REVIEW: King Arthur: Legend of the SwordBy Quinn OxleyMay 12, 2017Charlie Hunnam sits up in bed. He disrobes. He obviously bulked up for this role. I turn to my brother, who’s in the theater with me, and I whisper, “I like this movie.â€
Jude Law does literally anything. He says something in that smoky English cadence. I turn to my brother again. “I really like this movie.â€
While Arthur Pendragon (Charlie Hunnam) has been raised into a caring yet rough-and-tumble young man in a brothel far from Camelot, his uncle Vortigern has taken on the role of king. Arthur has few memories of his royal lineage, until Excalibur - and a small cadre of rebels - begins to call out to him and convince him to take up arms against Vortigern’s unjust rule.
Sounds like your standard rite of passage period piece, right?
Well… that’s pretty much it.
But it’s a bit more interesting than that.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword boasts Guy Ritchie as its director, which sets the film up for distinction. Ritchie keeps the story moving pretty quickly by letting scenes run parallel, which allows him to indulge in his signature creative storytelling style. (I’m a little biased. Guy Ritchie is one of my all-time favorites.)
As well, I’ve never liked Arthur more. (Then again, Hunnam’s competition is he Arthur from Shrek the Third, so it’s not what I’d call stiff.) He didn’t feel like the cookie-cutter action hero; I felt as though Ritchie’s take was given a real character arc and a well-defined personality that Hunnam brought to life in a likable, intriguing way.
However, wonky CG and swooping, start-and-stop camera movements make the climactic combat sequences feel much like a video game’s QTEs, which is… disenchanting, to say the least. It also goes a little long. Noticeably long. But perhaps that’s just my short attention span talking.
Is it good, though?
It is good. As far as the story goes, don’t expect much more than your standard Arthurian fare, but Ritchie certainly makes the film worthwhile.
Rating: 6.5/10
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