film: King Arthur

[Web]

Film: King Arthur **Spoilers**

I have to say kidz, I was walking into the theatre with reservations about this film... I'd heard it was produced by the same people that made Pirates of the Carribian (don't know if that was factual, but it still put a bad taste in my mouth from day one), and I was dissapointed with that movie. However, I was soon set at ease, as this film had none of the same cheesiness (not to take anything away from Depp's performance, he was great).

While this alternate telling of the ancient tale might be a little hard to swallow for real or ameture historians at points, I found it to be rather factually spot on most of the time. There is some new research I want to do now on the origination of the word knight, that's for sure.

EDIT:
Thanks for the poll idea Alasdair

****SPOILERS****








Personally, I didn't like the idea of Arthur being a Roman Officer, half Britain or not. Thankfully, the character was strong enough to make it less significant than I first thought. The twist on the endentured knights added something really special to the mix. I really enjoyed the interpretation of these mythical characters, especially Gawain and Galahad. Keira Knightly did a fine job playing a Celtic Warrior Guinevere, and was as beautiful as ever. That "top" she wore in battle looked hella uncomfortable though... but to be honest, if they'd wanted to be historically correct with the "Woads" (Celts) they should have had at least some of them go into battle naked, decorated only in the blue woad. I was very pleased to see that this telling of the story had no indiscretions between Lancelot and Guinevere. Plenty of hot looks at each other, but no cheating on Arthur. My favorite character? Tristain, the badass Cavalry/Ranger/Swordsman. Too bad he wasn't badass enough in the end...

 

[NecroTrance]

The movie made a historical spin on the tale of Arthur, it seems. Arthur was definitely portrayed well(character-wise, not origin-wise). Lancelot was top-notch(because Lancelot was a shovinistic dog). Borz(sp?)was definitely my favorite of the Knights, but Kiera Knightly steals the movie with that top! I literally had a non-messy orgasm when the camera first moved over her in her battle-ready get-up. *shriek*

The battles were incredible and overall, this was a good film...Oscar-worthy. One thing I wanted was more gore. More gore would've made this movie twice as good and if they shoot for graphic violence they might as well include some naked Celts...Especially Guinevere. Yum. I saw this with a friend of mine and she was disappointed because all of their(the actors/actresses)teeth were perfect, it didn't bother me, but I can see how it's bothersome.

One more thing though...Remix potential with Borz's Wife's song?

 

[Web]

^That is a fucking AWESOME idea about the song man. You up for it? I want a rough melody posted in the production thread in 2 weeks.

Bors was pretty fucking cool too,... hell, all the knight characters were classic.

 

[Web]

I can't believe no one is talking about this flick. Ok, maybe it's not Oscar material, or the latest indie... but it IS pure medival mahem and fun!

 

[h@ndo]

Thought it was watchable without being great.

Wasn't nearly as good as the likes of Braveheart and I thought the actor who played Arther (forgot his name) didn't seem to fit the role IMO.

On a side note all this about it being "Historically correct" (or more so than previous flicks) I don't get, isn't it all based on legend ? I may be very misinformed and am fine with that but I just don't remember it being taught as a historical fact.

6.5/10 bananas from me

 

[alasdairm]

rate this movie

alasdair

 

[fairnymph]

I was greatly looking forward to this movie and I was disappointed.

Keira (guinevere) was wonderful and hot as she usually is, but I wasn't really pleased with the rest of the cast. Lancelot was a sullen jackass. Arthur wasn't quite right, somehow. Not regal enough.

The music and much of the dialogue was way too heavy on the cheese. It was just so overly dramatic it made me cringe at times. I'm usuallly pretty tolerant of such things but in this movie it was just bad.

The battle scenes were fairly good, and I thought the tactics of the final battle were clever.

I'd give this a 6/10, maybe 7/10 if I focus on Keira.

 

[L2R]

I thought this film was pointless.

It has astonishingly bad camera angles, the characters make spontaneous random decisions for no reason and battle scenes which show many attacks (via the use of fast cuts), very few deaths and sequences with no coordination/continuity.
SPOILER
Burning the ground underneath the bad guys was done in Sparticus (via rolling hay), braveheart and the last samurai.

What was with the big gate on the wall? At the start they needed horses to open them, then later they close on they're own, then later a dying man opens and closes them by himself and in the next shot they were mysteriously open again.
One or two of these fuck ups is forgivable for a student film but not for professionals. This fool of a director got paid for this!

 

[Dj DaZ]

i thought it wasnt very bad ive seen worse but i was half way entertained
and anyone notice merlin didnt do crap cept be dirty and old

 

[lost_boi]

this movie actually bored me to pieces. almost wanted to get up and walk out.
dont get me wrong there were some great scenes that held it together but it just didnt cut it for me.

 

[Jabberwocky]

"Land of Bear and Land of Eagle
Land that gave us birth and blessing
Land that called us ever homewards
We will go home across the monutains
We will go home, we will go home
We will go home, across the mountains"

I was expecting this movie to be absolute cheese, and for that reason forgoed seeing it in the theater and only just recently watched it on DVD. I have to say that I was truly entertained by this film as a whole, and was actually moved by a few scenes - "Borz's Wife's song" one of the most notable. The way the camera panned across the faces of each knight just long enough to reveal each one's own longing for home was very well done IMO and set up the rest of the film very nicely.

After seeing this film I've admitted to myself that an entertaining period piece needn't necessarily cost 100 million to make, be 3 hours long and have thousands of extras with shields and swords clashing with each other.

Oh yeah.... how's that remix coming????

 

[alasdairm]

i've tried to watch this a couple of times now and have had to put it off. i've enjoyed clive owen in other roles but in this he seemed wooden.

alasdair

 

[Chaos Butterfly]

I thought it was a waste of a good couple of hours.

It was quasi entertaining in the slash and fight sort of way, but I found it boring. I loved the concept, that was fantastic, I just thought the excecution was tripe.

CB.