Genre:
Adventure, Fantasy
Produced by:
Nira Park, Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan
Directed by:
Joe Cornish
Written by:
Joe Cornish
Production Company: 20th Century Fox
Starring: Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Dean
Chaumoo, Tom Taylor, Rhianna Dorris, Angus Imrie, Rebecca Ferguson, Patrick
Stewart
Runtime: 120 minutes
SYNOPSIS:
A long-time target for bullies in
school, Alex Elliott (Louis Ashbourne
Serkis) would have never imagined in his young life that he is destined to
do bigger things. That changes when he discovers the magical sword Excalibur.
Under the guidance of the enigmatic Merlin (Angus Imrie/Patrick Stewart),
Alex must now assume the role of King Arthur and assemble his own army of
knights to battle against the dark forces coming to threaten his home.
REVIEW:
Safe to say, King Arthur has grown to
become cinema’s poisoned chalice. Arguably one of the most frequently adapted
source material for films, its journey to the silver screen has presented more
misses than there are hits. That’s a bit strange considering the fact that the
legend’s many interpretations help open the door for limitless possibilities.
As a tale of a boy/man who must wage battle against belligerent tribes and royal
intrigues to prove his worth as king, it could work as a Gladiator/Braveheart-style historical war epic. As tales of both
the only boy/man who can pull a magical sword out of a stone and one who must
go on a quest to defeat the evil sorceress, it could work as a Lord of the Rings-style high fantasy
epic. And it’s no longer a mystery that those aforementioned films are critical
and financial hits. In the case of the Lord
of the Rings, it became the surefire franchise starter, something that
filmmakers have tried their hardest to emulate with the Arthurian mythology.
Surely, if Hollywood can just “copy the
formula”, they can do no wrong, can they?
King Arthur remains the rare exception.
Whichever way the filmmakers go with the material, as loyal or as revisionist
as they can be with it, it’s rarely been the right direction. At this moment, revisiting
King Arthur is like flogging an already dead horse.
2019’s The Kid Who Would Be King, Edgar
Wright’s frequent collaborator Joe
Cornish’s latest directorial effort, is the faint hope that a tiny poke
could just wake the dead horse up. As much as it has a promising creative
talent attached to the project, it comes at the most unfortunate of time when
adapting legends into films aren’t in fashion anymore, let alone making them
look cool, hip or relevant for today’s audience. Robin Hood (2018) tried to give the titular legend the bohemian
touch, for it to fail spectacularly on so many levels. In regards to King
Arthur, Guy Ritchie attempted to
tell the Arthurian story like it’s an early-century British gangster comedy
with King Arthur: the Legend of the Sword
(2017), for it to become one of the year’s biggest financial disasters.
The
Kid Who Would Be King
is cinema’s latest attempt at revamping such an inherently medieval legend for
the modern society. In this film’s case, modern takes a much more literal meaning
with the Knights of the Round Table now taking the form of Generation-Z kids
and the Renaissance-era realm of Camelot now taking the form of urban London. With
these changes, could The Kid Who Would Be
King be the King Arthur movie that finally worked?
Whether things will eventually work out
for The Kid Who Would Be King box
office-wise, that will be a different story for some other time. But the story
worth telling right now is that Joe
Cornish’s subversive take on the Arthurian mythology is the better King
Arthur movie adaptation in recent years. This shouldn’t surprise fans of Joe Cornish’s work, particularly his directorial
debut Attack the Block (2011). The way The
Kid Who Would Be King splices together its Arthurian-inspired epic fantasy with
the modern-day realities of a junior high student’s life will sure remind
filmgoers of the way Attack the Block
successfully splices together alien invasion thriller with the modern-day
realities of a teenage hoodlum’s life. Like what a PG-13 Once upon a Deadpool (2018) is to the R-rated Deadpool 2 (2018), The Kid
Who Would Be King is essentially a PG-rated, much watered-down version of Attack the Block, stripped off of the gratuitous
gore and ghetto expletives. But who’s to say that having a watered-down, “kiddie”
version of Attack the Block in the Kid Who Would Be King means taking the
sting out of the latter?
What still remains of this movie’s Attack the Block influence is the sense
of fun that’s to be had with the bonkers medieval tale-meets-modern-day premise.
And fun is exactly what’s been missing in King Arthur movie adaptations of
late. It’s easy to be swept away by the large-scale battles that defines King
Arthur’s life, and come out with an adaptation that favors style over substance.
But then again, there’s so much more to King Arthur’s story than just endless
battles. With magical presences like Merlin and Morgana Le Fay in the fringes,
there’s also so much to admire about the fantastical world surrounding King
Arthur. And maybe, what a King Arthur story really needs at the moment in the
way of fun is that little bit of high fantasy magic.
