I write about streaming a lot (like, a lot), but that doesn't mean I'm not a cinema guy – in fact, the reverse is true. Despite the rise of Netflix and Prime Video, I still try to get to the movies in person as much as I can, even if a movie will stream really soon (like Frankenstein or the new Knives Out, which I'm seeing this week).
So when Dolby offered to let me watch Wicked: For Good in its test screening room in central London's Soho, there was no way I'd say no. For one, the chance to see a movie as big as that even the slightest bit early is always nice, but my real interest was in hearing what Dolby's own in-house cinema might sound like.
It should come as no surprise at all when I confirm that I think it might have been the best sound I've ever heard in a cinema, even from a movie that wasn't necessarily all that innovative with its sound design. Dolby is probably now best known for its Atmos system, which is a useful label to tell you if you're getting the best surround sound available on a compatible home system.
In an actual cinema, it takes on a whole new level of meaning, with enough distinct separate speakers to really give you the most precise spatial audio possible, and you can hear the difference immediately. I've been to countless films in my life where a given screen's audio setup is just slightly out of whack, whether it's overtuned bass, volume that's just a little too high, or surround sound that isn't quite perfectly situated.
Those sorts of hiccups are inevitable when a screen gets used a few times a day over the course of years and years, but in Dolby's case, it obviously has control of every variable in the room. That means the sound is utterly pristine, and the big-budget spectacle of Wicked: For Good's musical numbers correspondingly sounded pretty much perfect.
There was also a fairly brilliant amount of precision – no lost audio, no muffled voice lines, nothing that left you wondering what you just heard, only for context to clarify it. It was a super crisp and clear presentation that made me a bit sad about how few cinemas can match it.
The disappointment for me personally was that its use of spatial sound in Wicked: For Good is actually quite limited, beyond a few sequences in which Elphaba flies with her monkeys in tow, so there weren't that many opportunities to hear exactly how precise this test environment could get.
I'd pay a lot of money to get back in that room to watch something like Dune, Interstellar, Gravity or the reissued The Lord of the Rings trilogy – anything with a genuinely god-tier Atmos mix, basically, and a bit more verticality for the overhead speakers to get to grips with.
Still, it's always nice to hear what directors might hear when watching cuts back, and what executives might hear when they're working out whether they flushed money away or backed a winner. It was a fascinating experience, no doubt.
