Review of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) by Whiskeystories — 30 Aug 2017

Loved and hated it at the same time. The elements of the film that I enjoyed I loved very much, but the ones I did not I absolutely hated. The producers and Guy Ritchie's attempt to mesh this age old fantasy tale with the style of Snatch really did not work for me.

I was on board initially, the first act was fun and had some entertaining and unique world building, the middle was kinda boring, some of the fights were highlights, but it started to lose me, and the last act of the film is just horrendous, it's cheap and messy with boring CGI fights so bad they reminded me of the infamous scene from Matrix Reloaded.

The writing is sloppy, the story is (obviously) predictable, it's your standard fantasy plot with a few original ideas, the jokes are flat and mainly unfunny with underwhelmingly uninteresting characters not fleshed out at all, but the thing I hated the most is the editing, it sucked so bad, this hectic cutting and confusing scene structure did not serve the plot in any way, it was just to show off the style (which at least was kinda inventive) and most importantly it did not fit the movie at all.

Now the good, some of the actors were quite fun: Charlie Hunnam tried really hard and it showed, but the character was just not well written enough, Jude Law chewing the scenery was fun and I personally have a soft spot for Astrid Berges-Frisbey ever since the fourth Pirates so I liked her a lot here as well.

The cast seemed like they were having fun and that helped the film's enjoyability. The music was a bit illfitting, but I actually liked it quite a lot. The fantasy part was quite strong in the beginning with some stunning visuals.

What pains me the most is that it could have been an extremely enjoyable fantasy film, but the final product is not that much better than the In the Name of the King movies, which says a lot. Loved the first 40 minutes, it had good atmosphere and a sense of adventure exploring a new world, but I despised the last 40 minutes.

During King Arthur all I could think about is Ritchie's smug face thinking what he made is the coolest film ever (which it isn't) and that thought along with the ending left a bad taste in my mouth. If I'd catch it on the telly I'd probably watch it, but that's as far as my recommendation goes.