King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

Directed by: Guy Ritchie | 126 minutes | action, adventure, drama, fantasy | Actors: Charlie Hunnam, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bana, Aidan Gillen, Freddie Fox, Craig McGinlay, Tom Wu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Neil Maskell, Annabelle Wallis, Zac Barker, Oliver Zac Barker, Geoff Bell, Poppy Delevingne, Millie Brady, Nicola Wren, Wil Coban, Bleu Landau, Jacqui Ainsley, Lorraine Bruce, Georgina Campbell

Over the years, movie-watchers have come to love director Guy Ritchie immensely. He delivered a highly entertaining gangster comedy with ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ (1998) and perfected his style in the similar ‘Snatch’ (2000). The latter managed to develop into a modern classic and made Ritchie one of the world’s hardest working directors. For the past few years, he has mainly focused on keeping older stories alive. After his very successful Sherlock Holmes films and the flopped ‘Man from UNCLE’ (2015), Ritchie now comes with his interpretation of the King Arthur story. A project where even the biggest fans of the director must have wondered if this would suit the best man.

Guy Ritchie is a craftsman in writing very smooth dialogues, preferably from the mouth of very dirty British gangsters. These are nowhere to be seen in the original story of the king of the British, but the director is nice and stubborn and allows the coarse-mouthed men of the street to merge effortlessly with the grand fantasy elements. The typical fast editing also finds its place and the despair eventually gives way to relief.

This is partly due to the cast who visibly enjoy the medieval costume party. Charlie Hunnam in the title role and Jude Law as the evil magician/king Vortigern in particular steal the show and form an interesting rivalry over the course of the film. Arthur continues to have visions of the usurper and will have to accept his fate to uncover the answers about his family and rival. That fate, of course, translates into the magical sword Excaliber, the weapon of the worthy king of England. Only with the help of Excaliber (and ahead, his Rebel friends help too) can Arthur fight his demons and claim the throne.

The story works surprisingly well with Ritchie’s idiosyncratic style, but ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ sometimes completely misses the mark with some too modern aspects. The score in particular is the biggest victim of this. At the beginning of the third act, for example, room is made for a montage that is accompanied by a rock song that is much too strong. Celtic influences are present, but that is where the connection with the era ends. A real shame, because it is just enough out of place to take the viewer out of the film for a while. Furthermore, it seems as if the computer effects could have been a little more polished at times. The action scenes in which Hunnam attacks large numbers of soldiers are very cool, but the movements do look very rubbery. In moments like these, one can get the feeling of watching a video game instead of a movie.

This is not always a bad thing though. ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ more than once feels like a runaway session of the popular role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. This doesn’t necessarily make for the most consistent storytelling, but it does make for the most fun. It’s that bit of pulp that gives this iteration of King Arthur its own face, and it even makes for the most entertaining fantasy film in a long time.