King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Blu-Ray
Review by Kam Williams
Visual
F/X Variation of the Classic Tale Arrives on Home Video
Do
you remember what happened to the Sherlock Holmes franchise in Guy
Ritchie's hands? The low-key, cerbral sleuth who solved mysteries
with his intellect suddenly morphed into a flamboyant, two-fisted
superhero as likely to rely on brawn as brains to solve a case.
Well
brace yourself for a similar transformation with King Arthur: Legend
of the Sword. Again, Ritchie makes a concession to the
attention-deficit demographic in crafting a fanciful reimagining of
the beloved epic that plays out more like a frenetic, action-packed
video game than a classic medieval tale.
Nonetheless,
the good news is that the movie works, if all you're looking for is
to be entertained by an overblown summer blockbuster with an A-rating
when it comes to state-of-the-art special f/x. And the characters
even sport familiar names, from King Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) to Lady
Guinevere (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) to Merlin
the Magician (Kamil Lemieszewski). But I still defy anyone to make
sense of this hyperactive adventure which abandons the British
folklore upon which it's ostensibly based in deference to a cinematic
mandate for incessant stimulation.
The
picture's rudimentary plot unfolds as follows. At the point of
departure, King Uther (Eric Bana) is assassinated at the behest of
his power-hungry brother, Vortigern (Jude Law). Instead of ascending
to the thrown, Arthur grows up a lowly street urchin, utterly
oblivious of his royal bloodline until the moment, years later, he
manages to pull the magical sword Excalibur out of a stone.
Cognizant
of his rendezvous with destiny, with the help of a big bird, an
archer (Aidan Gillen), a black knight (Djimon Hounsou) and psychic
Guinevere, Arthur embarks on an epic quest to reclaim his
birthright. And what an eye-popping spectacle it proves to be!
Guy,
I like what you've done with the legend!
Very
Good (3 stars)
Rated PG-13
for violence, action, suggestive content and brief profanity
Running time: 126
minutes
Distributor: Warner
Brothers Home Entertainment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rbPTQIdjmY
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