"You're no longer a myth. You're starting to mean something."
Hello everyone!
It's another Tuesday and time for another movie review. They just keep on coming, don't they? I mean, regardless of the fact that it's been a while now since I've felt the need to absolutely HAVE to see a movie so I can review it, since ... I have a bunch of them still waiting to go.
Yeah.
But anyway, this current one I'll be doing came as a recommendation from a very good friend of mine. I never intended to watch it - Guy Ritchie is one of those directors I have a love-hate relationship with. And by this, I mean that I genuinely love the stories he usually tries to sell on the big screen, but I hate the adaptations.
For instance, the Sherlock movies were so not my cup of tea.
Which was why when I first saw the trailer for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, I thought to myself - this looks amazing, but it has Jude Law in there and some weird magic and King Arthur looks wonky ... it has to be Ritchie.
Let me tell you, however - my friend convinced me. And I'm so glad she did.
This is certainly a shout-out to Ashley because, without her very fair assessment (go in and forget all about mythology, just enjoy the movie) I would have never really thought twice about this one.
As it happens, I can now bring you a review.
So, really, let's forget ALL about King Arthur for a second here because this movie goes so far beyond everything you might have imagined - right down to magical elephants stampeding around until Eric Bana calls them to heel.
I'm not kidding.
See Mordred is hell-bent on killing the Pendragon family line, but while Uther holds Excalibur, that's a no-go. The sword is magic in a way - forged by the Lady of the Lake and bound to Uther's bloodline, specifically, which means that very few can wield it.
Vortigern, Uther's brother (this would be Jude Law) wants it, and wants the kingdom, and everything that goes along with this.
So he sacrifices his wife, Katie McGrath (I swear she appears in almost EVERY medieval pic) to the moat hags so that he gets the power to kill Uther, whereas not even Mordred could (actually he tried, but Uther killed Mordred so there you go). Still, he doesn't get the sword - Uther binds it to himself instead, while watching his only son float away downriver.
This is a bit Moses-like for me, but roll with it.
Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) gets picked up by prostitutes in Londinium (that would be Ancient London) while they're washing their clothes, is taken back to the brothel and is then raised by them. Also, he becomes King of the Streets and pretty much anyone and everyone in the city answers to him first, everyone else second.
This works well enough because the weak fall under his protection and the bullies get bloody noses.
Unfortunately for Arthur, he crosses paths with a couple of Vikings under the King's personal protection which earns him a black mark and leads to his capture and transport to the castle where Vortigern rules with an iron fist and by building the biggest tower known to mankind, then or now (seriously, where did he get his architects?). Also, he's looking for his nephew, because the lake around the castle suddenly drained inexplicably (it took a holiday) and Excalibur in the stone was revealed. So now, every young man of roughly the right age gets to try the lottery of pulling the sword from the stone (and meeting David Beckham at the same time).
Only Arthur actually succeeds, and he would have had to die for that, if not for a helpful Mage and her friends who rescue him and bring him to the rebels, the heart of which is formed of Uther's former sworn knights, who are planning a coup to overthrow Vortigern.
Fine by Arthur, really, although the sword is giving him trouble; he needs to master it, and its magic, but he keeps fighting it because the one memory it keeps pulling back is the night his parents died and he floated away. No time really to worry overly much - they're going to try and assassinate the king while he's on a visit to the city for some reason or other.
Hey, even kings get to socialise.
Unfortunately, Arthur notices something's wrong and calls the attack off, although this still lands the group's informant in prison, while they need to hot foot it out of there.
Even more unfortunately, they're surrounded, despite Arthur's best efforts, at which point he finally accepts at least part of the sword's magic and single-handedly defeats everyone coming at him. Nice, right?
Wrong.
See, one of their casualties lands in Vortigern's hands, which results in a cruel interrogation, and what follows is Vortigern learning about the secret base the rebels operate out from. He captures the Mage and the son of one of Arthur's friends, which prompts Arthur to do exactly as Vortigern wants.
More or less.
Arthur negotiates and frees the Mage first (which proves Vortigern is either stupid or arrogant, or both) and she prepares him for the night ahead, when a big-ass snake attacks the throne room and everyone in it, except for Arthur who smells like a snake because he was injected with snake venom prior to this.
Vortigern, in a panic, sacrifices his only daughter to the moat hags and once again becomes the dark knight which battled Uther, and almost kills Arthur, but finally, the one true king accepts his heritage and the sword - in the vision of which Uther meets his grown son and tells him not to be afraid anymore, and that the sword is his. Arthur fights, defeats, and kills Vortigern, but blesses him before he dies.
Following this, Arthur is crowned king and brings down the tower his uncle had been building (this was tied to the king's magical strength, but Arthur doesn't need one), as well as has himself and his friends knighted by Uther's old guard.
After this, he begins building his round table, and better times for everyone, since Merlin and the rest of the mages had been on the run after the mage wars, but now they can probably come back.
This movie smells suspiciously like needing a sequel at some point or other, which I wouldn't really be opposed to in any event. After all, how he got his kingdom is just the beginning of Arthur's story, there's SO much more left to explore, as he's one of those kings that literally has more pages written about him than almost anyone else. But like I said, if you go into this with no expectations and just to watch a movie, you can thoroughly enjoy it. Go in expecting a usual Arthur flick, and you'll be terribly disappointed in the process.
Still though - my personal favourite Arthur remains the Walt Disney iteration.
xx
*images and video not mine
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