6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.3 |
Robbed of his birthright, Arthur comes up the hard way in the back alleys of the city. But once he pulls the sword from the stone, he is forced to acknowledge his true legacy - whether he likes it or not.
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Eric BanaAction | 100% |
Adventure | 84% |
Fantasy | 58% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English DD=narrative descriptive
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Both creatively and financially, Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a disaster. Warner must have realized
it had a flop on its
hands by the time the first trailer premiered at 2016's Comic-Con, because the theatrical release was almost immediately
booted into the
following year. Then the studio kept shifting the film around the 2017 calendar, as if tinkering with the schedule has ever
salvaged a stinker. When
King Arthur finally appeared in May 2017, it was predictably shunned by audiences, earning less than its $175 million
production cost in
worldwide ticket sales (and that’s without accounting for the additional tens of millions that Warner must have spent on prints
and advertising). Add
one more to Warner’s growing list of recent box office duds.
Warner's Blu-ray release strategy seems to be mirroring the film's theatrical debacle, with Blu-ray screeners delayed until the
last minute (although
it’s unlikely that further bad reviews could
make the film's reputation worse than it already is). And while King Arthur is being released in
multiple formats, the studio has elected not to send out 3D screeners for review. When you've
lost as much money on a film as Warner has on King Arthur, I guess every little economy helps.
For King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Ritchie reunited with his Man from U.N.C.L.E.
cinematographer John Mathieson, who knows his way around shooting fantasy epics from
photographing Gladiator
and
Robin Hood for Ridley Scott and Pan for Joe Wright. The
production was shot digitally (on the Arri Alexa, according to IMDb), and Warner's 1080p,
AVC-encoded Blu-ray exhibits all the usual advantages of a big-budget studio production
acquired and completed entirely in the digital domain. Blacks are solid, detail and sharpness have
the clarity that contemporary viewers take for granted, and the image is free of noise, interference
or artifacts, with the exception of some minor banding so fleeting that it probably won't be
noticed. King Arthur is a dark film for the most part, and its palette has been heavily desaturated,
a phenomenon now so frequent in current filmmaking that it may be due for retirement. (I
suspect it's a boon to the effects team.) Eruptions of yellow flame and mystical light of various
hues are accentuated, as are the greens in forest and countryside (shot in Scotland) when Arthur
and his band are on the run. Still, even with the color leached out of the image, it's hard not to
notice that the wardrobe fabrics and many of the props look modern and machine-made. Even a
talented DP like Mathieson can't compensate for casually anachronistic production design.
Warner has mastered King Arthur with an average bitrate of 24.23, which is par for the course
from the theatrical group. The encode has been capably performed.
King Arthur arrives on Blu-ray with a Dolby Atmos track, and for once Warner's theatrical group hasn't wasted any digital real estate on a redundant DTS-HD MA track (see, e.g., Kong: Skull Island, The LEGO Batman Movie and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them). If the film itself weren't so mind-numbing, the Atmos mix would be an exciting experience, immersing us in attacks by huge armies and mystical beasts and plunging us into the hubbub of medieval village streets and forests filled with dark forces. The sound mixers make the most of scenes that involve magical intrusions, such as the alternate reality into which Arthur is swept when he wields Excalibur or Vortigern's encounters with the mystical squid in its underground moat (the latter speaks in many voices, which dart and weave around the room) or Arthur's encounter with the Lady of the Lake. Dynamic range is broad, bass extension is deep, and the dialogue is clearly rendered, although some of the accents may challenge American ears. In the film's early scenes, the dialogue appears to be slightly out of sync, but this issue disappears after ten minutes or so. The propulsive action score is the work of Daniel Pemberton, reuniting with Ritchie after The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The extras focus on technical and logistical elements, largely avoiding discussion of story, theme
or character.
King Arthur was supposed to inaugurate a six-film franchise, but those sequels have now been
scrapped. While the Blu-ray is technically proficient, the film is little more than a two-hour
compilation of stunts, effects and occasional fits of attitude. Not recommended.
2017
2017
with Instawatch
2017
2017
Limited Edition
2017
2016
2016
Director's Cut
2007
2014
Extended Edition
2012
2013
2014
2011-2019
2022
2016
2018
Extended Edition
2016
2012
2010
Theatrical Edition
2001
2011
Extended Edition
2014
2011
2011
Unrated Director's Cut
2007