It feels good to be right about something. I’ll try not to brag too much.
For a number of months now I’ve been cheerleading a movie
called The Kid Who Would Be King. Since I saw the first trailer for it, I’ve
been saying that it looks like a lot of fun.
And the truth is, I saw the movie and guess what? It was a lot of fun!
This isn’t exactly a fairy tale film but it does stray into
Stuff of Legends territory, so I think it’s close enough.
The Kid Who Would Be
King is a movie about a 12 year old boy named Alexander Elliot. Alexander struggles with bullies at school
and abandonment issues regarding his absentee father. Then, one night when running from his
bullies, he finds a sword stuck in a stone at a demolition site. Alexander pulls the sword from the
stone. Before long, Alexander discovers
that he has now been chosen as the new king, whose duties include defeating the
sorceress Morgana and saving all of Britain from enslavement. So, along with his friend Bedders, his two
former bullies turned knights and Merlin in the form of a lanky teenage boy, he
goes on a quest to defeat Morgana and experiences some self-discovery along the
way.
This movie is the sophomore foray for director Joe Cornish,
director of the inner city alien invasion movie Attack the Block. It stars
Louis Serkis as Alexander, Dean Chaumoo as Bedders, and Angus Imrie and Patrick
Stewart as the young and old Merlin respectively. All the actors do good jobs. Probably the standout is Angus Imrie as
teenage Merlin. Especially entertaining
are his spells which are entirely executed through elaborate hand gestures.
You know what? Let's have another one.
Okay, that's enough.
King Arthur related movies haven’t exactly been having the
greatest run lately. And I’ve echoed the
sentiment put forth by online media critic Patrick H. Willems that the problem is
that new versions of the story have put forth of their radical new takes without bothering to remind people of
why they loved the stories to begin with.
Essentially, with old stories like this that get made into movies usually
every decade or so, you have to provide people with the “greatest hits” before
hitting with new stuff. I’m pleased to
report that The Kid Who Would Be King
doesn’t make the same mistake as other recent films. This film gives us Excalibur, the sword in
the stone (the same sword for storytelling economy purposes here), Merlin,
Morgana, Tintagel, The Lady of the Lake and even a round table of sorts. Sure, the movie had plenty of new stuff
too. You can’t go as radical as “preteen
becomes the new King Arthur” without changing things up a little. Their take on the sorceress Morgana is
decidedly different, portraying her as much less a witch and more of a demon at
times. Her human form also has a unique
vegetative look with roots and vines all over.
The Lady of the Lake is now connected to every body of water in all of
Britain, ranging from lakes to puddles to bathtubs. Our new collection of knights also provides
some nice diversity to reflect the face of modern Britain with Bedders
(counterpart to Sir Bedivere) being a South Asian boy and Kaye (counterpart to
Sir Kay) being a young black girl. There
is also one big change to the Arthurian legend that I’m rather fond of. However, it comes as a big moment in the
movie and a major turning point for Alexander’s story so I don’t want to give
it away.
The new take on Morgana |
So, has The Kid Who
Would Be King escaped the curse of recent Arthur films. Well, maybe halfway. The reviews I’ve seen have echoed my
sentiment that the movie is a lot of fun.
However, last I checked it didn’t seem to be burning up the box office. Which is too bad.
So, I’d very much recommend The Kid Who Would Be King.
It’s a lot of fun and if you’re anything like me, it might be just the
King Arthur movie you’re looking for.
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