Tuesday, July 13, 2004
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THE BATTAllnui; B
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"King Arthur"
Starring Clive Owen, Keira Knightiey, loan
Gruffudd
Touchstone Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer
Films
Review by David Barry
Two months behind “Troy,” “King Arthur” is the summer’s
second course of clanging swordfights and epic battles. “King
Arthur,” a PG-13 rated movie, probably maxes out its bloodshed
quota with the MPAA. Unfortunately, there is little else to gener
ate excitement in this dreary, two-hour slog through ancient Britain.
A brief history lesson at the movie’s beginning reveals that
Arthur and his knights were plucked from their homes in Eastern
Europe as youths and sent to defend the Roman Empire’s terri
tory in Britain.
The movie jumps ahead 15 years and rejoins Arthur (Clive
Owen) and his band of knights as they near the end of their mili
tary service to Rome. They are dark, bitter men, sick of fighting
for Rome and ready to go home.
Before they are freed by their Roman masters, however, they
Photo Courtesy: TOUCHSTONE PICTURES
Owen (right) and Knightiey star in the action-adventure “King Arthur.”
must complete one last mission— rescue a Roman official from a
remote outpost before it is overrun by the murderous Saxons.
At the Roman outpost, Arthur finds the lovely Guinevere (Kei-
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rly. I
ra Knightly) locked in a dungeon. A refreshingly strong
heroine, Guinevere quickly recovers from her incarceration
begins to cast lusty looks at Arthur and Lancelot (loan
fudd). Guinevere’s legendary love triangle could have
things interesting, but the movie quietly shuffles that plot!
the bottom of the stack.
After all, there are more important things: The Saxons a
preaching (we can hear them banging on their drums in the
ground), and that means the director can milk a few more
scenes from the movie before the credits roll.
Some of the action scenes are fun to watch, like one ball
tween knights and Saxons on a frozen lake. Others are boring
predictable, with confusing, jumpy camerawork that makesfon
pleasant viewing. The knights are a mixed bag of characters,
is believable as Arthur, and Gruffudd succeeds as handsome,
nest Lancelot. His verbal jousting with Bors (Ray Winstone),
T h
al
lonal
alleged father of as many as a dozen bastard children, provide to p<
few light moments.
Bors tries to serve up the comic relief, but he is no knightoftfnationa
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Monty Python sort - his bawdy humor falls Hat on its lace, ■
one joke in the movie worth laughing at belongs to Guinevere.!
remaining knights, who receive only flashes of camera tinted ie
lifeless as chess pieces. er challe
Merlin (Stephen Dillane), the leader of the body-ps
forest-dwelling pagan Woads, plays a minor role in the
first as enemy and then as ally of the knights. The real villi
is left up to Cerdic (Stellan Skarsgard) and his ferocious S:
army. Skarsgard manages to energize the plodding script,a
army maintains an invisible, driving presence that helps
the scenes along.
When the Saxons are off screen, and their presence is krI^ ^ iav
only by the distant beating of drums, the audience may even:IHE AS!
a tinge of suspense.
Unfortunately, that suspense is tossed aside once the arm)
pears in the open, and “King Arthur” becomes another unii
good v. evil melee.
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