Review of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) by Hisham D — 16 Dec 2017

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a 2017 epic-fantasy based on the infamous legend of King Arthur written and directed by Guy Ritchie and stars Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Àstrid Bergès-Frisby, Djimon Hounsou, Aiden Gillen and Eric Bana.

When Vortigern (Jude Law) betrays his brother King Uther (Eric Bana) and orchestrates a coup to rule of Camelot, a baby Arthur is smuggled to raised in the streets and Londiniun, As the child grows up, he becomes a skilled fighter (Charlie Hunnam) and crosses paths with King Vortigern's minions to which he gets imprisoned and becomes an immediate threat once he pulls the legendary sword of Excalibur from stone. A band of rebels of Uther's former general Sir Bedivere (Djimon Houson), assassin Sir William Wilson and a Mage (Àstrid Bergès-Frisby) help Arthur to guide him on the path of self-discovery and to start the fight for the rule of Camelot and freedom of men with assistance of mages and armies becomes an epic legend.

The most refreshing about this movie is the take on the infamous Arthurian Legends and energetic modern direction that Guy Ritchie brings in to any movie. The "Richiesms" in the movie are abundantly clear as he presents frantically fast-paced action, rock-style and very witty approach similar to his style in Sherlock Holmes movies makes the movie fun, exciting and refreshingly new. Not many people may appreciate this style as most are used to see the legend in a certain context, so the movie does become style-over-plot and may be perceived negatively.

If there is one thing that adds so much energy to the movie, it's got to be the soundtrack. Daniel Pemberton, highly influenced by Hans Zimmer, adds so much epic-ness music for certain scenes that keeps the audience pumped and in-tune with the events.

When it comes to performances, ironically it is the secondary characters that get all the positive. Jude Law is brilliant as the conniving and evil Vortigern. Eric Bana's performance, although brief, adds solid weight to the character and more "gravitas" to the movie as whole. the french actress Àstrid Bergès-Frisby plays mysteriously as the Mage and Aiden Gillen has a similar, good performance to that in Game of Thrones.

Where the movie fails is in the main protagonist's performance of Hunnam. He doesn't give enough believable performance of the legendary character and seemed like a regular man whose not filling the right shoes of a larger-than-life character. Another negative point was the editing. The movie feels as if it was a 3 hour movie but significantly got cut into 2 hours. The third act suffers from the full-blown CGI dilemma that most Hollywood productions are well-known for, and becomes more video-game looking than a movie.

Overall, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, is genuinely a highly-energetic new take on an old legend, that deserves the opportunity to strike magic.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword gets a B-.