After enjoying Guy Ritchie's take on Sherlock Holmes I had
high hopes for this new King Arthur film. The last attempt to do the Arthurian
legend on screen was 2004's "King Arthur" starring Clive Owen and
Keira Knightley and it could hardly be described as a roaring success, so there
was plenty of room for improvement. The trailer looked exciting and this film
certainly goes out of its way to entertain. Whereas the last "King Arthur"
took the route of realism, weaving a semi-historical account with a Roman
occupation and Picts, this time around it is firmly rooted in the fantastical.
The opening sequence sees a giant elephant rampaging around and we are straight
into a Dungeons and Dragons version of Britain with magic and mythical
creatures.
We begin with the assault on Camelot by Mordred, a powerful
mage, who is attempting to usurp the throne from Uther Pendragon. After
defeating Mordred Uther is betrayed by Vortigan. However, Uther's son Arthur
escapes. Many years later Arthur arrives back at Camelot and pulls his father's
sword Excalibur from the stone at the bed of a recently drained lake. This
confirms him as the true king and sets up our central conflict with the evil Vortigern.
Arthur is joined on his quest by several companions, including Sir Bedevere.
To begin with the positives the film has some great design
work, costumes, sets and creatures all look great. It is clearly not intended
to be historically accurate and from the opening scene they establish the
fantasy setting. Personally I liked this change. There are elements of the
Arthurian legend such as the lady in the lake, Merlin, the sword in the stone,
that suit a fantasy rather than historical drama and I appreciate the intent to
make an exciting world first and foremost. However, good intentions or no the
film has a number of serious flaws.
Mainly these revolve around script and editing. The story as
described above is pretty much all there is to it. There are very few plot
twists. Essentially Arthur has to fight Vortigen to gain his rightful throne.
It is just a fairly dull story. Compared to something like the "Lord of
the Rings", or Ridley Scott's historical films, it is simple to the point
where you can almost foresee every step of the journey. In those films there
are interwoven sub-plots. While there is more going on here, it is all so
inconsequential or uninteresting as to not be worth mentioning. One example is
Vortigern who gains power by killing a loved one and feeding them to an octopus
creature beneath the castle. This is somewhat interesting, but we don't really
get enough of Vortigern's story, other than that he lusts for power, to
understand why he is doing it. Similarly, there is a mage whose people have
been extirpated who might have a story to tell but this is likewise merely
nodded at vaguely. The script attempts humour but fails miserably. The
characters are basically the same mockney geezers from earlier Guy Ritchie
films simply transplanted into a different setting. None of the characters
evoke any sympathy from the audience and at times Arthur comes across as
arrogant and unlikeable completely destroying the sole purpose for the film
which is to set him up as a hero.
The editing is distracting. While it worked for Ritchie's
gangster films and even for Sherlock Holmes with his preternatural deduction
abilities, it is out of place in a historic fantasy to have so many quick cuts,
comedic edits, or weird effects such as rewinding scenes. The other fatal flaw
in editing as far as your investment with the film is the overuse and misuse of
flash-forwards. In particular the Shadow Island trials. These are shown in such
a way that if you are consider the film in a usual way they almost don't
happen. It is disorientating and seems as though the director doesn't
understand the medium of film. Basically we never “see” Arthur doing these
things, only him talking about doing them and then cut to after he has
completed the trial. This continues to the very end where we have another two
scenes spliced together in a way that doesn't make clear which is happening
first or second.
A ridiculous fantasy full of video-game logic, horrible
editing and script and no empathetic characters. Some fun ideas and effects but
a real struggle to enjoy the long stretches of tedium between the action
set-pieces.
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