King Arthur: Legend of the Sword ★★★
YOU have to hand it to Guy Ritchie.
The eclectic English director has survived more slings and arrows than the lead character of his latest film.
The critics are again railing against him, taking their knives to King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, a typical Ritchie mash-up of genres in his unique style.
Super slow-motion, micro close-ups, super-acceleration, thundering music over extended, quick-fire montages, past/future events told in present time with breakneck cutting under a character narration or group dialogue.
These are the tropes of a Ritchie film and are all on show once again in this Arthurian tale complete with sorcerers and monsters amid the sounds of Richie’s trademark script delivery through Cockney accents.
In reality there are few popular directors whose films you can blind-pick. Ritchie is one of them, as evidenced by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla, two Sherlock Holmes instalments and, to a lesser extent, The Man from Uncle.
The problem for Ritchie’s films is that critics, who do help put bums on seats, see him as a one-trick pony, repeating the same performance on every stage; basically they see no growth across his body of work and penalise him for it.
Fair enough, but for those of us who actually appreciate his style and approach from time-to-time, his rock n’ roll version of King Arthur is a welcome bit of fun. It’s also not the first film to inject contemporary sensibilities into this particular genre.
The opening battle, replete with huge mammoths, is pretty spectacular and there are many strong action and fantasy sequences throughout.
Quite a few don’t work, but Ritchie throws so much into the melting pot that you don’t have to wait too long for another impressive visual to emerge.
Charlie Hunnam, best known from television’s Sons of Anarchy, cuts a reasonable Arthur but Jude Law is only okay as the treacherous Vortigen who sells his soul to the forces of evil in order to usurp his brother-in-law, played by Eric Bana, and thwart Arthur’s legitimate claim to the crown.
If you’re looking for mindless entertainment and don’t mind your Games of Thrones being mixed up with characters from The Sweeney it’s worth a watch at the cinema.
Also look out for a famous footballer in a small role.