It came out on Starz back in 2011. I don't pay for payTV channels, so I saw it for for first time from a Netflix disc last night. Which makes it a little old. Being an old King Arthur fan, I had high hopes for this one.
Disappointing. First it suffers from the curse of the soundman. Much of the dialogue is inaudible, lost under the score, or the actors mumble, or the mike isn't placed right. Then it's hard to tell the characters apart, they all wear the same hairdo's and the same clothes. I failed to distinguish Morgan Le Faye (villain) from Ygraine (goodguy) several times. King Lot (villain) looks pretty much like Sir Kay (goodguy). Arthur, the only blonde guy in this thing, is at least distinct in appearance.
The story starts around the end of "The Sword in the Stone" with a young Arthur pulling the sword from the stone and being acclaimed King of the Britons. Jamie Bower is an unsatisfactory Arthur. Although he looks the right age for the part, he isn't very handsome, he doesn't get any memorable lines (thanks scriptwriters), his costume doesn't help him (huge fur trimmed cape with broaches the size of saucers), and he never does anything very heroic. Even in the climatic scene pulling the sword from the stone he never looks heroic. He never displays the commanding presence that makes knights and warlords do his bidding. In most scenes Merlin is obviously pushing Arthur into position on stage, and giving him his lines to say.
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