Uther Pendragon, King of the Britons – played by Eric Bana – has just fended off an assault on Camelot by the warlock Mordred. Unsatisfied with his brother’s rule, Vortigern (Jude Law) arranges a coup and utilizes dark powers in order to kill Uther and his wife. Their young son escapes the massacre and drifts away in a boat before being picked up by someone down river. Growing up in a brothel in the slums of Londinium, Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) learns to fight and survive on the streets but becomes plagued by nightmares as the years go by. When the lake next to King Vortigern’s castle reveals the mythical sword of the Pendragon bloodline, a call goes out for every young man in the kingdom to come to the castle and try to pull the sword from the stone. Knowing nothing about his true home, Arthur reluctantly goes to take part and ends up getting more than he bargained for.
This latest take on King Arthur from renowned director Guy Ritchie is a hard one to get to grips with. The interactions between the characters are fun and they weren’t afraid to throw a bit of fantasy into the mix when it came down to the story and the fight scenes. It’s all good craic, even if some of the confrontations do feel like they have been watered down for a 12A rating. I wouldn’t say no to an unrated director’s cut edition down the line. The weirdest thing about this King Arthur adaption is that the cast – while fun – feel out of place. It’s like a group of modern-day Guy Ritchie characters have been lifted from 2017 and dropped into medieval and mythological England. Everyone has a nickname, the dialogue is snappy and the camera cuts are rapid. Everyone talks as if they’re down the pub instead of merry ‘ol England. Another outlet described it as Snatch meets Lord of the Rings and that’s about as close as any of us are going to get to nailing it down a decent comparison. I liked it at first because I always enjoyed that snappy style but by the end it was really strange and jarring at times. Don’t even get me started about David Beckham’s cameo.
As much as I have to point out how different pieces of the film clashed, I did end up enjoying it in the end. The action set pieces were fun, the characters were enjoyable overall and there was enough going on that it did not overstay its welcome. You might struggle to find any award winning performances or enough reasons to make it worthy of a cinema ticket, but King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a slightly decent bit of medieval fantasy fun.
Hey Atkins! 