The Review at a Glance (max possible = 5 paws): Film: Video: Audio: Extras:
Studio and Year: 2004 Touchstone Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films MPAA Rating: unrated Feature running time: 139 minutes Genre: adventure/drama/action
Disc Format: BD50 Encoding: AVC Video Aspect: 2.35:1 Resolution: 1080p
Audio Format(s): English 5.1 PCM, English DD 5.1, French DD 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1 Subtitles and Captions: English SDH, French, Spanish
Starring: Clive Owen, Ioan Gruffudd, Mads Mikkelsen, Joel Edgerton, Hugh Dancy, Ray Winstone, Ray Stevenson, Keira Knightley, Stellen Skarsgard, Stephen Dillane, Til Schweiger Photography directed by: Slawomir Idziak Music by: Hans Zimmer Written by: David Franzoni Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
DVD Release Date: April 3, 2007
The Untold True Story That Inspired The Legend
MY TWO CENTS:
It’s hard to remain oblivious to criticism levied this movie. Michael Bay reportedly worked on the project for five years, but dropped out at the last minute due to budget concerns – not a good omen. I skipped the theatrical showing myself, but thoroughly enjoyed the film when I saw it on DVD. This time I enjoyed it even more.
With a cast that you appreciate more and more with time, a visual design that adds potency and imagination to the setting, some fun banter, a noble purpose, and battle sequences that are freshly plotted, large and lavish, Arthurian lore takes on a whole new fantasy, this time dipped in a shallow pool of reality that, while seemingly just as fanciful and romantic, adds an edge that most have never seen.
Parental Concerns:
The theatrical cut was rated PG13 for intense violence in battle sequences, once scene of sensuality, and some language. This cut adds roughly another 13 minutes to the film. If any of the above are affected, I think it would be the films violence and graphic nature.
VIDEO:
The only magic left in the Arthurian lore depicted in King Arthur, may very well be related to the visual design itself. A digital intermediate was created for this film, likely to allow the creators greater flexibility in tweaking the final visual design how they wanted. The end result is a very stylized, artsy, visual design that looks almost painted and picturesque.
Arthur is a very cold, dark, moody film, in temperament and design. Shot on 35mm Kodak Vision and processed in Super35, it has been engineered to achieve a unique look like no other. Cast in perpetual shadow, the video has a bold contrasting style, artificially bathed in localized pools of color in a manner that has proven in the past to elevate blacks a bit with tints of color. The same is true here.
Blacks are usually somewhat crushed, so they don’t look too washed. But, depending on the calibration and achievable contrast of your display, I’d recommend experimenting with brightness a little. If you notice the letterbox bars looking significantly deeper than the black background behind the opening credits, lowering brightness until both are about the same, may prove to your liking. You’ll lose some shadow detail. But, considering the manipulated nature of blacks in the film, it won’t be as dramatic as films with greater or more natural delineation in those areas.
The AVC encoding usually stays above 20mbs and peaks near 40mbs. It appears to do a very good job of providing enough bits to preserve the rather high levels of grain in the film without resorting to loss. Slight traces of edge enhancement can be observed around horses along the horizon, but nothing that should seriously detract without additional help from scaling to lower resolutions or sharpness settings a little too high.
AUDIO:
The box shows 24bit uncompressed audio. But what I checked was 16bit if I did the math right. Each of the DD tracks us the full 640kbps that standard DD is capable of, which is higher than the 448kbps max supported by DVD spec. Switching from the default lossy DD audio to lossless PCM in the main menu before the feature started, opened up a spacious soundstage that left nearly as big an impression as the video.
Nominated for a Golden Reel Award in sound editing, the sound design is incredibly spacious, with more massive special effects substituted for the immensely intricate articulation we have so often heard from PCM. But, detail isn’t what I’d call lacking. It’ just not always as meticulously crafted as some others. Dialogue virtually remains anchored front and center, and never lacks for intelligibility while the score blows out beside. The surrounds spaciously immerse you in light ambience, up until the moment of battle when the more bestial nature of the film comes to life. Horses gallop thru the surrounds much more ominously, carrying a low end that virtually underlines the sound design from beginning to end.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
All of the viable extras from the DVD are repeated in their original standard definition fidelity with the exception of the small gallery of stills that look gorgeously preserved at their full resolution here. The selection of extras were enjoyable despite their low res., including an alternate ending that’s as good if not better than the ending used for the final cut. For DVD the selection of extras would score about average or just above. But, I’m holding BD to a higher standard considering it has so much more potential once they start working with java more and hardware comes out that actually supports more of what the format can do.
