Batman and Harley Quinn 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Batman and Harley Quinn 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Why?

The interrogative title of this review summarizes a multitude of questions about Warner's UHD strategy. Why do some of the studio's new releases qualify for 4K treatment, while others get skipped? It can't be just about box office, or we wouldn't have UHDs of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Point Break, Storks and The Legend of Tarzan. Meanwhile, the 4K DI of Live by Night languishes in the archive, and the far more successful Lights Out goes begging. An offbeat comedy like War Dogs gets the 4K blessing, but the equally offbeat (and superior) comedy of The Nice Guys gets ignored.

Why isn't Warner following the lead of studios like Fox, Universal and Lionsgate in prepping more of its recent films for UHD? Titles like American Sniper, The Conjuring and its sequel, Edge of Tomorrow, Godzilla, Sherlock Holmes and its sequel, Edge of Darkness and The Book of Eli are all likely candidates for 4K treatment, not to mention smaller films like Midnight Special. All of these were finished digitally, and while not all may not be suitable for HDR encoding, at least some could be upgraded to expand the studio's fledgling 4K catalog.

And why—why?—is the studio lavishing UHD treatment on simple line-drawn animation that provides minimal detail in the first place, so that there's nothing more to be revealed with 4K resolution and little or no enhancement to be gained from HDR encoding? Why is Warner releasing three Peanuts TV specials in 4K, which have to be scanned anew from negative, while it skips over an entire catalog of films better suited to UHD for which it has digital intermediates already sitting in its archives? (See above—and I could list many more.)

All of which brings us to Warner's 4K release of Batman and Harley Quinn ("B&HQ"), the thirtieth entry in Warner's and DC Comics' DCU Animated Original series, which marks a series first by being issued simultaneously on standard Blu-ray and UHD. Why should someone spend nearly twice as much for a 4K version of a 74-minute animated film with a stripped-down aesthetic designed for direct-to-video? (And yes, I know it had a brief theatrical release—for one night.) After watching both discs, my conclusion is that there isn't a good reason. Save your money.

Batman and Harley Quinn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

(Note: Screenshots accompanying this review have been captured from the standard Blu-ray. Additional captures from that disc can be found here.)

Watching B&HQ on Warner's 2160p, HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD, you might be pardoned for thinking that you made a mistake and inserted the standard Blu-ray disc instead. There is no visible uptick in detail, which is hardly surprising given the minimalist style of the animation. (Contrast the busy style of LEGO Batman, where 4K/HDR adds texture and brings out minutia crammed into the overstuffed frame.) B&HQ's 4K image is a textbook demonstration that increased resolution doesn't automatically improve an image. There has to be something to resolve.

Nor is the UHD disc's HDR encoding a meaningful benefit. The palette is essentially the same as the standard Blu-ray's, and while colors may be a bit more refined, the HDR encoding isn't a revisionist take that adds "pop" where there wasn't any before. The same brighter colors that stood out against the muted backgrounds stand out just as much—and no more—on both formats. The greens of the Louisiana swamp are just as green. Poison Ivy's hair is just as red. The blues of Nightwing's costume are just as blue.

About the only noteworthy difference that I could see between the UHD image and the Blu-ray was the absence of even slight banding on the former. Whether this is due to the difference in format or to superior authoring of the UHD disc is something I can't judge. If you're someone who's distracted by even the slightest instance of banding, then I guess the UHD is worth the extra cash. Otherwise, it's a waste of money.

[System calibrated using a Klein K10-A Colorimeter with a custom profile created with a Colorimetry Research CR250 Spectraradiometer, powered by SpectraCal CalMAN 2016 5.7, using the Samsung Reference 2016 UHD HDR Blu-ray test disc authored by Florian Friedrich from AV Top in Munich, Germany. Calibration performed by Kevin Miller of ISFTV.]

Batman and Harley Quinn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The UHD disc arrives with the same DTS-HD MA 5.1 track previously reviewed.

Batman and Harley Quinn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The UHD disc has no extras. The accompanying standard Blu-ray contains the extras listed here.

Batman and Harley Quinn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Warner has released a couple of "deep" catalog titles on UHD (Goodfellas, Unforgiven and the upcoming Blade Runner), and it is rumored to be working on several others. Half of the Harry Potter series has made it to 4K, with the rest reportedly in progress. But the studio's UHD division needs to take a hard look at its choices with respect to new and recent releases. It's not doing itself or the format any favors with titles like B&HQ that offer little or no opportunity to showcase UHD's advantages. Stick to the Blu-ray.