Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 23, 2016

You think Moses had it hard, what with all the slavery and plagues and wandering in the desert stuff? Yeah, well—Moses never had to reconfigure his home theater for 4K UHD Blu-ray like I just had to, so I’m calling it even. Several of the major studios/labels are releasing an interesting array of titles for this new format launch, with most slated for a March 1 street date. Best Buy got a number of Fox titles in as exclusives first, and my colleague Martin Liebman and I will be posting reviews of those in the coming days.

For my thoughts on the film, please see our original Exodus: Gods and Kings Blu-ray review.

Those either just having adopted or thinking about transitioning to UHD will also want to read Marty's fun and informative article here.

Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: The accompanying screenshots have been taken from the regular BD at 1080p resolution. We are still evaluating options for 2160p screenshots. The review will be updated to include full 4K UHD resolution screenshots at a future date..

Note 2: Because of the newness of this equipment, it will be a few more days until I have my display calibrated to ISF standards. After that happens, I will revisit this title and update the review if necessary.

Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K is presented on 4K UHD with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.40:1. As this first wave of UHD releases comes out and is assessed, a whole interstitial area of source, DI and ultimate master formats become more and more important to understanding the potentialities of ultra high definition. According to the IMDb, the film was digitally captured at 5K, from which a 2K digital intermediate was prepared. This 4K UHD disc seems to be sourced from the same master as the Blu-ray, which I in turn assume was sourced from the DI. With that understanding in place, the uptick in detail on this new presentation is often quite astounding and noticeable right out of the gate. In fact, one of the first things I noticed is that the CGI work in the opening credits montage had a somewhat less realistic look than the Blu-ray, with a slightly more "cartoonish" appearance. But as soon as faces started showing up, especially those in close-up, there was an often staggering level of detail with regard to elements like pores and crags. Throughout this presentation, I was frequently near awestruck at the level of detail on elements like Moses' shawl or some of the ornate filigree on various props. The high dynamic range of this new presentation offers better support for the film's sometimes severe color grading, especially in the dark blue tinged sequences. To cite just one example, when the plague of locusts descends on Pharoah's palace, on the Blu-ray the back part of the frame is swathed in some pretty dark shadows, but on the UHD presentation individual bugs are clearly visible. The overall range of tones throughout this film is presented with greater gradations and what I'd term more fluidity. The variety of the palette is decidedly more pronounced on this 4K presentation, something that is immediately apparent when doing an A-B comparison with the 1080p Blu-ray version.

Some anomalies that were present and frankly pretty negligible on the Blu-ray presentation tend to look just a little bit more problematic on the new UHD presentation. Marty got his equipment a few days before the rest of us and therefore had a bit more time to peruse discs, and I thank him for some feedback he gave me when he watched Exodus: Gods and Kings. Probably the single biggest artifact Marty caught is some pretty bad but extremely tangential horizontal aliasing across a CGI temple at circa 1:22:56 (keep your eye peeled toward the right side of the frame). Marty also mentioned some edge enhancement issues at 41:40, though I personally think those are effulgent light halos due to the backlit source of that scene, as well as on Moses' sleeve at 44:45, which I did see, but which on my display with my current sharpness settings was virtually imperceptible. What I did notice throughout this presentation was near judder like instability during pans. It's never horrible and it tends to affect objects deep in the frame. Perhaps my upcoming ISF calibration will ameliorate this issue, and if so, I'll update the review once that has been accomplished.

Finally, a word about scoring. I'm giving this a 4, with the understanding that a "UHD 4" may well outpace a "BD 5", so to speak. These first reviews will be a work in progress, especially as we become more familiar with this "brave new (viewing) world" and especially since we're dealing with several releases which were sourced from 2K DIs. As with Marty's assessment of The Martian 4K, I'd probably inch this up into 4.25 territory.

Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Somewhat interestingly, this first wave of Fox UHD 4K releases does not sport the newer audio formats (Dolby Atmos and DTS:X). For my thoughts on the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix, please refer to our Exodus: Gods and Kings Blu-ray review.

Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The UHD 4K disc ports over two of the three supplements of the original Blu-ray. The Blu-ray disc included in this set offers all three of the supplements detailed in the above referenced review.

• The Exodus Historical Guide is a "trivia track" of sorts, though calling events this epochal "trivia" seems a little odd.


• Commentary by Ridley Scott and Jeffrey Caine is an interesting and often quite philosophical set of ruminations by Scott and co- writer Caine.

Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As a film, Exodus: Gods and Kings is still somewhat of a slog (kind of like Moses and the rest of his "crew" in the desert, one might say), but the good news is this often stunning new 4K presentation delivers enough consistent eye candy to probably divert the rational part of your mind which might otherwise grow tired of the film's sometimes plodding plot mechanics. This offers a clear uptick in detail and especially shadow detail, something that sheds a whole new light on some of the film's most vigorously color graded sequences. Technical merits are first rate, and Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K comes Highly recommended.