A young man raised in a brothel discovers he is the born king of
England after pulling the enchanted sword Excalibur from its stone. ACTION/FANTASY
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King Arthur:
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The story of King Arthur is one that will never quite get the cinematic retelling it deserves, much like Robin Hood or Peter Pan. Inevitably, an adaptation comes along that attempts to put its own spin on the classic tale, in hopes of creating something new. This rarely works and often just results in a misguided franchise reboot that will never get its franchise. Having said that, I do believe that King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a good movie. However, it suffers from the same problems that plague the continuous gritty reboots we've been seeing for years.
After putting his own signature spin on Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie tried to work the same magic with a dark retelling of the story of King Arthur, beginning with the drawing of Excalibur and his fight against the evil King Vortigern. The problem is that Ritchie didn't seem to want to tell a King Arthur story. He wanted to do Snatch in the Middle Ages. He blatantly ignores the key figures in the Arthurian legend and makes up his own, which wouldn't be a bad idea if he'd chose substance over style. Instead, we get poorly CGI'd birds and inexplicably enormous elephants and snakes alongside a gritty, reluctant Arthur and various new characters replacing literary icons like Gawain, Lancelot, Galahad, and even Merlin. Charlie Hunnam did a good job as Arthur, and Jude Law killed at as Vortigern, but I found myself caring little for any of the other characters. Despite my problems with the film, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is very exciting and a fun movie to watch, as long as you go in with low expectations and a complete lack of knowledge regarding the story of King Arthur. The fast-paced editing, the impressive score, and the gorgeous cinematography prove to me that Guy Ritchie did not phone it in and he truly wanted to tell a cool story. It just wasn't the story we all were expecting and wanted to see. |