King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword reviewed by Mark Kermode

I'm not sure how many people really thought that what the world needed was die riches take on the etherion legend but um in the past Guy Ritchie has both delighted and dismayed me I quite like lock stock and I didn't at all like revolver I very much liked the the Sherlock Holmes movies and in fact I use the Sherlock Holmes movies as an example of isn't it great when somebody about whose work you are pretty much you know given up make something that's really terrific and he did it not once but twice and I thought those films had a real connoisseur my de vivre and as wonderfully if exactly despite the fact they look like Hammer horror films they had those Ryder V which is a nice sort of dark and light thing so now we have what I suppose can best be described as a sort of an origin story a kind of superhero origin story of King Arthur it's sort of the same story so we start off and you've seen the film as well so I would you know you please feel free and we start off with a bunch of CGI tastic landscapes Anna and a massive sort of elephant versus wall fight sequence that yes I was saying at that boy that noise that you may just sent yeah and there was a thing you know Camelot Camelot to always remind them is only a model exactly yes so you and I were in exactly the same place on a bus that was my fear that was weight within me enchanter okay so then after some backstory explanation we effectively get to Charlie Hunnam is our hero son of and correct me if I'm wrong because they were moments when I found myself losing the plot Eric banners Luthor Pendragon yes correctly with who's with whom is wicked uncle vordigan played by Jude Law is bang out of order so poor old Charlie humdrum grows up in poverty while law is left with all the scenery he can chew and are sort of this is a bit like The Lion King isn't it basically this is this is what this is what's happened cuz the bad uncle Mustafa has taken over and everything else is dying because the bad uncle's in charge however the sword which is in the stone of course remains a con thorn in the side of the evil uncle because he knows the prophecy that only the person who can pull the sword out the Stoney is going to be dangerous him so what he does is he gets every every person in the country every young man in the country to come and have a go at the sword you have to do it because he obviously wants to find who the person thing Bullis all that is enter like a king herod gala enter David Becker David Beckham who as Charlie hummin has to step up to the sword and David Beckham says ten fingers round the blunt end give it a tug right foot left foot then back on the barge cor blimey I think that's all he says actually I think that's the whole thing as I said throw a lot of things not Eric Cantona however obviously sword comes out next thing we know Charlie and Jude are having the standoff is a clip you've got the wrong path i er I was born in a brothel on a bridge in Londinium the sword can only be drawn by Gustav Pendragon or his direct heir he felt it in the poem things will put you out you just don't another controller so what happened now you know Holmes you're quickly becoming a legend sort of the Rings Board of the Rings more like alright Rhea no one will believe this I went into this wanting it to be good not least because there had been stories already that it had had box-office problems and there's nothing I like more than discovering that a film that has not you know performed terrific right it's actually a much better film than people give it credit for and I would go back time and again to being in the cinema with Kim Newman watching Hudson Hawk and laughing like hyenas and the more everybody didn't laugh the funnier we found it and just because something doesn't become a box-office smash doesn't mean it's better plenty of really really good movies that don't do well at the box office sadly this isn't one of them um it is a film which I found head-banging Lee dull and considering how much stuff was going on and considering how many stories within stories we were being told and considering how much CGI and you know general spectacular whiffle was being thrown at the screen I was really surprised by how unengaging and lengthy I found it um there is a thing that happens in the Sherlock Holmes movies which is the kind of slow quick slow almost sort of timeslice fight sequences in which Robert Downey's character figures out he's going to do this and then he'll do that and then he'll do that and then he'll do that no but I think it worked really well I remember thinking wow this is gonna die which you've got real style he's kind of if he figured out a way of doing this of taking a tiny little bit of the Sherlock Holmes was about you know him being interested in wrestling and actually turning it in something which works really cinematically well and credit where it's due I think you made that you know II made a lot Singh in the case of this it just looks like you get the fight sequences but they just look like some kind of cranked up version of the Football Factory with fantasy elements thrown in there is a moment when one of the lead characters says just do your fruit caking job and you think I'm sorry this light I know me I know that there's certain things in it that are meant to be funny but I don't think this line is particularly mental and obviously incidentally I was editing on the hoof you know he doesn't actually say that you understood that no I I did not I don't quite understand that and so what happens is there's this constant thing about let me tell you how this is going to work or let me tell you a story in which so-and-so is going to do this and then that and in this happen then it may be like a bit wait a bit well it will be and the and like every five minutes everything stops well somebody does some exposition in the manner of a bunch of Larry geezers planning our job it's going to go like this he's going to go there he's going to go there is go what is give away sugar water and in the middle of all of that there is a three-second cameo by Guy Ritchie himself which is the longest three seconds I've seen in a very long time on screen and every time they start doing another one you know goose fat John is going to say - blimey charlie and he's gonna say Arthurdale easily watching me yes is king arthur he's alright okay he's done a bit saving you time is it well it is technically a crime that's what it is it's if King Arthur Daley is alright that's again the best the best gag in this review and it wasn't even me and while you put it together I'm sorry I set it up and use it King Arthur Daley that's got to be the headline in your newspaper column The Telegraph thank you but the other thing is I found myself you know the other day when we were reviewing um unlocked and I was talking about Orlando Bloom's cockney accent and I said where's Danny Dyer when you really need him and whilst I was watching this I was thinking where's John Boorman when you really need him Excalibur Excalibur very much but at least Excalibur had a sense of fantastical mystery at least Excalibur had a sense of something otherworldly I mean yes there was a legend towards me back stuff which was like please stop doing that who's it I don't remember that it's the Merlion - but in the case of this I just a little bit of mystery just a little bit of magic just to get a little bit of something that didn't look like a it didn't look like an off cut from a Rammstein video attempting to do an impression of the Battle of Helm's Deep and didn't then whenever this plot ground down I mean you go oh there's the master from Harry Potter there's the sword that's attempting to look like a lightsaber there's Jude Law turning into Emperor Palpatine but all it does is remind you of all the other fantasy franchises that you'd rather be watching I thought it was stunningly dull

Channel: kermodeandmayo

Views: 182,298

Keywords: Guy Ritchie, Charlie Hunnam, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Jude Law, King Arthur, Legend of the Sword, Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review, BBC, 5live

Id: 1qksOTtYKq8

Length: 8min 18sec (498 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2017