Guy Ritchie directing a King Arthur movie is something I never expected.  There are period films and then there are period films and the King Arthur Tale is no easy task.  Making it great is even harder.  With that said, I at least applaud Guy Ritchie’s effort, but that alone can’t make a great film and the audience shouldn’t expect it to. Don’t get me wrong, I am not starting out saying this is a bad film…it’s not…it’s a lot of fun in a ridiculous sort of way. But there’s another film that I and a lot of movie fans love that fits the same bill…it’s called “A Knight’s Tale.”

The reason I use “A Knight’s Tale.” as an example is because you should go into Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur with the mindset that you won’t get an accurate period piece, but an action film set in a certain period that can be a lot of fun if you don’t take it too seriously.  And that pretty much describes every Guy Ritchie film and why should King Arthur: Legend of the Sword be any different! Unlike other King Arthur movies this one does center mostly on Fantasy and a lot of Magic.  It’s entertaining and stylish and makes for a good movie to see on the big screen, but that’s it.  If that’s all I am going to get in the film then I’d rather see Charlie Hunham in another Pacific Rim movie…at least it knows what kind of film it is and doesn’t pretend to be anything else.  I wish this King Arthur movie was more like that.

The movie does have a good “hero’s path” story, which is really the basis of the movie. That’s part of what makes it work.  The other part is the cast especially Charlie Hunham as Arthur.  He was fantastic.  My compliments to Guy Ritchie and company for picking a good cast! The chemistry was definitely there and Jude law made a good villain.  However, these things are the only things that can make it a good film.  The story is not very coherent. I don’t think Guy Ritchie could figure out if this movie Long, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels or an actual Medieval Period Piece so he tried to do both and get the best of both worlds, which didn’t work.  But like most Guy Ritchie films, the action is good and the dialogue is great, which makes it worth viewing the film at least once.

The truth is the biggest problem with the film is Guy Ritchie.  As good as he is at telling a story, a King Arthur story is wrong for his style unless it’s a reimagining with rival gangs in London. That I would buy and then this would be a great film.  But it’s almost like he’s trying to be too clever for the audience and present us with something we’ve never seen before.  The problem is we have in his other films like Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Now, I will say that this film is better than Excalibur, but that’s not really saying much. The bar is not very high when it comes to that film.  King Arthur” Legend of the Sword falls flat in many ways and while it may be worth watching once, it’s not worth the price of movie ticket because at the end of the day King Arthur shouldn’t be Long, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and vice versa.