yet the Immersive Sound element is unfulfilled in terms of its potential for delineating the various soundscapes depicted on-screen. Instead, the filmmakers have limited the height channels to an extension of the orchestral score and extremely limited sound effects, such as a brief wimpy prop plane engine sound, an instant of unreal and incomplete arrows whizzing overhead, brief moments of thunder (very effective), very limited gunfire and machine-gun rounds, and a brief big plane engine sound in the final battle scene. That's it. Much of the soundtrack is sadly silent in terms of overhead extension. No thought whatsoever has been given as to how to effectively employ the dimension of height to the soundtrack to more fully provide a true immersive experience. As for the ear-level soundfield, the added two channels deliver aggressively strong surrounds that provide full envelopment. The orchestral score occupies a wide and deep soundstage that extends aggressively to the surrounds. Sound effects provide directionalized surround energy, though, it is generally subtle. The sound is really frontal focused. Deep bass in the .1 LFE is a strong element, adding effective weight to the battle scenes, with gunfire mayhem and explosions. As such, action scenes sound quite dynamic and deliver a “punch” to the sonics. Throughout, dialogue is intelligible with generally good spatial integration. While surround envelopment is for the most part limited to an extension of the orchestral score, with also subtle sound effects, this is a powerful enveloping element that makes for a satisfying holosonic® presentation. (Gary Reber)