May 12, 2017
King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword
Greg Vellante READ TIME: 2 MIN.
What a gathering of peculiar contradictions "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" is. It's built with all the components of a mindless Hollywood blockbuster, right down to the loud finale where lots of things go boom, but director Guy Ritchie brings inspired flairs to the film throughout its duration. These moments, however, are few and far between -- once "King Arthur" begins to feel like something different, it snaps right back to being more of the same.
This is frustrating for multiple reasons, especially for fans of Ritchie's eclectic style and filmmaking tones. The filmmaker's signature flourishes, both in what's written in the script and what ends up on the screen, are fairly detectable for even those who aren't too familiar with the artist's work.
Snap zooms, quick-cut montage editing accompanied by sharp narration, aggressive action (all of which are terribly migraine-inducing in 3D -- skip that format for your own health), Ritchie stamps his style on the film whenever he can, but the studio manages to imprint itself more on the overall final product.
Compared to something like "Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2," where writer/director James Gunn expertly blends individual artistry with studio-obligated commerce, "King Arthur" fails to finds a proper balance.
The film is not without its small pleasures, though. When Ritchie's style is fully at the wheel, the film feels resuscitated, especially when accompanied by Daniel Pemberton's monumentally energetic score (seriously, this thing kicks like a mule).
Jude Law gives a performance of satisfyingly campy swagger as the film's primary villain, often dressed like a guy who is about to hit up the club on a Friday night but is way too old to be hitting up the club on a Friday night. There's also an abundant silliness to the whole thing that feels genuine -- this movie wants you to have fun.
The film definitely falls to the bottom of Ritchie's oeuvre, however, as it never manages to capture what the director can actually accomplish under his own terms. It feels like he's underwater creatively for much of the film, gasping for air on any occasion he can. On those moments, despite minimal, his artistic inhalations managed to strike me with a momentary breathlessness.
