Release date: May 12, 2017
Genres: Action, Fantasy
Director: Guy Ritchie
Writers: Guy Ritchie, Joby Harold, Lionel Wigram
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Astrid Berges-Frisbey
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a fantasy film about King Arthur, the prince who, after being raised in a brothel, pulls his father’s magical sword from a stone, something only the heir to the throne can do. So then the king, who murdered his father, comes after him. And there are witches, sacrifices, friends who speak like they’re in another movie, and fifty different tones in one movie.
This is such a difficult movie to describe because there is so much going on and it’s so unfocused. At any different time, there are twenty characters and five tones all twisting about in one scene. This film feels like it was directed by three different people and written by half a dozen. Part of the film is a super entertaining, British comedy where all of the characters get quippy dialogue that feels more in line with other movies from Guy Ritchie, writer and director of this film. And the rest of the film, an overwhelming majority of it, is a fantasy war film with so much unexplained mysticism that your brain just melts from the confusion. There is just so much nonsense in this film, presented when needed and then never brought up again. Combine this bizarre story with a dull grey color palette and some terrible visual effects and you have one of the worst movies of the year.
I just can’t wrap my head around how this could happen. Seriously, it feels like there are three or four movies all inside this mess. One of them, as mentioned before, is a really entertaining Guy Ritchie comedy. That only makes things worse, really, because it just shows how good this movie might have been if it wasn’t soiled by terrible writing and visual choices. Even with movies in this genre that aren’t great (like last year’s Warcraft), there is still visual appeal. With this film, that’s not even there.