This film suffered from many poor reviews. Both from critics and, in my case, from friends who found it boring. Course I don’t read reviews before I go see films, I try to make up my own mind. Still I wasn’t expecting a lot from this film.
I’ve never really been a huge fan of Arthur films. First Knight was really really crap, imo, and Excaliber was a bit wierd. Plus there is the whole Monty Python thing :)
So why’d I go to see it?
Ray Winstone of course!
But there was also the fact that I am a little perverse (not in that way), and because I had heard so much bad stuff I decided that I would enjoy the film. Yes, I decided that before I went to see the film, but was fully prepared to change by decision if it was a bit crap. I didn’t need to change, I enjoyed the film.
Yet there were many flaws; Clive Owen may make a good fighting hero but all his speeches were dull and insipid. If you are going to make you hero the type to speechify and talk to himself then you gotta cast an actor that can carry that off. Owen, in my book, didn’t. Course it may have been the script, but that aspect of this film simply did not work for me.
There was also the fact that there were simply too many knights, or rather that they weren’t introduced properly. I had been warned that they got kinda interchangeable, so I was trying t pay attention to names, but I still got confuddled from time to time.
And what on earth was up with Knightly’s outfit?! I mean I’d seen that leather thing in some of the trailers and promo shots, but OMG, it so didn’t work (and must have pinched). Still she was quite convincing apart from that.
So far I’ve been pretty negative, but overall I did enjoy the film, and will prolly get it on DVD (if I have disposable income at the time). The battle on the frozen lake was cool, I liked a quite a few of the characters (once I figured out who they were), the emphasis on the Roman side of the story was neat. And, that is probably what through a lot of viewers. This film looks more like Gladiator than what people think of when they hear about Arthur. But this version was remarkable for its historical accuracy. Of course they could have done without that intro-caption which seemed to suggest that Arthur has been found and proven to be him. Chances of this are very slim.
could have been better, but I was entertained.
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