King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is the latest retelling of the King Arthur story, this time brought to us by Guy Ritchie.
In this version Arthur is portrayed by Charlie Hunnam and is an origin story of how he became king of England. Because of this, the Knights of the Roundtable are barely there. But surely there will still be other parts of the lore? Nope! While the sword in the stone is in there, the Lady of the Lake is barely there, Merlin is only referenced, the full Knights are not assembled, and several other characters are missing. All of this makes it seem like sequel setup. This doesn't mean the film is not good. Everything else is what makes the film bad.
The story is as familiar as can be, think Hamlet with magic. This could make for an interesting film, Hamlet with animals certainly was, but it all feels completely unoriginal. The sets, set pieces and characters feel derivative of every fantasy project of the last 30 years. Action scenes reminded me of Lord of the Rings, Jude Law's King Vortigan had an Emperor Palpatine sense to him, it looked like they snuck onto Game of Thrones sets between seasons, and Hunnam's Arthur is every bland hero ever. In fact, the only original thing brought to the film is Guy Ritchie's style. But style doesn't make a film good.
I kinda like Guy Ritchie. I love his Sherlock Holmes films, The Man from U.N.C.L.E is really fun, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was influential for a lot of British hard man crime films. Yes, I have heard horrible things about that Madonna movie and Revolver, but I've never seen them. It's a shame that King Arthur does not live up to the expectations I have from the films of his that I have seen.
I will say that the film looked good and I rather enjoyed Daniel Pemberton's music. But can we all agree to not let David Beckham act again, or at least until he has had a lot of lessons. Deadpool was not wrong about him.
In short: This latest take on King Arthur fails to entertain or come up with much original content.
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