King Arthur: Legend of the Sword Review
As King Arthur: Legend of the Sword was released in the US a week before the UK, I couldn't escape the headlines, stating that this film was a massive waste of time. I have to be honest I was shocked to hear this, as Guy Ritchie films are usually well received across the board, and have never really been negatively criticised as much as this film. This though didn't stop me from going to watch the movie, as I believe you should make your own opinion, being someone who personally disagreed with the general critic ratings a few times before. Sadly though, this was one of the times I have to agree with the reviews I have been seeing, which is that King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword is not a good film.
I really wanted to enjoy this movie, being a huge Guy Ritchie fan, in turn having a lot of faith in him finally telling the story of King Arthur the right way. The only hesitation I had when this film was announced was that I don’t think Charlie Hunnam is the greatest of actors, after seeing him in films like Green Street and Pacific Rim. I think his acting comes across a bit forced, but I had heard he is brilliant in Sons of Anarchy therefor I was happy to give him another opportunity to prove himself. Sadly after watching King Arthur, he did not take this opportunity meaning the issues I have with him still remain.
The first 10 minutes or so of the film were set round a massive war, of which seemed a little bit too much. We see these huge elephants destroying the castle 'Camelot', whilst it is also being over run by enemy soldiers. It was all a little bit like something out of The Lord of the Rings but executed quite badly. Once we get past this overwhelming scene, the film concentrates on Arthur, of which at this point I felt the film was starting to redeem itself. It seemed fairly grounded, and the story of Arthur’s coming of age was quite interesting, but as the film carried on, and demanded more from Charlie Hunnam, is for me, where it all started to fall apart. I don’t feel he was a good enough actor to lead this film, but saying that - the film didn’t do him any favours.
Generally this film was an absolute mess, where scenes just seemed really disjointed. I kept losing track of what was even going on or where the characters were. The story was so convoluted, you couldn’t quite work out what was going to happen next, which meant the flow was really off. On top of all of the this, the CGI in some parts was really bad, even to the point at one part where Arthur was using the sword’s full power it looked like a video game. Sadly as I want to keep this spoiler free therefore I cannot go into it all too much, but in the finer details is where this film really lets itself down. There was just no consistency.
In Hunnams defence the overall acting in this film was really bad. Everyone bar Jude Law was pretty shockingly bad in my opinion, especially for the character 'The Mage' who was played by Astrid Berges-Frisbey. She seemed so stale, and had barely any emotion when performing her role. Thank god Jude Law was a prominent part of this film so that it wasn't a complete let down on the acting front. Law is a brilliant actor, and keeps it up within this film. I particularly like him in the Sherlock Holmes films which are coincidentally Ritchie films as well, the difference being though, those films were actually good.
To try and highlight some quality in this film, other than just Jude Law, the soundtrack is brilliant. Daniel Pemberton is the composer for this film’s score, of which he has done a brilliant job yet again. Pemberton is a fairly new composer to hit the big times of film composing, but he has started off really well, with doing films like The Man From UNCLE and Steve Jobs, of which all have brilliant films scores. I highly recommend having a listen to Daniel’s latest release for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. It is certainly worth the listen, even if you don’t plan on seeing the film.
Sadly there isn't much to talk about in regards to this film, as it is genuinely a big let down in my opinion, and a film Guy Ritchie will want to get into his past ASAP.
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