New Mutants, The 4K Ultra HD

In "The New Mutants," five young people who demonstrate special powers are forced to undergo treatment at a secret institution—allegedly to cure them of the dangers of their powers. But it's soon clear that their containment is part of a much larger battle between the forces of good and evil. (Gary Reber)

Special features include commentary with Director Josh Boone and Bill Sienkiewicz, seven deleted scenes (HD 10:52), the featurettes "Origins & Influences With Legendary Marvel Illustrator Bill Sienkiewicz" (HD 07:27) and "Meet The New Mutants" (HD 07:16), the theatrical trailer, and a Movies Anywhere digitial code.

The 1.85:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD HDR10 picture, reviewed on a Sony Bravia Z9D 4K Ultra HD HDR display, was photographed digitally using the Panavision Millennium DXL camera system and sourced from a 4K master Digital Intermediate format. Color fidelity is naturally rendered with a warm and rich color palette with tints of blues and grays. Firey explosions are realistically orange in hue. Fleshtones are natural in appearance. HDR contrast is excellent with naturally embodied white levels and highlights, deep blacks and varying degrees of revealing shadow delineation. Resolution is excellent with fine detail exhibited in clothing, object textures, and black levels. The interiors in the mutant hospital are sharp and clear as well as exteriors. Overall, this is a rather dark but compelling visual experience that should be viewed in a blackened home theatre environment. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is quite dynamic sounding, especially during the opening tornado scene and the closing scene with the battle with the Demon Bear, as well as short duration action segments in between. Deep powerful sub-25 Hz bass is explosive. Surround energy is prevalent throughout, even in the more subtle mutant hospital scenes. Surround directionality also is effective, like voices and doors. The orchestral score spans the soundstage, extending to the surrounds. Dialogue is generally well integrated spatially.

The Immersive Sound element is rather limited to various sound effects with no extension of the music to the height layer. Sound effects include wind, swirls, and swishing and distorted watery and ringing sounds as well as thunder. This is a very weak height layer, which ignored numerous opportunities to enhance spherical dimensionality.

This is a generally satisfying holosonic® presentation sans an effective Immersive Sound element. (Gary Reber)