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Excalibur covered the tale from a fairly traditional point
of view with magic and mysticism as well as shining armour
and bold knights.
Now folk have got stuck into the latest re-look at Arthur
- Antoine's Fuqua's King Arthur, but I have to say
I really enjoyed the gritty - more realistic - look to it.
In King Arthur our hero is played by Clive Owen, a hard-fighting
knightly figure who tries to uphold Roman traditions against
invaders who would enslave the Romano British. His ever-dwindling
band of knights are from Samartia and are truly awesome in
battle.
They include Sir Lancelot (Ioann Gruffudd), Sir Bors (Ray
Winstone) and Sir Gawain (Joel Edgerton).
They are sent on a mission to rescue a Roman family threatened
by an advancing Saxon force under a suitably hairy and mean
Stellan Skarsgård and find themselves rescuing a Briton
in the shape of Guinevere (Keira Knightly). She's a Woad,
or feral Briton, and has a link to a non-magical leader called
Merlin who has fought the Romans for years.
Fortunately for the storyline things don't go to plan and
our little band has to protect a whole column of civilians
against the bad guys.
The battle scenes in King Arthur are exciting and graphic.
There's blood and smoke and arrows and limbs hacked off. It's
great! The fight on the ice is superb and will have your pulse
coursing, but the end clash is wonderful as well.
King Arthur is a really gritty, and sometimes a little dull,
view of Arthur but it has touched the likely realism more
closely than other similar movies.
The cast is terrific - Gruffudd is a dark version of the
more popular character, Knightly plays Guinevere as a modern
woman and that's probably about right for Britons back then
(keeping in mind Boadiccea) and Clive Owen is broodingly king
like.
The photography is superb and the transfer excellent. Give
this one a go, you may very pleasantly surprised.
Conclusion: Movie 85% Extras 60%
Continued: DVD
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