King Arthur entertains with quirky editing and humor

Movie Title: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Grade: B+

Rating: PG-13,

In a Nutshell: With epic sword fights and a delightful dose of humor, you know a movie is good when you can’t wait to see certain scenes again. The bouncy storytelling is quirky, unique, often confusing, but definitely entertaining.

Director Guy Ritchie’s creative editing style keeps it interesting in this new version of the famous King Arthur legendary story.

This is the first installment of what is supposed to be a six film franchise. Does that excite or worry you?

Uplifting theme:

“Why have enemies when you can have friends?” – King Arthur
Defending honor.
Friendship, family, loyalty

Things I liked:

Charlie Hunnam gained a ton of weight and muscle to be in this movie, after director Guy Ritchie kept telling him how emaciated he looked after the last season of Sons of Anarchy The Complete Series. Charlie looks strong and buff now. Well done, Charlie!
Jude Law does a great job as the evil Vortigern who delights in other people’s fear and his own power.
I loved the special effects. Wow. I thought the smokey vapors that emanated from the legendary Excaliber sword were super epic looking.
Great sound effects and fun musical soundtrack.
The special effects are big, wild, innovative, and wicked cool.
Lots of slow-motion scenes, the majority of them with lots of humor and uber-awesome shots.
Lots of overhead views of the cities.
Tons of super interesting camera angles.
The Darklands sequences were super entertaining. I loved learning how the sword became sealed into the stone originally. It added great depth to the backstory.
Great costume design. Noticeably good.
The movie was shot in England, Scotland, and Wales with some very picturesque scenery.
There is a hilarious scene towards the beginning of the movie where Arthur has to explain to Jack about what happened. It was clever, quick-witted, and set the tone for a fun movie. I loved the funny nicknames he called his friends.
Rebel graffiti. Ha ha
3D actually enhances the scenes quite a bit, in case you’re wondering if you should spring a few extra bucks for it.

Things I didn’t like:

There were these cool tree ladies who we only get to see for a split second and who served no purpose other than to look cool. I wanted to know more about them and see them again.
There were a lot of exposition scenes where people have to explain what’s going on. Sadly, they’re needed.
There were some strange, choppy edits.
Some of the characters were noticeably less developed than others.
There is a LOT going on in this movie….sometimes, too much.
OK, so wait a minute…is Astrid Berges-Frisbey the Mage/Merlin or is going to evolve into Guinevere? Kind of confusing.

Funny lines:

“What is it? A carosel? A giant wheel of cheese?” – Goosefat Bill (Aidan Gillen) when talking about King Arthur’s famous round table.
“I’m not going to hear the end of this. It was my turn to cook.” – Mage king (Michael Hadley)
“I don’t like snakes!” – Arthur

“No one likes snakes!” – Mage

Interesting lines:

“When people fear, it is the most intoxicating sensation a man can possess.” – Vortigern
“You make sense of the devil.” – Arthur
“You’re no longer a myth.” – Mage
“I look away. We all look away. But that is the difference between a man and a king.” – Mage

Tips for parents:

Lots of fighting with a massive body count.
Some profanity and one F-bomb.
Some scary monsters in the Darkland and an evil monster that King Arthur has to fight. (But it has a super cool looking fire cape!)
According to this version of the King Arthur story, he was raised in a brothel.