Gods of Egypt 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Gods of Egypt 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Alex Proyas’ films (The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot ) can encounter narrative stumbles, but they are almost always a visual (and sonic) treat, and that’s certainly the case with Gods of Egypt, a film which received some pretty blistering reviews during its theatrical exhibition, but one which Lionsgate is gracing with a number of simultaneous releases, in 2D, 3D, and 4K UHD.

Gods of Egypt 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Gods of Egypt is presented on 4K UHD with an HEVC/H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.40:1. As I mentioned in the previous reviews of the standard Blu-ray releases, while (according to the IMDb) the film was captured at 6K, the DI was finished at 2K, which seems a somewhat head scratching decision. Perhaps for that reason, while there is certainly an uptick in detail and (courtesy of HDR) a more prevalent gradation of tones in the palette, the overall impact of the UHD presentation is perhaps less mind boggling than I expected, or at least hoped. There's a beautiful increase in detail of practical items like props and especially costumes, where, to cite just two examples, the fine weaves of Zaya's first dress (before she changes into the stolen outfit) or, later, Ra's robes, are precisely rendered. Even the make-up (or is it post-production CGI?) on Geoffrey Rush's skin in his guise as Ra looks considerably more mottled and textured in this new iteration. The increase in tonal variance casts a subtle new "light" on several sequences, with the early love scene between Bek and Zaya looking just slightly more pale green than in the standard Blu-ray version. Later sequences that employ more aggressive color grading offer a nice range of tones in both the kind of unusual ruddy red-brown hue and the more traditional deep cobalt blues that are used. As both I and several of my colleagues here have mentioned in previous UHD reviews, the increase in resolution tends to give a somewhat more artificial cast to the CGI, and that's especially apparent in moments when Ra bursts into flames. The softness of the blue screened backgrounds has not been noticeably sharpened in this new version, but that tends to add to the kind of dreamlike ambience of the film. Finally, the very brief quasi-aliasing I noticed on elements like wings was less prevalent in this new version, but still noticeable for the (extremely) eagle eyed.

Gods of Egypt 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 4K UHD disc utiizes the same DTS:X audio mix featured on the standard Blu-ray releases linked above. For the record, the 4K UHD repeats the same error of listing the Spanish 5.1 and English 2.0 mixes as being DTS-HD Master Audio when they are in fact DTS.

Gods of Egypt 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements of any kind on the 4K UHD disc. The standard Blu-ray included in the package features the same supplements as the standalone Blu-ray.

Gods of Egypt 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I was frankly hoping that this new 4K UHD version of Gods of Egypt would knock my socks off, since the visuals of the film are one of its chief calling cards. This release undeniably looks fantastic, but it never really blew my mind the way I was hoping it would. This is still an interesting release for early adopters since it features some fantastic VFX and a really winning soundtrack. The film is kind of a crapshoot, but for those wanting some mindless entertainment with lots of eye (and ear) candy, Gods of Egypt 4K may fill the bill quite nicely.