I love the King Arthur legend. I've read several books, seen all the movies. So when this one turned up on Netflix, I went for it.
Disappointing is the best I can say for it. Most of the cast, including Arthur, were unknown to me. The only two actors I had every heard of, Jude Law and Eric Bana, had mere spear carrier parts. Other than the sword in the stone, the movie lacks any connection with the well known Arthur legend. No Launcelot, no Gawaine, no Guinevere, no jousting, no Grail, no Round Table, nothing. The story picks up with a young (looks to be in his 20's) Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone. And after that nothing much happens. Arthur does a lot of bitching, and a good deal of whacking and hacking with the sword (Excalibur). It's never clear just what the enemy has done to justify killing them, but that doesn't interfere with another mediocre sword fight. If Arthur has a cause, we never hear of it. He has no love interest. He never shows up leading his troops. The Arthur legend is about a great Christian hero-king saving his people from pagan Saxon invaders. I expected an Arthur movie to show me some heroism. I was disappointed.
Nobody is ever addressed by name, leaving us confused as to who is who. There is a cute young chick, who works magic with funny facial expressions, who ought to Morgan Le Fay, but all she is ever called is "The Mage". There is a Merlin character, played by a black man, but he is never, at least not in my hearing, addressed as Merlin. And other than showing up, he never does anything interesting.
Camera work was mediocre. Too many scenes were poorly lit, and they used the color washout technique entirely too much. Sound work was only fair, but somewhat better than Game of Thrones. I could hear and understand most of the lines.
According to IMDB they spent $175 million making this thing. It's been out since May, and it's only earned $40 million.
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