Review of The Green Knight (2021) by Nateed — 06 Aug 2021

The Green Knight is a solid film that had the potential to be great, but just didn't quite get there. This film is really focused on telling the story in a unique way with director, producer, and screenwriter David Lowery really putting a lot into this.

Maybe a bit too much at times. What I mean by that is Lowery might have gone a bit overboard when writing this film. The story doesn't flow well with some scenes being too long and having long dialogue that gets boring after a while.

With those problems, the story becomes a bit hard to follow at times as it feels like the whole thing was trying to be more than it should have. The Green Knight is also way too long. This film could have easily been cut down to the 105-110 minute mark.

So many scenes get lost in unnecessary actions. Some scenes don't even factor into the overall plot of Sir Gawain finding courage. I found myself wondering how our main character was learning how to be more courageous in certain scenes when the supporting cast was doing the work and not him.

I get that Lowrey was trying to be very unique and stylized in his writing, but it just came off as trying too hard which led it to be complicated for no reason. A lot of the technical aspects of the film were on point here with so many stand-outs from so many different departments.

My favorite thing about this film was the production design. Production designer Jade Healy really knocked it out of the park. There were so many beautiful locations accompanied by set designs from Jenny Oman that were so visually stunning.

It is easily one of the best production designs I have seen in a film ever. The score is also powerful with Daniel Hart knowing how to make a statement with his music in a film. The sound design was also really well done as it felt like I was being fully immersed into the film.

There were many moments in the film where it was just the sound and nothing else which put the sound department front and center in which they didn't disappoint. The cast also carries a lot of the film and does their best to tell the story.

Dev Patel does a pretty good job here. I don't think it was an amazing performance, but it was powerful enough that you could appreciate the character on his journey. Alicia Vikander does a very good job here and can separate the two characters she plays very well.

To me, the real stand-out of the film is Ralph Ineson who plays The Green Knight. His voice is so menacing and he knows how to portray The Green Knight in a way where he looks powerful and threatening.

Ralph Ineson's acting near the end of the film is just so perfect and really elevates the film a lot. Is The Green Knight a bad movie? Definitely not. Is it the best movie of 2021? Not at all. The Green Knight is a solid film that just needed some work in the script department.

David Lowery really tried to make this a grand adventure with so many elements when it didn't need to be. Luckily, with the amazing technical aspects and a great cast, the film was able to feel larger than life even when the story wasn't.

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