Transformers: Age Of Extinction 3D

In "Transformers: Age Of Extinction," once again humanity is facing extinction from a terrifying new threat. It's up to Optimus Prime and the Autobots to save the world. But now that our government has turned against them, they'll need a new team of allies, including inventor Cado Vaager (Wahlberg) and the fearsome Dinobots. (Gary Reber)

Special features on the dedicated Blu-ray Disc include the featurettes: "Above And Beyond: Bay On Action" (HD 10:45), "Evolution Within Extinction" (HD 02:02:50), "Just Another Giant Effin' Movie" (HD 10:03), "A Spark Of Design" (HD 15:24), and "T.J. Miller: Farm Hippie" (HD 19:43); trailers; and an UltraViolet digital copy.

The 1080p MVC 3D picture is reference quality, as is the 2D version's visual excellence. The 3D conversion was by Legend 3D. There is a lot of 1.78:1 IMAX footage, which emphasizes height in the frame. The 3D adds enhanced dimensional viewing pleasure, especially as it relates to natural depth perception and perspective. In fact, from the opening scene in space and throughout, depth is amazingly awesome. Prehistoric fields, ice caps, mountains, and ravines stretch for miles, as do the Texas landscapes. Complexities, especially with regard to the Transformers, come alive with greater realism. Positive parallax perfectly renders depth, while effective negative parallax intensifies the action sequences. Everything appears well balanced and realistic. The image projects excellent natural separation in every scene. People and object spacing create a natural sense of space, volume, depth, and dimensional space. Battle scenes on open landscapes and in the dense urban areas of Hong Kong are spatially descriptive and enhanced with all sorts of debris that floats within and out-of-screen. Resolution and clarity is excellent, with amazing fine detail revealed in facial features, hair, clothing, and object texture, especially with respect to the Transformers. Scratches and dents on the Transformers are clearly discerned. The color palette is strongly saturated, yet naturally portrayed. Hues are rich and vivid, with an overall warm tonality. Primary hues pop! Fleshtones appear naturally toned, though, at times over saturated. Contrast is excellent, with deep, solid blacks and revealing shadow delineation. This is a terrific 3D presentation that is always visually engaging, with a perfectly natural sense of depth and perspective that makes for a significant enhancement compared to the otherwise reference-quality 2D version. (Gary Reber)

This is the first Blu-ray release to be available with a Dolby Atmos® immersive soundtrack. Whether Dolby Atmos is available or not on your processor/AVR, select it as without its processing, the soundtrack will play in lossless Dolby TrueHD™. The following text accompanies the track: "This audio presentation is mixed specifically for Dolby Atmos-enabled receivers and speaker configurations to produce full, multidimensional sound without channel restrictions in the home—even overhead. Dolby Atmos is compatible with current-generation Blu-ray players. Also select this option for Dolby 7.1 TrueHD speaker configurations. For Dolby Atmos playback, set your Blu-ray player to bit stream out and disable secondary audio. For more information, visit Dolby.com." The Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is fantastic, with essentially 90 percent of the sonics presented at ear level, with plenty of dynamic energy and deep, solid bass extension in the sub-25 Hz region delivered by the .1 LFE channel. The soundfield is live with directionalized atmospherics and sound effects, as well as with an active orchestral music score, with strong aggressive surround envelopment. Transformers are panned throughout, for an extreme sonic experience. The added two channels in the 7.1 mix plus the Dolby Atmos height channels effectively enhance the sense of soundfield dimensionality and scale. Clarity in action scenes is superb, as well as in the more nuanced sequences, and contributes to the natural immersive realism. The battle scenes are spectacular in terms of their holosonic® dimensionality with the sounds of debris scattered throughout the soundfield. Every sound element plays in perfect harmony with each other, for an engaging adrenaline experience. The orchestral music score is nicely recorded with a wide and deep soundstage presence that extends to the surrounds and envelops. Dialogue manages to stay intelligible. and while at times is wanting in spatial integration, overall it is effectively natural sounding. This is an exceptionally well-crafted reference soundtrack, with sonic realism enhanced with immersive height sonics, which strengthens its otherwise dimensional attributes. (Gary Reber)