King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Blu-ray) (2017)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Featurette-Arthur with Swagger (9:41) Featurette-Sword from the Stone (18:49) Featurette-Parry and Bleed (5:44) Featurette-Building on the Past (14:00) Featurette-Inside the Cut: The Action of King Arthur (6:08) Featurette-Camelot in 93 Days (10:23) Featurette-Legend of Excalibur (6:05) Featurette-Scenic Scotland (5:33)
Rating
Year Of Production	2017
Running Time	126:13
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Guy Ritchie
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Charlie Hunnam Jude Law Astrid Berges-Frisbey Djimon Hounsou Aidan Gillen Eric Bana Neil Maskell Kingsley Ben-Adir Tom Wu Craig McGinlay
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Daniel Pemberton

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Atmos 7.1 French Dolby Digital 5.1 Italian DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired French Italian for the Hearing Impaired Spanish Dutch Danish Finnish Icelandic Norwegian Swedish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     The evil Mage Mordred from his high tower has dispatched his dark minions including huge elephant like creatures to conquer the last human bastion, Camelot, ruled by Uther Pendragon (Eric Bana). However, with the help of the magical sword Excalibur Uther defeats the invaders. But Uther’s brother Vortigern Jude Law has made a secret pact with evil and, made powerful by the three syrens after sacrificing his own wife, he kills Uther and takes the throne, although Excalibur is lost. Uther’s young son Arthur escapes in a small boat; swept down stream to Londinium he is found by prostitutes and brought up in a brothel.

     Years pass. Vortigern rules through the fear instilled by his black uniformed and black masked soldiers as his powers continue to grow. Meanwhile Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) has grown up on the streets, graduating from picking pockets to running a gang including members Back Lack (Neil Maskell) and Wet Stick (Kingsley Ben-Adir) which controls the docks and protects the prostitutes. Arthur has also learned fighting skills from George (Tom Wu), who runs a sort of gladiator school. Vortigern is, however, troubled by rumours of the pending return of the true-born king and when Excalibur is revealed by the receding waters, embedded in a rock, he orders all men of the appropriate age in his realm to be brought to Camelot to try to pull the sword from the stone. Of course Arthur, who has no idea of his true parentage, to the surprise of everyone including himself pulls the sword and is promptly captured.

     Vortigern decides on a very public execution of Arthur to lay the myth of the true-born king to rest. However, on the day of the execution Arthur is rescued by Sir Bedivere (Djimon Hounsou), who had been Uther’s army leader and had gone into hiding, and his men including Percival (Craig McGinlay) and Goosefat Bill (Aidan Gillen) assisted by a female Mage (Astrid Berges-Frisbey). Arthur initially wants no part in any rebellion against Vortigern, and indeed finds that he is unable to control Excalibur’s power, even going so far as to try to throw the sword into a lake, but the persuasive powers of the Mage, the murder of friends and images of the death of Uther at the hands of Vortigern gradually change his mind. The stage is set for a mighty conflict between good and evil for control of Camelot.

     After reimagining one literary figure as an action hero with some success in Sherlock Holmes (2009) it was perhaps no surprise that cowriter / director Guy Ritchie turned his eyes towards another legendary figure in King Arthur. His take on the material, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, is an origin story and while the sword in the stone Excalibur is a central part of the plot there is no Merlin (except for the fact that he sends a substitute), Guinevere or Lancelot although Ritchie does find space for characters named Percival, Bedivere and Kay (although Kay is female) amid characters named Goosefat Bill, Wet Stick and Back Lack. But mostly the standard Arthur myths are pretty much ignored and instead elements of the plot read more like a combination of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with the murder of the king and the presence of the three witches (or three “syrens” in this case) “advising” the usurper, Henry IV, where the reluctant heir to the throne is a bit of a rogue who hangs out with low lives and prostitutes in a London tavern / brothel plus The Lord of the Rings. Not that I have a problem with any of that; legends are made to be reimagined as long as the various parts of the plot coherently fit together. Which in this case they don’t as the story, not to mention the tone of the film, is all over the place.

     King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is one of those films that have vastly different scores on rottentomatoes.com with critics at 30% and the audience score more than double at 69%. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is exhilarating in places, spectacular in others and generally fast- paced entertainment. Ritchie throws in all those directorial tricks; snappy, intercut dialogue scenes, anachronistic speech patterns, overhead and sweeping camera angles, fast zooms, quick cutting, fast, slow and freeze frames and dizzying hand held camera, so the film certainly cannot be considered a normal looking period epic film.

