King Arthur

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, King Arthur follows Clive Owen’s title character as he and his men, including Joel Edgerton’s Gawain, Mads Mikkelsen’s Tristan, and Ray Winstone’s Bors, embark on a perilous mission to protect an important family from invading Saxons – with their efforts eventually assisted by Keira Knightley’s Guinevere and her army of fierce warriors. Filmmaker Fuqua, working from David Franzoni’s screenplay, delivers a sporadically watchable yet mostly underwhelming epic that remains, for the most part, unable to wholeheartedly capture and sustain the viewer’s interest, as the movie, which runs an overlong 126 minutes, suffers from a hit-and-miss midsection that generally comes off as uneventful and lacking in forward momentum (ie there are far too many long, drawn-out sequences wherein the characters plot their next move). And although the picture admittedly does boast plenty of strong performances, Owen’s completely captivating turn as the commanding central protagonist is an ongoing highlight, to be sure, King Arthur‘s distressing absence of engrossing set-pieces, with a battle that transpires atop rapidly-cracking ice a rare exception, paves the way for a second half that peters out long before arriving at its less-than-enthralling final conflict – which does, in the final analysis, cement the film’s place as an underwhelming endeavor that feels like it should be far more engaging and exciting (and violent).

** out of ****