Ant-Man and the Wasp 4K Ultra HD Bluray

Video Quality

Ant Man and The Wasp is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of Disney Buena Vista with a 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. The provenance of the shoot and DI are detailed in our original Ant-Man and the Wasp Blu-ray review, but suffice it to say the 2K DI attains significant new detail levels in this 4K UHD presentation. Kind of interestingly, however, these detail upticks are attained despite what is overall to my eyes a somewhat cooler looking palette throughout this 4K presentation. A lot of the special effects spectaculars that I've personally reviewed on 4K UHD tend to have their palettes pushed pretty aggressively in terms of saturation and highlights courtesy of HDR and/or Dolby Vision, but here, while suffusion is quite impressive, there's a kind of cool gray undertone that runs through a lot of sequences. That said, as mentioned above, detail and fine detail levels are at least incrementally improved, including everything from the ribbing on the many superhero outfits (Hank, Janet, Scott, Hope, et al.) to the pill on Cassie's red sweater or Scott's blue bathrobe. Even the little lines in Stan Lee's suit jacket during his cameo are more precise looking in this version. Depth is also often quite impressive, not only in the expected outdoor scenes, but even in the opening flashback where Hope's childhood home's burnished wood doors and ornately brocaded wallpaper can clearly be seen in the background. The one set of sequences where things look materially warmer in this 4K version are the "quantum realm" moments, where the florid pinks, oranges and purples are gorgeously suffused and have some interesting interstitial tones that aren't quite as apparent in the 1080p Blu-ray version. There is still one very brief flirtation with banding in this version, again when Scott is waving the flashlight around in an early scene as he plays with Cassie.

Credit: blu-ray.com

Audio Quality

Ant Man and The Wasp's 4K UHD presentation takes an already excellent sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track on the 1080p Blu-ray version and (literally) ups the ante at least intermittently with an occasionally effective Dolby Atmos track, something that should relieve some fans who have previously worried about some lackluster sonics on Disney and/or Marvel offerings. Kind of interestingly, Michael Douglas' opening narration seemed to hover overhead a bit more this time, but it's really in the "flitting wing" effects that the Atmos channels are often most noticeably engaged. Two times in the film, when characters kind of come out "trance" or "dream" states, there are huge whooshes of sound which clearly pan overhead in this version, along with a rumble of LFE. The same excellent discrete placement of effects I mentioned in our Ant-Man and the Wasp Blu-ray review are retained here, with several kind of goofily fun new Atmos additions, as in some of the "gloopy" sounds during Hank's trip through the quantum realm, which now also waft clearly overhead. All elements from dialogue to effects to score are delivered with nice fidelity and wide dynamic range on this very enjoyable track. I'm grading this at "only" a 4.5 since I personally felt there could have been more consistent engagement of the Atmos channels, though when they are engaged, the effects tend to often be quite impressive. But in terms of overall amplitude and LFE, I really had no complaints whatsoever.

4K Bluray details