Starring: Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd, Stellan Skarsgard
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Aspect Ratio/Video Resolution/Encoding: 2.35:1 Widescreen, 1080p
Audio: English 5.1 Uncompressed, English, French, Spanish; Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: Director audio commentary; two featurettes (“Blood on the Land: Forging King Arthur” and “King Arthur: A Roundtable Discussion”); alternate ending; photo gallery; trivia track; movie showcase; movie previews
Length: 139 minutes
Movie Rating: ***; AV Rating: ****
In 400 A.D., the Roman Empire extended across many nations, including that of Britain. In their efforts to conquer additional lands, the Romans marched into Sarmatia where they battled a courageous Sarmatian cavalry. The Romans, impressed with the Sarmatian’s fighting technique and weaponry knowledge, spared the people in return for the Sarmatian’s sons fifteen-year service as knights in the Roman Empire. As the fifteen years of service nears conclusion, the Sarmatian Knights, led by Arthur, shall be granted their freedom upon completion of one final task; that being the rescue of a Roman priest and his family from the Saxons. This film was billed as a more realistic portrayal of the Arthurian legend than has ever been presented before in the movies. For the most part, ‘King Arthur’ does focus more on the history and politics of the period rather than on the magical, mystical elements. The acting was solid and the battle scenes were realistic. However, while I applaud the effort to create a new take on a classic tale, this version never really becomes more than an average action movie and simply was not as engaging or interesting for me as the more traditional ‘Arthur’ tales. Recommended as a purchase for die-hard fans only and as a rental for the casual viewer.
In terms of HD video quality, this Blu-ray DVD is very good. Images are accurate with nice detail (other than a couple instances of softness) and dark blacks. Colors are vivid and bold with well-saturated hues. Picture defect mastering is commendable with no major flaws aside from highlighting a print scratch or two. The audio quality is excellent with the compressed English Dolby Digital 5.1 track serving as the basis for this review (there is a higher-res uncompressed PCM 5.1 track also available for those with the proper six channels of analog input). The soundtrack actively incorporates all of the discrete channels into the mix. Dialogue is natural sounding and properly positioned in the center channel. The surround channels are aggressively utilized for both the sound effects and the music soundtrack. The low frequency effects channel is deep and robust.
– Calvin Harding, Jr.
