Exodus Gods and Kings 2014 4K UHD Blu-ray REMUX HEVC H.265

Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K Blu-ray delivers truly amazing video and audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release. An account of Moses' hand in leading the Israelite slaves out of Egypt, defying Ramesses II. Download film 4k 2160p. For more about Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K and the Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K Blu-ray release, see Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on February 23, 2016 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.

Exodus Gods and Kings Review
Exodus: Gods and Kings 4K is presented on 4K UHD with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.40:1. As this first wave of UHD releases comes out and is assessed, a whole interstitial area of source, DI and ultimate master formats become more and more important to understanding the potentialities of ultra high definition. According to the IMDb, the film was digitally captured at 5K, from which a 2K digital intermediate was prepared. This 4K UHD disc seems to be sourced from the same master as the Blu-ray, which I in turn assume was sourced from the DI. With that understanding in place, the uptick in detail on this new presentation is often quite astounding and noticeable right out of the gate. In fact, one of the first things I noticed is that the CGI work in the opening credits montage had a somewhat less realistic look than the Blu-ray, with a slightly more "cartoonish" appearance. But as soon as faces started showing up, especially those in close-up, there was an often staggering level of detail with regard to elements like pores and crags. Throughout this presentation, I was frequently near awestruck at the level of detail on elements like Moses' shawl or some of the ornate filigree on various props. The high dynamic range of this new presentation offers better support for the film's sometimes severe color grading, especially in the dark blue tinged sequences. To cite just one example, when the plague of locusts descends on Pharoah's palace, on the Blu-ray the back part of the frame is swathed in some pretty dark shadows, but on the UHD presentation individual bugs are clearly visible. The overall range of tones throughout this film is presented with greater gradations and what I'd term more fluidity. The variety of the palette is decidedly more pronounced on this 4K presentation, something that is immediately apparent when doing an A-B comparison with the 1080p Blu-ray version.

Some anomalies that were present and frankly pretty negligible on the Blu-ray presentation tend to look just a little bit more problematic on the new UHD presentation. Marty got his equipment a few days before the rest of us and therefore had a bit more time to peruse discs, and I thank him for some feedback he gave me when he watched Exodus: Gods and Kings. Probably the single biggest artifact Marty caught is some pretty bad but extremely tangential horizontal aliasing across a CGI temple at circa 1:22:56 (keep your eye peeled toward the right side of the frame). Marty also mentioned some edge enhancement issues at 41:40, though I personally think those are effulgent light halos due to the backlit source of that scene, as well as on Moses' sleeve at 44:45, which I did see, but which on my display with my current sharpness settings was virtually imperceptible. What I did notice throughout this presentation was near judder like instability during pans. It's never horrible and it tends to affect objects deep in the frame. Perhaps my upcoming ISF calibration will ameliorate this issue, and if so, I'll update the review once that has been accomplished.

Finally, a word about scoring. I'm giving this a 4, with the understanding that a "UHD 4" may well outpace a "BD 5", so to speak. These first reviews will be a work in progress, especially as we become more familiar with this "brave new (viewing) world" and especially since we're dealing with several
releases which were sourced from 2K DIs. As with Marty's assessment of The Martian 4K, I'd probably inch this up into 4.25 territory.