Grade: C | Genre: Action Summary: A fresh take on the King Arthur story that doesn't hold its weight when plugged into this formulaic Hollywood film yielding a rather generic movie. Keira Knightley shines regardless.

Starring: Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, and Stellan Skarsgard
Director: Antoine Fuqua

Yes I'm well aware of what you are surely thinking, "Exactly how many times can we hear this same old tale of King Arthur and his dutiful knights." At least one more time more evidently. To its credit the film takes an interesting spin on the age-old tale by announcing at the movie's onset that new archeological information has surfaced that signaled Arthur may have been based on a real person who lived around the 5th century. This movie is supposed to chronicle that life. The accuracy of these claims I'll leave to the scholars.

Basically Arthur, played by Clive Owen, and his men fight for Rome being enslaved at a young age and forced to give 15 years worth of service to secure their freedom. Arthur believes in the free ideals of Rome and plans to go there after their service ends. On the day of their release, one last deadly mission suddenly arises that must be undertaken before they are freed of their contract. Begrudgingly they take on this final request. Along the way Arthur discovers things in Rome to not be the utopia he dreamed in youth. His beliefs and entangled ideals begin to strain. Guinevere, played by Keira Knightley, joins their forces along the way to dabble temptation before both Arthur and Lancelot. All the while the Saxon army is conquering England as Rome abandons the knight's life work to allow it to be overrun. Arthur, the knights and Guinevere's people stay to fight the invading army and the obligatory epic battle ensues. If this reads a lot like the classic cast from King Arthur dropped into the middle of Braveheart its because that is basically what you have here. The first half prods along fairly slowly as the story is setup. The second half gives us the bulk of the action yet it still feels empty and too much like formulaic Hollywood. Clive Owen gives an adequate performance with his two-day stubble and brooding looks but after seeing what he is capable of in Closer you can tell he is pretty much on autopilot here. The one brilliant shining light here is the reworking of Guinevere's character and Keira Knightley portrayal of her. The writers and Kiera have ditched the demure Guinevere patiently awaiting her knight in shining armor and created a kick ass, face painting heroine that can more than hold her own on the battlefield. She comes packed with a lot of spunk and Keira downplays her stunning looks to give a rougher feel inherent to the character. I wish there was more of this inventiveness and creative savvy in King Arthur because it's a story I used to love as a kid. If you are looking to check out for a couple hours to a story with universal appeal, you could certainly do worse but I'd opt for giving Braveheart another spin or perhaps checking out Troy if you haven't had the pleasure.

Posted by: Morgana at March 29, 2005 05:37 PM