2017’s “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”, directed by Guy
Ritchie.
Starring Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Astrid
Bergès-Frisbey, Aiden Gillen, Michael McElhatton, and Neil Maskell.
As a boy, I fondly remember reading about King Arthur and
the Knights of the Round Table. Lead by the benevolent wizard Merlin, they had
multitudes of adventures when they weren’t defending their home of Camelot.
Exploring ideas of magic, valour, and romance, adventurous conquest was never
that far away from the table’s members.
Warner Brothers saw the opportunity for a franchise, and has taken the opener of the novels, “The Sword in the Stone” as inspiration, while hiring Guy Ritchie as director. Ritchie wastes little time in showing us the circumstances that lead to Camelot being under siege. The King (Eric Bana), fights and defeats an evil wizard, besting the opposing army. However, Bana’s brother (Jude Law), makes a deal with the devil, and has it defeat Bana to steal the crown. However, Bana’s son escapes to grow up on the streets, raised by prostitutes. He matures into Charlie Hunnam, a leader of thieves, who is eventually aided in his quest by a witch (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey). Things change when Hunnam claims his Excalibur, and Law finds a more than worthy adversary for the kingdom of Camelot, with an army of believers to boot.
Warner Brothers saw the opportunity for a franchise, and has taken the opener of the novels, “The Sword in the Stone” as inspiration, while hiring Guy Ritchie as director. Ritchie wastes little time in showing us the circumstances that lead to Camelot being under siege. The King (Eric Bana), fights and defeats an evil wizard, besting the opposing army. However, Bana’s brother (Jude Law), makes a deal with the devil, and has it defeat Bana to steal the crown. However, Bana’s son escapes to grow up on the streets, raised by prostitutes. He matures into Charlie Hunnam, a leader of thieves, who is eventually aided in his quest by a witch (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey). Things change when Hunnam claims his Excalibur, and Law finds a more than worthy adversary for the kingdom of Camelot, with an army of believers to boot.
Here, the decision to hire the ultra hip Ritchie as a
director appears baffling. Ritchie struggles with the unoriginal epic battle
scenes, creating chaotic confusion that’s at times difficult to understand, and
resembles fare already done better in “Lord of the Rings” and
“Matrix:Reloaded”’s burly brawls. Worse, are Ritchie’s other contributions,
such as opening credits that play out like a sitcom’s opener, and an overly
dramatic flashback sequence about a character’s day that plays like an outtake
of 2000’s “Snatch” in the days of Camelot- it just doesn’t work. Other than
Hunnam, the characters depicted here are disposable- a serious problem for a
potential franchise opener. Astrid Bergès-Frisbey’s witch character appears as
humbled at her magical ways as others are supposed to be, and it sucks to watch
Bana slum here. The most dynamic and
interesting father/son story isn’t from Bana and Hunnam- it’s from the Neil
Maskell character and his son, who steals the show with a tension generating
scene of high stakes, while not getting any of the credit. Fortunately,
“Arthur” wasn’t just critically hated, it also failed to earn back it’s budget,
making the future of the franchise cloudy. Probably would take a wizard to
foresee any sequels for the once and maybe not future king?
2/5
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