• Home
  • Meetings
  • Events
  • Blog
  • E-Board
  • Around Boston
NUFEC
.

Carter Sigl on King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

5/12/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Recently I have been pondering the question of why there seem to be so few good fantasy films. It’s odd that we seem to get at least one or two good science fiction films every year, but it’s quite rare to get an actually good fantasy film. It might be because the genre of fantasy in all mediums frequently struggles with staying out of Tolkien’s massive shadow, or simply because fantasy films aren’t made that often. Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes [2009] and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) has now joined the fray with his interpretation of the Arthurian mythos, and it is… interesting, if nothing else.
​
I say "interpretation" because King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is only very loosely based on the classic myths. Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) was once a Prince, until his uncle Vortigern (Jude Law) murdered his father and usurped the throne. After years of living in exile and on the streets he has nearly forgotten his royal lineage, and heads a gang of thieves and thugs in the slums of Londinium. But when a chain of events leads to him drawing the sword Excalibur from the stone, he is thrust into the role of revolutionary against his will, aided by a ragtag group of rebels including a warrior named Bedivere (Djimon Hounsou), an archer called Goosefat Bill (Aidan Gillen) and a mysterious mage (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey).

The best way I can talk about this movie is by separating its narrative and technical aspects. On the one hand, the former category is somewhat lackluster. The plot frequently seems to forget that it is supposed to be a movie about King Arthur, and goes off on tangents that have little to do with the meat of the story. Honestly, it sort of feels like a script that was originally just a normal fantasy film which had Arthurian elements tacked on during rewrites. The acting is hit-or-miss; Hounsou is badass and Gillen gives the film some much-needed levity, while Jude Law has fun chewing the scenery as the obvious card-carrying villain. Hunnam plays a strangely deadpan King Arthur, and Bergès-Frisbey is good though her English is not the most fluent. Overall, the narrative is pretty bog-standard fantasy fare.

On the other hand, the choices made by the creative team for the technical aspects of the film are highly unusual and interesting. Guy Ritchie continues his trend of super slow-mo action scenes he pioneered in his Sherlock Holmes adaption, adding in some weird camera angles and funky fight choreography which gives the action scenes an almost 300-esque style. The editing is often incredibly fast-paced and sometimes non-linear, especially during the exposition scenes, and features such things as cross-cutting montages and flashbacks interspersed with flash-forwards. Most interesting of all is the score by Daniel Pemberton, which I can’t really think of a good comparison to, but suffice to say it is definitely not what you expect from a fantasy film. 

This is one of those films which I think is more interesting than qualitatively good. For the most part its a fairly standard fantasy action flick, but it’s not a complete loss. My recommendation is to go see it if you either really like hyper-stylized action/fantasy film, or if you’re intrigued by its unique film-making style. For anyone else, this is one sword that is probably not worth the effort to pull from its stone.

Grade: C- (narrative aspects), A- (technical aspects)
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    AJ Martin
    Andy Robinson
    Anime
    Anthony Formicola
    Anu Gulati
    Arjun Agarwal
    Arzu Martinez
    Ben Garbow
    Brandon Isaacson
    Brian Hamilton
    Carter Sigl
    Dan Simeone
    Discussion
    Elizabeth Johnson Wilson
    Eliza Rosenberry
    Emily Fisler
    Erick Sanchez
    Eric Tatar
    Essays
    Festivals
    Gabrielle Ulubay
    Grace Phalon
    Haley Emerson
    Here's Some Movies
    Ian Wolff
    IFF Boston
    IFFBoston 2015
    Interviews
    Isaac Feldberg
    Kunal Asarsa
    Library
    Lists
    Marguerite Darcy
    Marissa Marchese
    Marli Dorn
    Mary Tobin
    Meghan Murphy
    Mike Muse
    Mitch Macro
    Neel Shah
    Netflix Instant Watch
    Parth Parekh
    Patrick Roos
    Profiles
    Reviews
    Short Films
    Television
    This Week In Movies
    Tyler Rosini

    Want to Write for Us?

    Contact NUFEC at [email protected] if you're interested in writing for this blog!

    Archives

    October 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    April 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.