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King Arthur - 7/7/04 - PG-13 - 130m
Clive Owen - Arthur
Keira Knightly - Guinevere
Ioan Gruffudd - Lancelot
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Written by: David Franzoni
Studio: Touchstone
Official
Website
LYN
Nutshell: It’s about some king dude named Arthur…Duh?
Seriously, it’s truly just another version of the Arthurian legend where Arthur, and others from the legendary round table are forced into military service for the Roman Empire. They are assigned a post along a really long wall (not the great one, this one’s in Britain) to defend this post (and the area surrounding it) against the enemies of the Empire. Oh yeah, their tour of duty is a mandatory fifteen years, or until death due us part (which ever comes first). And in the term of their assignment, Arthur and his knights form a bond far beyond any mere allegiance they hold with the Empire.
Problem…Why? How? And this is only the beginning of the questions. First this isn’t anyway or no-how related to any story of the legend of King Arthur I’ve ever heard of. I thought Arthur was sorta the son of a King, whom previously made a deal with Merlin, whom took Arthur away from the before mentioned king dude guy, and then Merlin sent Arthur to live with some other King dude, and he makes Arthur the squire to the Prince, and while at some medieval game thing, Arthur can’t find the Prince’s sword, so in a rush Arthur grabs some random sword stuck in a stone…and low and behold he gets to become King of the Britain…Pretty cool, huh? Well, that ain’t this story. This is a writer taking liberty with an established legend, and just completely turning it into something else. In that case, why call it ‘King Arthur’? If you’re going to tell a story, then why change it. Even ‘Monty Python’ didn’t do that, because Arthur did supposedly go on a quest for the “Holy Grail”. A parody yes, but they didn’t stray too far from the original tale.
You know…regardless, it doesn’t matter. If I were to simply review this as just an ordinary action-adventure film, and ignore fact that it is supposed to be about what it’s title implies, its still not a good film. The characters are boring and have no development; they just are who they are and you’re supposed to care about them and what happens to them. I didn’t. And nothing seemed too surprising in line with the plot. So...
Lyn
