King Arthur

This is supposedly the true story of the origins of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The man behind the legend, behind the Monty Python skits. I know what people are saying; 'Wait a minute, it's King Arthur. Where's the shinning armour and the medieval castles?' Well, as it turns out he ran around in the Roman times, not the Middle Ages. I'm not entirely sure where I heard this from, but I think a monk found the original stories of Arthur and rewrote it in his present day -which was the middle ages- and then the original was lost. Or something.

So this movie goes back to the original tale, during the Roman Empire where Arthur must lead his knights in 'Woad' territory to escort a Roman family to the south so they can be evacuated before the Saxons come and kill them all. Along the way they rescue Guinevere, a Woad, and she convinces Arthur to lead her people against the Saxons.  After a gory battle Arthur, his knights and the Woads are victorious and Arthur and Gwen get married. The End.

Now, I am not going to go in the historical anachronisms in this movie, that's Coral's domain not mine. I've never studied the legends of King Arthur or Roman history in depth, so I wouldn't really know any mistakes if I saw them. Except for one: Trebuchets? In England? Built by nomads? I don't think so. Trebuchets were French from the middle ages, that much I do know.

I'm not entirely sure but didn't Lancelot run off with Guinevere in the legend? I know in a book somewhere they had a threesome with Arthur. I did not get any romantic vibes between Lancelot and Gwen. Then again, I didn't get any vibes between Guinevere and Arthur. There was more chemistry  between Galahad and Gawain, or between Bors and Dagonet or even between Arthur and Lancelot. Hell, there was more chemistry between Tristan and his bird than between Guinevere and anyone.

I'm not saying Keira Knightley is a bad actress. I liked her in this movie and in Pirates of the Caribbean, and in  Bend it Like Beckham. I feel  there was just something missing to make it believable .

In the grand schemes of things, I don't think it mattered much, because I find nothing ruins a good action movie than a romantic subplot.

Besides the failed romance, I enjoyed this movie. I loved the battle sequences even if they seemed to go on forever. I loved the acting, well most of it anyway.  I loved the characters and I loved the Saxons. Before my sister gets upset and tells me that they Saxons were not portrayed properly  and they probably weren't, but they made sense with the movie. In the film they were a murderous horde of rampaging big, ugly guys with unhappy childhoods.   I'm not saying they were like that in real life, but as long as it seemed to fit with the movie I'm okay with it. If they didn't make sense that would be a different story. But as bad guys go, there were pretty cool. Unfortunately the leader had a fatal flaw: he disregarded two of Peter's Evil Overlord Rules.  #39 states that: If I absolutely must ride into battle, I will certainly not ride at the forefront of my Legions of Terror, nor will I seek out my opposite number among his army. And #115: I will not engage an enemy single-handedly until all my soldiers are dead. I suppose you can argue that these types of leaders were only leaders because of the prowess they possessed, so he had to fight.  But as soon as he sought out Arthur, he had to die. It was unfortunate that Tristan had to die, but he didn't know that Arthur had sworn that *his* face would be that last thing Cerdic the Saxon saw in the world. If only Tristan had known that before going into the battle. Oh well.

The main problem I had with this movie was this: Why were there Roman's living north of that wall? North of the wall was Woad territory. Are they asking me to believe that a few token guards, some farmer and monks can keep the family safe from Woad guerrillas? I don't think so. They needed to find a better reason to get them north of Hadrian's wall.

Except for that I enjoyed this movie, regardless of how bad people say it is.

Grade: 7.5/10