REVIEW: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Ordinarily, I try to let a movie swirl around in my brain for a while before I write about it. Depending on when the studio screens it for press, I’ll take a couple of days – or at least until the next morning – to ponder the film’s strengths and weaknesses, determine what stands out after a little time passes and what doesn’t age as well.

But then there are nights like these, when I attempt to tackle a flick like Guy Ritchie’s problematic King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. I don’t know when you’re reading this column – while drinking your morning coffee or on your lunch break at the office, perhaps – but I’m typing like a madman on Tuesday around 11:00 p.m. That’s not because the movie inspired me to shower it with lavish praise, or because it’s so terrible that I had to vent.

It’s because the movie, while entertaining enough in the moment, is so generic and utterly forgettable that I’m genuinely afraid I won’t remember much about it when I wake up in the morning. I could practically feel the experience draining from my memory during the drive home from the Atlanta press screening.

That’s partly because the legend of King Arthur has been done so much that I don’t know if there’s a novel way to tell the story. (It’s the same issue I run into when I see yet another movie about Robin Hood.) But it’s also because it seems like Ritchie – whose previous film, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a delight – never settles on a tone he’s happy with.

Sections of the narrative feel like deleted scenes from Game of Thrones (like the opening sequence), some seem straight out of Braveheart (like the tedious moments when the screenplay follows Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” like a blueprint) and still others feel like a comedic deconstruction of the Arthurian mythos (any time the hero and his buddies formulate a plan). Personally, I enjoyed the latter tone far more than the preceding two.

After a battle in which good King Uther (Eric Bana) defeats the evil sorcerer Mordred, the king’s duplicitous brother Vortigern (Jude Law) murders him in order to take the crown. Uther’s son, Arthur (played as an adult by Charlie Hunnam), escapes and is raised in a brothel on the dangerous streets of London.

However, once Arthur pulls his father’s sword, Excalibur, from a stone outside Vortigern’s castle, the evil king realizes he must stop his nephew before he can fulfill his destiny. Helping Arthur along his journey are an enigmatic mage (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) and the men who will eventually become his knights (Djimon Hounsou, Aidan Gillen, Freddie Fox, Craig McGinlay, Tom Wu and Kingsley Ben-Adir).

Those looking for energetic action sequences won’t walk away disappointed. Ritchie, as anyone who has seen his Sherlock Holmes movies can attest, is known for his frenetic direction that toggles back and forth between speed-ramping and slow motion, often so quickly that it practically makes viewers’ eyes cross. That happens here so many times I lost count, but most effectively in the scenes that demonstrate Excalibur’s awesome power.

I was also impressed by many of the supporting performances, which go a long way in making up for Hunnam’s bland, generic handsomeness. Law, a frequent Ritchie collaborator, knows exactly the kind of movie he’s in and chews the scenery accordingly. His villainous character doesn’t have a mustache, but he’d certainly be twirling it if he did. Hounsou and Gillen are also quite good, but the rest of Arthur’s men don’t distinguish themselves enough to be memorable – they end up serving as glorified extras.

Unfortunately, aside from Berges-Frisbey’s mage character (who is just bizarre), the women in the film exist solely to be murder victims or damsels in distress. The King Arthur stories have always been something of a boy’s club, but that’s especially true of this screenplay (credited to Ritchie, Joby Harold and Lionel Wigram), which has no room for notable female characters like Guinevere and Morgana. One assumes they’ll show up in future installments, if this one makes enough money at the box office.

Frankly, I’ll be shocked if that happens. Ritchie ends the story in a place that could make the sequel interesting, but I don’t know if modern audiences feel the same connection to the King Arthur mythos that previous generations did. I guess time will tell.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some suggestive content and brief strong language.

Grade: C+