A Legend Rises - King Arthur and the Legend of the Sword Review

I was fortunate enough to be treated to an early screening of WB's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, a film I was kinda hyped for. Guy Ritchie? Magic? Arthurian legend? I'm down. But to rent or suffer the theater experience, that is the question.
When I'm interested in a film I avoid the marketing so I went in totally blind so i was surprised by a LOT including the high caliber actors involved in this project. I will keep this as spoiler free as possible.

Lets get the bad out of the way first.
1. Tone - the film is a bit of a mess. There are so many conflicting elements that would have been cool if melded well together but for whatever reason the team behind the film could never find a way to it. It juggles between drama and comedy, a comtemporary film vs a period piece. There are no smooth transitions between them. When the tone switches happen they are quite aburpt and uneven. For example (and I know this wont bother most) but if you know Guy Ritchie and have seen films like Rocknrolla, Snatch and Layer Cake you know some of his tropes and his sense of humor. They are all here and that modern british gangaster/thug accent and behavior just pulls me out of the film. Good on its own, not fitting in this setting. What they got right with Baz Luhrmann's Shakespeare they missed the mark with King Arthur.
2. Predictible - every death, betrayal, and "shocking" twist can be spotted a mile a way. Instead of being on the journey and totally engrossed in the world I kept being pulled out of film cause Guy just had telegraph "yep they are dead in two seconds" or "nope dont trust this person" sigh.

Now for the good.
!. Actors - Charlie Hunnam is just a name to me, never seen the guy in anything (that i can recall) but he did an amazing job here. He carried the film very well. His cocky behavior came off as confidence instead of arrogance. He's fun, funny, clever and yes he can kick some major butt! All the actors (with some Game of Thrones allum among them!!) did a great job. Jude was a the weakest of the bunch. Everyone else seemed to be having fun with their role and except for one really cool bad guy scene involving a severed ear, pretty bland. Not great, not awful.
Some standouts for me were Arthur's best pals and our comedic relief Neil Maskell as Back Lack and Kingsley Ben-Adir as Wetstick; Djimon Hounsou as Sir Bedivere, Aiden Gillen as Goosefat Bill and Bleu Landau as Blue.
The characters and actors all did their thing and helped to elevate the project.
2. Visuals - WOW WOW WOW. Disney so needs to see this before they do Aladdin and Ariel and once you see the film you will know why. The creatures in this film are designed to perfection. The effects are done amazingly and the cinematography (save for two confusing shots) was stunning.
3. Excalibur/Fighting - Most of the fighting is pretty paint by numbers boxing BUT there are a few fight scenes that is like someone took Assassin's Creed, Sword Art and Arkham through them in a magic blender and gave that crazy anime sword to Arthur. It is SICK. We only get to see it about three times but trust me it is MAD COOL.
4. Humor - Together the drama and humor may not mix but on their own it works well. There is a trope that happens here too many times with the humor which made it annoying for me instead of "hahaha here we go again".  That complaint aside its written well and is that classic Ritchie style people love.

In conclusion there is more good than bad. When its good its REAL good, but as a whole it falls apart. Instead of being a fun ride throughout it is a bumpy rollorcoaster that ends on a high. Do you need to see it in the theater? If you cant wait to stream it or need to see it on a big screen then yea. Otherwise I say skip it and watch it at home. With the predictibility factor this is something I think would play much better on a second viewing. And without the annoying people who thought it was amateur night at the apollo.


My rating: 3/5 stars