King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword is the newest creation from Britain’s badass director, Guy Ritchie. For months we have been promised high action, the crème de la crème of CGI and most importantly a no-holds-barred take on a classic fable.
Instead, what we’ve got is clunky direction, unremarkable CGI, weak tea dialogue and a blatant aftertaste that this could have been done so much better.
The film opens with a humdinger of an action scene. You settle in. Complete with ginormous Lord Of The Rings-esque elephants, a cracking soundtrack, SFX, Eric Bana leaping like a gazelle and Jude Law getting a nosebleed, it is entertaining enough – although you do start looking out for Orcs.
Legend Of The Sword stars Sons Of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam, whose body has responded nicely to Hollywood’s “be ripped, you’re an action hero” ethos, plus our very own Bana, Law, the creepy brothel owner from Game Of Thrones and a host of Ritchie’s mates – including none other than… David Beckham? That’s right; even more irrelevant distraction to pull away from a lukewarm plot heading roughly to a hero’s end.
Many of the supporting cast screams “inner city casting session”. The distance from London’s Southend to the shores of Camelot is but a stone’s throw, and that degrades the code of fantasy. The pockets of interesting CGI and damn fine soundtrack just become micro testaments to a VFX/sound team’s skill and not aggregate fuel beneath the film’s overall force.
The main problem with Legend Of The Sword is that you never really find yourself committing to this world. With its weak acting, Law cast as a bad guy, a plot that has gone to drown its sorrows in the Thames and miscellaneous cool stuff that just dilutes it all even further, this is a film that could have had us by the throat but instead passed some light wind.
King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword is in cinemas now.
Love Film & TV?
Get the latest Film & TV news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
