About King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

After the murder of his father, young Arthur’s power-hungry uncle Vortigern seizes control of the crown. Robbed of his birthright, he grows up the hard way in the back alleys of the city, not knowing who he truly is. When fate leads him to pull the Excalibur sword from the stone, Arthur embraces his true destiny to become a legendary fighter and leader.

(Source: Google)

The Cast

Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Eric Bana, Djimon Hounsou, Aiden Gillen

My Review

I can usually tell if I would like a movie from the opening scene. King Arthur: Legend of The Sword had me from the jump. Okay granted I only became interested in it because Charlie Hunnam was the lead. With that said, I did not see The Lost City of Z nor do I intend to unless it comes on Netflix (maybe).

I felt that the story was really well told, the characters were interesting and easy to care about. It was a story that had a lot of heart.

Jude Law’s Vortigern was an excellent bad guy! He had all the qualities; devilishly handsome, witty and power-hungry.

Charlie Hunnam’s King Arthur was cunning, likable and funny. Who knew! He was cheeky but that played well considering that the movie did not take itself too seriously. I mean come on, they were wearing beanies, and Vortigern was seriously styling in a white button-down soft shirt and black slacks. Those tiny details could have taken me out of the time period but it didn’t.

The graphics felt kind of like a video game, my sister thought, and I’d have to agree.

I usually don’t get into mythological stories because they tend to lag on and I get bored or I don’t know what the hell is going on. But the storytelling in King Arthur was pretty good.

What really got me was the ending sequence when Arthur comes face-to-face with his demon (Uncle Vortigern).

SPOILER ALERT!

Stop now if you do not want to know.

Okay, you’ve been warned. Arthur and Vortigern had this massive fight scene and V puts a beat-down on Arthur but he keeps getting up to fight, he refuses to give up. V then ask him after all you’ve been through what made you this way. Arthur replies, “You.”

This struck me as a metaphor for life. When you go through all the hard and unfair stuff you get back up and you fight. In the end, you have battle scars, not to be ashamed of, but to be proud of, to be embraced and when you look at them, you know that you’ve survived some deep shit and you are stronger for it.

Growing up Arthur’s birthright was taken from him, he grew up in a whore house, was bullied and beaten. He begged, stole and did what he had to to survive.

As a grown up he didn’t let that make him into a cold hard person, he was compassionate, and a survivor. With all the bad things that happened to him, he kept his humor, made a few great friends along the way and was a nice person.

Vortigern, on the other hand, had all this power and privilege and he was a complete asshole.

That’s why I said the story had a lot of heart. Every single critic pissed on it and gave it a real poor review (personally, I think they don’t like Guy Ritchie). That’s why I always ignore critics and see things myself and form my own opinion.

I do hope you’d give this movie a try. Apart from the above-mentioned man candy, David Beckham makes a guest appearance as does Guy Ritchie (if you blink you’d miss him, so pay attention). Oh and the soundtrack was pretty cool too!

The movie had a shooting style like Snatch (2000) by Ritchie, but I’m thinking that’s his style. Like how Michael Bay’s movie always has big explosions or John Woo uses doves.