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King Arthur (6/10)

January 26th, 2005

King Arthur, starring Clive Owen and Keira Knightley, was an attempt at a realistic depiction of how the legend came to be. So, depending on how you viewed the legend before seeing this movie will most likely affect your opinion of it. In this story, Arthur is raised from a child to be the steward of a distant outpost of the Roman Empire in England. But, to help him protect this outpost, native boys are handpicked by the Romans to serve Arthur for 15 years. After we are given this information, you are brought 15 years later to the day before their release and Arthur’s exit to Rome. However, the bishop sent to England to give them their deeds sends them on one final quest, which will determine their fate.

Clive Owen does a pretty good job as Arthur, and Knightley does almost as good of a job as Guinevere but the rest of the cast, including Stellan Skarsgard, only do OK. I think that has mostly to do with the fact that there isn’t enough time, even in this 2.5 hour movie, to develop their supporting character roles. My favorite character was Bors (played by Ray Winstone), who is Arthur’s most bloodthirsty knight. The effects and battle sequences were pretty good, especially at the end. I had the director’s cut DVD, and I heard that the battle sequences in the theatre weren’t near as gorey. I have to give the writers credit for handling a very complex legend with lots of characters and putting it into a short timeframe. The end was wrapped up well, wasn’t hokey, and tried to stay realistic. The reason I’m not giving this a very high rating is just for the fact that King Arthur isn’t supposed to be realistic and there were parts in the movie that just drug on a little too much. I prefer to watch a long movie without noticing the time and this one had me watching the clock.

Entry Filed under: Movies