Review of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) by Kevin P — 19 Dec 2018

Strengths: As someone who typically enjoys Guy Ritchieâ(TM)s style, I dug the way this movie was shot and how it was handled. You can tell itâ(TM)s a film by him from the very beginning. He was a good choice. Charlie Hunnam (Arthur) mostly does a strong job as the lead, while Jude Law (Vortigern) seems to be having a blast as the villain. The latter is probably the highlight of this film. Aiden Gillen (Goosefat Bill Wilson), Djimon Hounsou (Sir Bedivere), and Eric Bana (Uther) also give solid performances. I though the action scenes were well crafted. They do a good job mixing the more practical fighting moments with the mythical and magical elements. The famous scene where he pulls the sword from the stone was strong and I appreciated the way the main plot was mostly grounded and relatable.

Weaknesses: While Hunnam gives a good performance, there are points where he feels like heâ(TM)s still putting too much Jax Teller into himself. Itâ(TM)s understandable after playing a character for so long, but it can be distracting. Some of the visuals donâ(TM)t look as great as youâ(TM)d want from a big budget movie in 2018. The story gets muddled at times and it never felt like they went far enough into the more magical elements of the story. Though they attempted to do their own take on the classic tale, they may have removed too much of it to truly hit the mark they needed.

Overall: Itâ(TM)s not a great movie, but itâ(TM)s one that does enough to be good. Strong acting and action sequences make it enjoyable, even if the plot misses here or there.