On paper, this is a good film. The story follows the young last emperor of Rome as he flees his fallen homeland, led by a priest, the last of his guards, and a dishonored assassin of Alexander's empire. It is basically the telling of the story of Uther Pendragon, the rise of Camelot, and the tale behind Excalibur. As interesting as this could have been, shoddy direction, poorly executed effects and a few bouts of bad casting/acting completely ruined it. This isn't to say that the movie was entirely bad. Ben Kingsley was excellent, and Collin Firth was pretty good as an aging Marcus Aurelius. The eastern assassin lady, whom I originally rolled my eyes at during the trailer, actually wasn't terrible. Not that the character fit in well, but she definitely could have been worse. It was much more believable than Kiera Knightly's "Legolas" rendition of Guenevere in 2004's "King Arthur." She also added a necessary bit of eye-candy without having to resort to the obligatory "naked in a waterfall" technique that usually hits these movies. In a rare move for these epic historical films, they sprinkled in a few moments of comic relief, which did make me chuckle a bit, but sort of detracted from the movie. The real problem with this film falls with the evil guy at the end of the film. He's bad enough to where I can't remember his name, nor did I care enough to figure out who the actor was. I know the character's name began with a "V", that's about it. The special effects didn't add anything to the film, either. The fireballs and arrows looked fake, even by 90's CG standards. If you're set on seeing this film, wait until it shows up on TNT or TBS or something in a few months.
2 comments:
I was intitially interested in this, but your review as well as my own vague suspicions have snuffed out any enthusiasm I once had. The story of Odoacer deposing the child usurper could have been a good one, but the attempt to link this piece of history with the origin of the Arthur legend is what convinced me to stay away. I wanted a historical period piece, but it appears to be more of a popcorn fantasy...
I seriously think that if it were better directed and less "schlocky," it could have been a very interesting movie. They didn't really delve too deep into fantasy. Even 'Merlin's' magic was relatively simple parlor tricks that he admitted to being nothing more than deception. They just completely failed to realize the potential.
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