Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Still Not Camelot

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 13, 2017

Warner Brothers' 4K strategy continues to baffle. There's little rhyme or reason to their selection of titles. Box office successes like The Conjuring 2 and Lights Out go begging, while bombs like Storks are handed a free pass to UHD. Comedies like The Nice Guys and The Intern are skipped, even though Vudu has them available in 4K with Dolby Vision. (How War Dogs ever slipped through remains anyone's guess, but maybe we should be thankful that Warner's UHD comedy embargo spared us 4K versions of Fist Fight and CHiPS.)

Even being a native 4K production is no guarantee: Sully and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them got UHD versions, but Live by Night was abandoned. And the latter's omission can't be explained by poor box office; if ticket sales were the deciding factor, we wouldn't have UHDs of Point Break and In the Heart of the Sea. In a recent head-scratcher, Warner has announced 4K versions of a direct-to-video DC animated film, Batman and Harley Quinn, as well as UHDs of three Peanuts TV specials originally created for broadcast in standard definition. How much can any of these benefit from super-duper high-resolution treatment?

The latest film to join Warner's roster of clunkers on UHD is Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. While the film's 4K presentation provides an upgrade over standard Blu-ray, courtesy of HDR, the difference is slight enough that it's hardly worth the extra investment, especially since the film itself remains problematic. King Arthur has also received a 3D Blu-ray release, which I have been told is impressive, but Warner chose not to provide any screeners. When they start doing the same with UHD, we'll know they're abandoning the format.

For my thoughts on King Arthur, please see the standard Blu-ray review. The film does not improve on repeat viewing. If anything, its incoherence becomes even more evident.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 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.)

According to the best available information, the digitally acquired King Arthur was finished on a digital intermediate at 2K, so that Warner's 2160p, HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD is yet another product of upconversion. Lacking an original high-resolution source, the 4K treatment derives its principal benefits from HDR encoding, which refines the differentiation of critical elements in the film's frequently dark frame. As is often the case with HDR, crowd scenes are a major beneficiary, both with digitally generated figures and with extras multiplied by CGI. For example, the horde that masses in front of Vortigern's palace to witness Arthur's execution is a sharper, more detailed and more individuated sea of faces on UHD. Improved contrast and highlights clarify many of the CG-enhanced action sequences, e.g. Uther Pendragon's daredevil attack on Mordred's front line in the film's opening; the UHD's image makes it easier to distinguish Uther from the chaotic surroundings and to follow his perilous progress. Other dark scenes are similarly enhanced; in Vortigern's meetings with the squid-like creature with which he's made a devil's bargain, the figures of the three witches who emerge from the tentacles are more vivid and better defined, and the sea of tentacles slithering around the illegitimate king are more visible and assertive.

The HDR colorist has retained King Arthur's generally dull palette of earth tones and grays, but several enhancements stand out. The film's frame is occasionally enlivened by reds and blues that provide contrast with the prevailing dimness, and these have been subtly intensified on the UHD. A recurring example is the blue cloak worn by the unnamed Mage dispatched by Merlin to assist Arthur in his hero's journey. (The cloak matches the glow of her eyes when she summons mystical forces.) Reds and purples at Vortigern's court or among the Vikings with whom he has struck an alliance are deeper and more pronounced. Yellow flames, both mystical and natural, burn more brightly, and HDR colorists seem to have mastered the trick of applying such improvements without generating the kind of artifacts that appeared in early efforts like Mad Max: Fury Road.

In short, King Arthur's UHD treatment accords with the results generally obtained from 2K sources: better, but not dramatically so.

[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.]

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The UHD of King Arthur features the same Dolby Atmos track previously reviewed.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

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

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some films have a visual style that lends itself to HDR, so that even without a 4K source, the advantages on UHD are eye-catching. A recent example is Sony's T2: Trainspotting, where HDR pumps up the expressive and hallucinatory colors and imparts finer and more complex textures to the urban landscape. King Arthur is a more typical UHD effort, demonstrating improvements that are noticeable but not striking. And the film itself remains a dud. UHD collectors should look elsewhere.