This looked really awesome. Funny, anachronistic in that way when it brings the old things modern, rather than taking the modern things historic. Is that even anachronism?
Anyhoo... for the first third of this film I was digging the vibe. Then after that I was bored. Then more bored. Then I was so bored I thought I'd missed the climax... only to realise whatever I'd missed was something else and now we were finally into the boring last third.
Pluses:
>A lot of flaming undead horses.
>Merlin is pretty hysterical, transforming both into an owl via sneezing, or less frequently into Patrick Stewart. But either way Merlin is an awkward goofball of excellence... his mad-hand-spell-casting is a sight to behold.
>Bullies get to become a bit less bad.
Where it departs entertainment-ville for me is by turning quite sharply from a fish-out-of-water "this kid is a sword-in-the-stone kid and these other kids are knights" comedy into basically a retelling of a pretty normal Arthur story with smaller characters and better CGI.
There are a few really hilarious bits, like when they're all driving in the car, kill the last apocalypto horseman and then the driver reappears. But mostly it's just same old, same old. There's an excellent attempt at getting a theme of "the kids will save England" off the ground, but it's really more a few throwaway lines than a solid vibe.
It's probably pretty kid friendly, you know if you have kids and you've been desperately seeking an Arthurian remake to show them.
J* gives it 2 stars.
YOU ARE READING
j* Movie Reviews 2019
HumorSpoilery recounts? Hilarious reviews? Serious takes? Just want to know what one female film reviewer who likes action thinks about the latest release? My collection of reviews from the releases of 2019.
