This version of the Arthurian legend is all Hollywood.
Video:
The 1080p picture looks very good, transferred to a 50-gig dual-layered disc using AVC/MPEG-4 technology and presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. There's a very slight graininess, but otherwise the palette--which is heavy on blues and greens and misty grays in the nature scenes--looks rich despite low-light conditions. Black levels are strong, and so there's plenty of detail; though some of the cave sequences have a little edge distortion, it's not something you'd notice unless you're looking for it.
Audio:
I know PCM takes up more space, but I wish Sony hadn't apparently abandoned it for Dolby TrueHD, which has always struck me as less dynamic. That said, the sound is still pretty good, with a nice balance between the dialogue, music, and effects. The bass is strong without being overpowering, and quiet sounds are tracked pretty convincingly. The TrueHD is also available in French and Portuguese, with additional options in Spanish and Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. Subtitles are in French, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and English SDH--but as usual, bonus features have a much more limited range of options.
Extras:
Three deleted scenes take up less than 10 minutes, and aren't terribly revealing, and to be honest I didn't find the other short features all that compelling. "The Quest for Camelot" has the worst sound of any bonus feature I've watched. I sounds like an old monaural record, or as if Zucker was talking to us via cell phone from his cinder-block basement. It's a clip-heavy feature, too, with actors interviewed on the set and uttering basically "here's what the movie is about" promo stuff. "The Creation of a Kingdom" focuses on production design, and is a little more interesting, especially given the decision to go Hollywood with this one. "Knights in Training" offers John Clements, director of the Association of the Renaissance Martial Arts, who talks about the actuality of historical medieval combat and the fact that Hollywood always gets it wrong. "Personally," he told DVD Town, "I found this film's combat sequences quite poor, even by the low standards of most movies."
The other bonus features are two commentary tracks, one featuring director Zucker and producer Hunt Lowry offering fairly standard remarks, and the other by a scholar who isn't credited on the cover notes or even on the menu, but out to be. I didn't catch the name of this Canadian academic as he introduced himself, but his commentary was honest and peppered with wry jokes. Example? As someone picks up the equivalent of a Saturday night special, he quips, "That's a very light crossbow." Meaning, of course, that they didn't have crossbows as small as a Derringer. He points out what's the result of all that meticulous research and what was added to jazz things up. Breaches of etiquette in courtly love, comments on the real text that this was based on, and areas where the film deviates sharply from "truth" are all pointed out with the same wry tone. It's an engaging commentary, and you have to give credit to Zucker for going along with a track like this that takes him to task a number of times.
Bottom Line:
Some sequences are utterly fantastic in a positive way, while others are fantastic in the "I can't buy this" way. But as with any action film or romance, if you don't think about it too much, "First Knight" will provide an engaging evening of escapism--especially if you enjoy glossy Hollywood treatments. And this version of the Arthurian legend is all Hollywood.
The 1080p picture looks very good, transferred to a 50-gig dual-layered disc using AVC/MPEG-4 technology and presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. There's a very slight graininess, but otherwise the palette--which is heavy on blues and greens and misty grays in the nature scenes--looks rich despite low-light conditions. Black levels are strong, and so there's plenty of detail; though some of the cave sequences have a little edge distortion, it's not something you'd notice unless you're looking for it.
Audio:
I know PCM takes up more space, but I wish Sony hadn't apparently abandoned it for Dolby TrueHD, which has always struck me as less dynamic. That said, the sound is still pretty good, with a nice balance between the dialogue, music, and effects. The bass is strong without being overpowering, and quiet sounds are tracked pretty convincingly. The TrueHD is also available in French and Portuguese, with additional options in Spanish and Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. Subtitles are in French, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and English SDH--but as usual, bonus features have a much more limited range of options.
Extras:
Three deleted scenes take up less than 10 minutes, and aren't terribly revealing, and to be honest I didn't find the other short features all that compelling. "The Quest for Camelot" has the worst sound of any bonus feature I've watched. I sounds like an old monaural record, or as if Zucker was talking to us via cell phone from his cinder-block basement. It's a clip-heavy feature, too, with actors interviewed on the set and uttering basically "here's what the movie is about" promo stuff. "The Creation of a Kingdom" focuses on production design, and is a little more interesting, especially given the decision to go Hollywood with this one. "Knights in Training" offers John Clements, director of the Association of the Renaissance Martial Arts, who talks about the actuality of historical medieval combat and the fact that Hollywood always gets it wrong. "Personally," he told DVD Town, "I found this film's combat sequences quite poor, even by the low standards of most movies."
The other bonus features are two commentary tracks, one featuring director Zucker and producer Hunt Lowry offering fairly standard remarks, and the other by a scholar who isn't credited on the cover notes or even on the menu, but out to be. I didn't catch the name of this Canadian academic as he introduced himself, but his commentary was honest and peppered with wry jokes. Example? As someone picks up the equivalent of a Saturday night special, he quips, "That's a very light crossbow." Meaning, of course, that they didn't have crossbows as small as a Derringer. He points out what's the result of all that meticulous research and what was added to jazz things up. Breaches of etiquette in courtly love, comments on the real text that this was based on, and areas where the film deviates sharply from "truth" are all pointed out with the same wry tone. It's an engaging commentary, and you have to give credit to Zucker for going along with a track like this that takes him to task a number of times.
Bottom Line:
Some sequences are utterly fantastic in a positive way, while others are fantastic in the "I can't buy this" way. But as with any action film or romance, if you don't think about it too much, "First Knight" will provide an engaging evening of escapism--especially if you enjoy glossy Hollywood treatments. And this version of the Arthurian legend is all Hollywood.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]23187[/release]