Spider-Man: No Way Home – 4K Blu-ray Review
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Sony Pictures | 2021
PG13 | 2hrs 28 min | Action | Comic Book | Adventure | Fantasy
HD | 1080P | DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Upscaled 4K | 2160P | Dolby Vision | HDR 10 | Dolby Atmos | Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Aspect Ratio 2.39:1
Staring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, Tony Revolori, Benedict Cumberbatch
Directed by: Jon Watts
Ratings & Reviews
Please see here for my comments on reviewing movies.
My ratings are simple being marked out of a maximum of 5+. My reviews are biased towards the technical production aspects of the film with brief comments about the story line. Extras, sorry, that’s just not my ‘bag’.
So what did the 7.1 soundtrack sound like? Excellent, and the 4K HDR10 video? Reference class.
Entertainment: 5-
Video: 5
Audio: 5-
Technical Review – Upscaled 4K UHD HDR10
Spider-Man: No Way Home was captured digitally using the ARRIRAW codec at 4.5K using Arri Alexa LF and Mini LF cameras with Panaspeed lenses. It was finished as a 2K Digital Intermediate at the 2.39:1 aspect ratio and then up-converted and graded for HDR for this 4K release in both Dolby Vision and HDR10. This triple-layer BD100 disc has been well authored and shows no excessive use of noise reduction or edge sharpening and no obvious compression artifacts. The package also contains the HD version with DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 and a redeemable digital code.
The overall image brightness and clarity are excellent, with an abundance of crisp detail and plenty of refined texturing. Clothing, threads and facial close-ups provide excellent detail and definition with natural skin tones and accurate rendition of pores, facial stubble, wrinkles, eyelashes, hair strands, cuts, bruises and features without any undue exaggerations. From the threads in Spider-Man’s costumes, its metallic gold textures to the sheen off weapons, tentacles and vehicles, all look impressive. Even the wider city shots with their bustling activity and chaos are nice and sharp. Heavy-duty CGI and special effects integration are very good, blending well with the real action shots and never looking soft. Effects like explosions, flying debris and the electrical storms are well integrated into the live action with no distractions.
Deep blacks abounded throughout, were noise free, and showed excellent low level and shadow detail as found in all the night and various room sequences. Peak whites and overall highlights provided clean detail with no clipping, like the suns glow as it bounces of cars and buildings, the lights of cars in the night and the high sheen off various metallic surfaces. All providing a terrific dynamic contrast range and enhancing visibility of objects in both interior and exterior shots all helping to create a good depth of image.
Color fidelity is excellent throughout with well saturated primaries and secondaries, all having good color depth and density, hues are vibrant and accurate. Virtually every color of the rainbow appears at some point in the movie. From the greens of the Doc Ock and Green Goblin, the electric blues of Electro and the various shades of reds, blues and golds of the Spider-Man costumes and Doctor Strange’s cape, to the yellows, reds and oranges of explosions and the grays and browns of the various cityscapes. All were wonderfully captured.
This image is excellent on all fronts, providing a solid HDR10 reference image.
Audio – Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Spider-Man: No Way Home provides a Dolby Atmos primary audio track that defaults to a stellar Dolby TrueHD 7.1 in my system. I found the track highly engaging during all action scenes with solid bass and impactful dynamics.
The overall sound presentation is dynamic, with good sub involvement and action from all surrounds. The soundstage is deep and wide, and surrounds are constantly active with ambience, directional cues and movement from flying webs, zipping bullets and crackling electricity to the bombastic racket of explosions, collapsing buildings and shots fired. Effects placement are accurate and natural, with movement in both the rear and side surrounds together with the general environmental and room acoustics effects consistently pulling you into the many locals and environments, from silence to bullets fired, flying weapons, crowds shouts and screams and rain, all filling the surrounds helping to pull the listener further into the scene and keeping you engaged at all times.
Sub action is not extreme but it is does provide a solid and extended bottom end. Certainly making itself felt during most of the action sequences, having good punch and muscle from the gun shots, explosions, car mayhem and collapsing buildings. Imaging continuously feels broad and expansive as action moves on and off-screen. Dialogue is always crystal clear and well detailed with solid front-center imaging and prioritization, even during the more intense sonic moments with the mid-range continually providing good clarity and detail no matter how loud and aggressive the action.
Complementing the movie throughout its entire length, the films score, composed by Michael Giacchino, also featured music from several other Spider-Man movies and various pop and classical numbers all nicely flushing out the soundscape. Hitting a good balance between the dialogue and effects the score envelopes the whole listening environment with light spill into the surrounds and effortless integration within the soundstage.
Just a little more dynamics from bullets fired, explosions, fight impacts, crashes and bottom end slam would have pushed this soundtrack right into reference class. Never the less, it is a great soundtrack and an excellent pairing with the reference class video.
Story Overview
Carrying on from where Spider-Man: Far From Home left off, Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) whole world is turned upside down after his confrontation with his old enemy and super-hero charlatan Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who posthumously reveals his identity to the public. Peter, now on the run, has no desire to have the entire world know his identity and surrounded and plagued by the public he turns to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for advice and help, hoping that he can make the whole world forget who he is.
Doctor Strange conjures up a spell to rid the world of Peters memory but it goes horribly wrong at the last minute and shattering the expanding multiverse the corrupt spell brings monstrous villains back to this world. With Strange trapped back in the multiverse Peter, together with his two friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batolon) must go up against five new deadly enemies; the Green Goblin (Willem Dafo), Dr. Octopus (Alfred Molina), Electro (Jamie Foxx), the Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church). Not knowing which way to turn Peter sees no way home, but fear not, another pair of helpers are on their way thanks to MJ and Ned.
My 2 cents
I am not a Spider-Man follower and despite its length I really enjoyed this movie. It had a good story line that was complimented by reference class video and excellent audio. I am sure that all Marvel fans will thoroughly enjoy this movie.
Makes sure that you watch this movie ALL the way to its end past the closing titles as there is an Easter egg waiting for you!
Purchase from Amazon here.
