Birds Of Prey And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harvey Quinn 4K Ultra HD

In "Birds Of Prey And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn," when Gotham's most nefariously narcissistic villain, Roman Sionis (McGregor), and his zealous right-hand, Zsasz (Messina), put a target on a young girl named Cass (Basco), the city is turned upside down looking for her. Harley (Robbie), Huntress (Winstead), Black Canary (Smollett-Bell and Renee Montoya's (Perez) paths collide, and the unlikely foursome have no choice but to team up to take Roman down. (Gary Reber)

Special features include a Birds Eye View Mode; six featurettes: "Birds Of Prey: Birds Of A Feather" (HD 08:26), "Grime And Crime" (HD 10:38), "Wild Nerds" (HD 06:03), "Romanesque" (HD 04:57), "Sanity Is Sooo Last Season" (HD 07:39) and "A Love, Skate Relationship" HD 04:29); a gag reel (HD 02:02); upfront previews and a Movies Anywhere digital code.

The 2.39:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD Dolby Vision/HDR10+/HDR10 picture, reviewed on a Sony Bravia Z9D 4K Ultra HD HDR display, was photographed digitally in anamorphic i/ Scope using the Arri Alexa Mini and Arri Alexa SXT camera systems and sourced from a 4K master Digital Intermediate format. Color fidelity is excellent and exhibits a wide color gamut of nuanced hues. Hues are naturally rendered with vivid saturation. At times, including the animated prologue, colors pop, revealing strong primaries. Fleshtones are natural throughout, The production design is imaginative and visually engaging, and supported with vivid colors. As well, HDR contrast is excellent with deep blacks and revealing shadow delineation. White levels are never exaggerated and provide great highlight contrasts. Resolution is excellent with fine detail shown in facial features such as lines, skin pores, scars, beards, stubble and hair. Clothing and outfits are finely detailed as well as object texture throughout the varied settings. WOW! segments are from 03:34 to 08:00, 42:28 to 35:36, and 01:23:52 to 01:30:30. This is an appealing colorful movie whose imagery is clear and crisp. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is dynamic sounding when its level is boosted to proper reference level. The sonics are comprised of varied sound effects and atmospherics. Hand-to-hand brawls are effectively accentuated with hard-hitting sharp, powerful deep bass transients. Sound effects, which are numerous and often directionalized and panned throughout the soundfield, are often strong elements. Explosions are intense and bass extends to sub-25 Hz frequencies. The .1 LFE channel is quite active as are the surrounds. The orchestral/synthesizer score tends to play more as a background sound element but occupies a wide and deep soundstage that extends to the surround field. Additionally, there is frequent use of pop songs interspersed throughout. Dialogue, which is often ADR-produced, is a primary sound element that sounds very forward and at times, extends to the surrounds.

The Immersive Sound element is comprised of music extension, sound effects, such as explosions and a fire sprinkler downpour, and atmospherics, such as environmental nuances, and a couple of seconds of dialogue. This was a soundtrack that was well suited to an aggressive use of the height layer but failed to fully develop.

This is a wild affair in terms of sound effects and holosonic® energy that as the movie progresses gets more and more intense. Also atmospherics provide compelling spatial dimensionality. Overall, this is a powerful soundtrack that fans of Gotham's colorful characters will love. (Gary Reber)