Review of First Knight (1995) by Marie-Hélène B — 06 Jan 2009

I was a bit disappointed. I normally love anything centered around the Arthur myth. Gere as a combat fighter is hardly believable, and he's especially clumsy fighting with a staff. I understand the Arthur legend is just that- a legend that can be open to interpretation but the liberties taken on this were ridiculous. Notwithstanding the addition of Lancelot as knowing Guenevere before she married Arthur.

The move also shows Guenevere as having quite the daddy complex- being attracted to a much older man and him even bringing up how her father never treated her right. No subtlety there.... it was probably interjected for the "why the hell would she go for a grandpa?" crowd.

And lastly.. spoilers....

They freaking kill Arthur and he gives Camelot to Lancelot, AND tells him to take care of Guenevere? Meh. Really killed the whole movie. I couldn't even appreciate it as a medieval romance at that point, not with the well known history of the characters.

In retrospect, even though I'm not normally picky about things being 100% accurate, I think this story should have been made with inventing new characters. Reinventing classic ones is a pet peeve of mine.

Oh yeah, what was up with casting and the costume department making the lead bad guy and his main henchman look like identical twins? I was confused why sometimes he looked decent and other times fugly and chalked it up to camera angles being less flattering than others. Then REALLY confused when I thought the villagers killed him and then he's attacking Lancelot 10 feet away. Very weird choices to me.