FEATURES INCLUDE:
-director commentary
-17 minute making of
-15 minute roundtable discussion with Bruckheimer, Fuqua, screenwriter David Franzoni, Owen, Knightley, Gruffudd, Dancy
-alternate ending with optional director commentary
-pop-up trivia track
-producer’s photo gallery (HD)
Scene selection has been divided into 14 chapters.
WRAP-UP:
I can easily recommend double dipping on the BD. If you can stomach extra grain with your detail, this BD shows it all. The visual design has never been more revealing or looked more stunning and there’s no beating uncompressed sound.
By Chad Varnadore
Senior Editor
SYSTEM USED FOR THIS EVALUATION:
-Sony VPL-VW100 1080p SXRD LCoS projector
-92" Vutec Silverstar 16:9 aspect, fixed-panel screen with DIY 4-way duvetyne curtains/masking
-Panasonic RP82 DVD player (via SDI)
-Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blu-ray player (both video and audio via HDMI)
-Sony Playstation 3 secondary Blu-ray player (both video and audio via HDMI)
-Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD player (both video and audio via HDMI)(version 2.0)
-DVDO iScan VP50 (HD=HDMI/SD=SDI)
-Denon AVR-5805 THX a/v receiver configured for 5.2 and 7.2 channel playback
-Atlantic Tech. 370 THX speakers (monopole L-C-R mains and dipole side surrounds)
-Atlantic Tech. 350 THX speakers (dipole back surrounds for EX/ES playback)
-dual SVS PB2+ subs
-all held together by Bettercables interconnects and Canare 4S11 Star Quad speaker cable
-room has been acoustically treated/corrected with a combination of OC 703 rigid fiberglass absorption, light diffusion, and the aid of Audyssey EQ
I watched this last night and noticed a flaw that I havent seen mentioned. The foreign lang subtitle track is missing. Like when you have the subs off but a certain part of dialog is suppose to be subed. You have to turn on English to see what they are saying and then turn it off again after. Gets very annoying.
This problem has also been reported on Stargate but my version that I just bought the other day doesnt have the problem on my PS3. It is either a reprint or it doesnt happen on the PS3.
At any rate you guys should check it out and let me know. The first instance is at the end of the caravan attack on the priest when Arthur spares the life of the local blue guy. He taunts Arthur to strike him down with Excaliber.
Thoughts ?
Sony 60A2000
Sony STR-DA2ES
Sony PS3 Blu-Ray
Toshiba HD-A2, HD-A-35 HD-DVD
Maxx, I've honestly already forgotten whether or not they were there using the Panasonic. If memory serves, seems like I noticed the same thing when I watched it, but couldn't remember the DVD well enough to say whether it was intentional or not. I didn't see Arthur theatrically, and as I'm sure you know sometimes movies simply omit subtitled foreign language info, deeming it unimportant. If this isn't one of those and it is missing, rather than a player glitch, that indeed is a very significant oversight that Disney needs to be made aware of.
I'll look at it again to confirm it's not there on the Panasonic either. If you're certain their dialogue is supposed to be subtitled in the film, I'll pass it along to Disney.
"A man can never learn what he thinks he already knows." - author unknown
Edited by Chad Varnadore on 05-03-07 11:32 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
JamesS Full Upgradeitis
Posts: 1041
Loc: Virginia
Reg: 01-16-05
I would have never noticed that. With the CH setup, it's not uncommon for subtitles to be out of the frame. If they're not terribly important, the frame stays full sized. If it's the only way to understand the movie, then it gets squashed.
"If cartoons were meant for adults, they'd put them on in prime time." -- Lisa Simpson
maxx_75@yahoo.com I Bleed HT
Posts: 1423
Loc: Seattle, WA
Reg: 04-25-02
Well I find myself wanting to know if there has been a corrected reprint made because I have resently won this from a contest and want to know if the new version that i recieve is a new printing or not. That way I can trade my old one.
Sony 60A2000
Sony STR-DA2ES
Sony PS3 Blu-Ray
Toshiba HD-A2, HD-A-35 HD-DVD
Did anyone else get a chance to check out this issue on their copy. If it is on all of them which I think it is then Disney should be made aware of it so that they may reprint it. Hopefully trade out the faulty copies.
Sony 60A2000
Sony STR-DA2ES
Sony PS3 Blu-Ray
Toshiba HD-A2, HD-A-35 HD-DVD