     Indeed, although some miniatures were utilized and some massive sets built, including the Londinium set which looks spectacular, this is a very CGI heavy film, some of which looks so unrealistic as to take one out of the film. Thus there are the massive elephant creatures, weird syrens, soldiers dissolving in flames, collapsing towers and aqueducts, crowd scenes with tiny people stretching to the horizon much like The Lord of the Rings, a huge snake and the dark fighting creature Vortigern becomes, all shadows and flaming embers. Most of the cast make little impact, even Charlie Hunnam is overwhelmed by the spectacle and dodgy script, varying between cheeky bad boy (where he is good) and warrior, although Djimon Hounsou does add some gravitas to his role and Aiden Gillen (Littlefinger in Game of Thrones) is also decent. And while I quite like Jude Law in some things, he is generally a low key actor and here he lacks menace, being more like a petulant child.

     While King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is rated MA this is for “Strong coarse language”. Some of the film’s images and themes can be quite disturbing, such as the giant snake or the sacrifice of family members to the syrens, but it is generally a light hearted entertainment where the action is not bloody or gory; there are no severed limbs or lopped off heads to be seen. It is almost as if Ritchie, in both script and the tone of the film, could not make up his mind just what kind of film he was trying to make.

Video

     King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     The print is pretty much as one would expect of a recent, CGI heavy film. Detail in interior sequences is strong, and close-ups firm. Blacks are solid and shadow detail impressive when the camera is not flying about or when GCI effects are flashing across the screen. The effects are strong enough but often move quickly which, with fast cutting, means that some sequences become a blur. There are a number of dark and gloomy scenes, with a dominant grey palate and muted colours but in the forests, for example, the greens are vibrant. Skin tones are natural, contrast and brightness consistent. Marks and artefacts were absent.

     English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available plus a range of European languages.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The principal audio is English Atmos (which defaults to Dolby TrueHD 7.1), there are Spanish and French dubs in Dolby Digital 5.1, an Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1 track plus English descriptive audio utilising a male voice (Dolby Digital 5.1).

     I am not set up for 7.1 audio but can say that in 5.1 this is a loud and enveloping track with the crash of stonework, buildings and the like, the yells of battle, swish and clash of weapons, flight of arrows, creature effects such as when the snake clears the throne room or Arthur is tested in the dark place, crowd noises in the city and music. The subwoofer added obvious rumble and boom to the elephants’ tread, the destruction and most other sequences. Through all this the dialogue was clear and easy to understand.

     The score by Daniel Pemberton was epic when it needed to be and added Celtic tunes as well as a ballad The Devil and the Huntsman performed by Sam Lee.

     I did notice a slight lip synchronisation slip in a line of dialogue by Jude Law but otherwise there were no issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     These featurettes contain concept art, film clips, on-set behind the scenes footage including grey screen and wire stunts, the cast and crew fooling around on set and comments from a vast range of crew and cast including director Guy Ritchie, screenwriters Joby Harold and Lionel Wigram, thirteen of the cast including Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Annabelle Wallis, Neil Maskell, Djimon Housou, Eric Bana and Freddie Fox, stunt coordinators and stunt performers, makeup, hair, costume and production designers, the location manager and the art department. There is some interesting on-set footage that is certainly not sanitised, despite the constant “bleeping” out of swearwords, which includes Ritchie being quite blunt. Some footage and comments are repeated in different featurettes, but not a lot.

Arthur with Swagger (9:41)

     Creating a different kind of Arthur legend, the personality of Hunnam and what he brings to the role.

Sword from the Stone (18:49)

     Ritchie’s different take on the Arthur legend, the visual design and look of the film, a justification of the fantasy and magic elements within the film.

Parry and Bleed (5:44)

     The stunts and fight choreography.

Building on the Past (14:00)

     The designing and construction of various sets including Londinium, the brothel, throne room, Syren’s cave and the Oaks cave.

Inside the Cut: The Action of King Arthur (6:08)

     The development of the stunts and fights and the input and impact of stunt coordinator Eunice Huthart.

Camelot in 93 Days (10:23)

     A brief production diary from Day 1 of filming. Includes a comment from David Beckham all costumed for his cameo.

Legend of Excalibur (6:05)

     The design and making of the iconic sword, together with a look at some of its powers.

Scenic Scotland (5:33)

     Messing around on the Scottish locations.

     This release is identical to the Region A US Blu-ray of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword including the FBI warning (except for some different subtitle options).

     I enjoy sword and sorcery films, which is pretty much what King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is. But they need to provide a coherent alternative fantasy world and this is where director Guy Ritchie’s epic take on the legend in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is all over the shop. While parts are spectacular and entertaining, the dodgy CGI, uneven plot, bloodless action and a villain without menace mean that the parts are better than the whole. While I am reluctant to admit it, this time I go with the critics!

     The video is fine, the audio enveloping and loud. The extras are decent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall