When I heard that Guy Richie was slapping together an Arthurian legend film, I was excited. From the moment I first saw the trailer in 2017 till recently, in 2022, I thought the film looked pretty poor. So, going into King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, I was sure I was going to hate it. Well, wasn’t it a pleasant surprise when I did not loath it?
Being a bit of an Arthurian legend lover, I tend to appreciate most interpretations. Though that doesn’t include Clive Owen’s take on Arthur. Claiming to be an accurate portrayal of a figure that is as historically ambiguous as any you will come across, while completely flaunting actual historic details related to cultures, clothing, event etc, is somewhat irking. Now I think back, I think it was the music score on Richie’s Arthur trailer that put me off. Yup, that simple. I got a non-Arthurian vibe from it and rejected it out of hand. Oh well, now I’m here reviewing it.
The film is an adaptation of an Arthur story that is an amalgamation of fantastical Arthurian threads. Where Owen’s take centres around a noble Roman Briton in an apparently historic time, Richie’s is a gritty fantastical vision with an orphaned Arthur growing up amongst the peasants of, Londinum.
Having only seen the film just the once I couldn’t tell you every area of Arthurian literature Legend of the Sword draws from. But, a few key narrative threads are certainly sown together from Nennius’ Historia Brittonum, Geoffrey Monmoth’s Historia Regum Britanniae and, my favourite, The Mabinogion.
Basically, the story goes that naughty Vortigern (Jude Law) kills his brother King Uther Pendragon (Eric Bana), loses his nephew Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) and takes their throne. Job’s a good en. Our boy Arthur is growing up in pre-London with his peasant fam. Some shit involving Arthur, a magical sword called Excalibur and some manner of stone occurs. Next thing you know, King V has Arthur’s neck on the chopping block.
Arthur is saved my one of Merlin’s homegirls (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) and Uther’s old general. After a journey to the Darklands, he discovers King V had killed his Mum. Time for vengeance! After a failed attempted to murk King V, Arthur, in good old Arthurian tradition, throws Excalibur into a lake. Whereupon the Lady of the Lake (Jacqui Ainsley) returns it and shows him a vision. Arthur, after having a bit of an Aragon movie (not books) moment, accepts that he must step up to his responsibility as a King and finish off his evil uncle.
Not to ruin too much of the uncomplex story, Arthur reunites with his people, then they’re ambushed with most being snuffed. Arthur loses Excalibur to King V in unfortunate circumstances and is pretty pissed. Formulating a plan, it’s time for the final show down.
After being injected with a bit of everyday snake venom, Arthur surrenders himself to confront Vortigern. At the same time, the good guys assault the castle equipped with a giant snake. Arthur reclaims Excalibur and King V does some next level evil shit and levels up into the Demon Knight. There is a dope ass fight, which I’ll leave shrouded in mystery. I won’t tell you who wins but, I will say, that we get a nice closing scene unveiling our new King and his round table.
It needs to be acknowledged that for good or bad David Beckham makes a cameo in this flick. Basically a character out of legend in his own right. Alongside Beck’s character, we’ve got the already named, Arthur and Vortigern. But, we also have a slew of folk from Arthurian legend that play a part, Mordred (Rob Knighton), Percy (Craig McGinlay), Sir Bedivere (Djimon Hounsou) and Sir Tristan (Kingsley Ben-Adir). We also get to see Arthur mum, Igraine (Poppy Delevingne) and a decent prologue with his Dad, Uther vanquishing a mighty beast.
Visually, my favourite scenes were the aforementioned prologue, where King Uther slices Mordred and takes down an elephant bigger than those in Middle Earth. Also, the final battle between Arthur and King Vortigern in Dragon Knight form was a solid, hard-hitting dark affair.
Perhaps my favourite aspects of the film were the cinematography and dialogue. There was most definitely a Lock Stock / Snatch Richie feel to the filming and editing. The dialogue carried many scenes in that it was funny and dark, more Richie hallmarks.
While I’m not going to say this is a top class historical/legendary fantasy film, it is good, and it serves its purpose. I don’t think I have any major issues with the film as a whole. Perhaps the trailer is my greatest dislike.
In conclusion, if you like fantasy or legendary business, give it a watch. It is a shame to learn that they had planned a few sequels that have since been cancelled. But hey ho, I’m sure King Arthur will be rebooted again soon enough.
Rating
Narrative: 5/10
Visual: 6/10
Overall: 6/10
superSCOPE 
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