It’s this high fantasy angle on the King
Arthur story that Joe Cornish really
focuses on, which, coupled with the 21st century twist, makes The Kid Who Would Be King a fun ride. With
the action, Cornish takes what could
have been just some run-of-the-mill fantasy movie set-pieces, and gives them a
bit of the high tech v. old tech spin. In a way, that’s what’s expected of The Kid Who Would Be King’s attempt at
modernizing the King Arthur lore. There are a couple of times when the knights’
battle with Morgana’s army of undead would have been solved with the generic
swordfight, for it to be resolved refreshingly by having its Gen-Z lead
characters use modern-day everyday objects to take down Morgana’s army of
undead. It’s a theme that remains consistent in its action sequences, one that
goes to crazier heights with its finale. On paper, it should have been the typical
large-scale battle, only for Cornish
to put a creative spin to it. This is the movie where cars can be an effective
medieval weapon. 2019 is still young, but The
Kid Who Would Be King’s finale is the best in the year so far.
More than just action, The Kid Who Would Be King is also packed
with plenty of heart. Deep within the sword in the stone aspect of the lore is
this underdog story of some nobody who tries to prove one’s worth to the world.
And Cornish beautifully ties
together King Arthur’s personal struggles of yesteryears with Alex’s personal
struggles of the 21st century. Times might have been different, but
like how the next of kin often inherits its ancestor’s problems, it seems like King
Arthur’s problems parallels with Alex’s problems.
Obviously, for a 12-year old boy living
in a tech-savvy world like Alex, proving one’s worth against the entire British
population would be the last thing that comes into his mind. It might have been
relevant during King Arthur’s times, but in today’s pre-teen world, it’s more about
proving one’s worth against bullies. And for Alex, dealing with bullies feels
pretty much like King Arthur dealing with the entire British population. As
much as he tries to stand up for himself and his friend, he’s had to go through
life being pushed aside, disrespected for being the small kid in the playground,
similar to what King Arthur experiences when the entire British population
doubts him because of his status as the new kid in the big boys’ pool trying to
claim the throne. Like King Arthur, the outcome eventually leads to Alex fighting
an evil sorceress and her army of undead, but on a deeper level, their journey
is less about defeating dark, supernatural forces as a way of earning respect,
but more about them defeating their own doubts and others.
Like the way Attack the Block team its teenage hoodlums up with their victim in
their battle against aliens, The Kid Who
Would Be King also sees the bullies and the victims forced to team up in
their battle against Arthurian icons. Only this time, the roles are reversed,
with the victims being the main characters and the bullies being the supporting
characters. Apparently, as the story progresses, Joe Cornish is more interested with the potential of the character
dynamics between victim and bully than the action and fantastical imagery. And
the result is a high fantasy epic that is more character-driven than the genre
suggests. A lot of its middle part is essentially ice-breaking moments between
characters, where the gap between victim and bully starts to narrow and their
bond starts to become more inseparable. These moments are all about how the
characters go from being each other’s enemies to closest allies.
A Joe
Cornish movie wouldn’t be the same without his brand of meta-humor. By now,
every movie has meta-humor in it, which raises the question: what makes this
one more special? In The Kid Who Would Be
King’s case, it’s their awareness of pop culture that makes the characters
feel like real kids. In an era where kids are inevitably inundated left and
right with movies, it would be normal that if they’re faced with the same
situation as Alex, they would relate what they’re going through with something
from a movie. Words like “it’s like Frodo and Sam” (which is probably the most Meta
this movie can be, knowing that Louis Ashbourne
Serkis a.k.a. Andy Serkis (who
played Gollum in the Lord of the Rings
series)’ son played Alex) would come out. In so many cases where pop
culture-savvy characters are deemed unrealistic, this is the rare exception.
As far as villain goes, this is where The Kid Who Would Be King meets its
shortcomings. In this case, it’s Alex’s nemesis/evil sorceress Morgana Le Fay,
portrayed by the gifted Rebecca Ferguson.
Opinions regarding Morgana’s characterization or Ferguson’s performance depend on what Joe Cornish is going
for. Is she supposed to be one-dimensional and larger-than-life? Or is she more
than that? If he aims for the
former, then he succeeds. Ferguson’s
performance highlights her vast range as an actress by going full-on camp.
Morgana here is a throwback to the early-day cartoon villains, dressed in pitch
black and purely mad scientist-like evil, without any gray area. If he aims for
the latter though, then he fails miserably.
But what’s more disappointing is her
lack of screentime. Throughout the two hour-long runtime, she’s barely in the
movie. Sure, she’s only a supporting character, and on a positive note, the
lack of villainous presence allows the quartet of teen leads to be better
fleshed out. On the downside, without the consistent presence of a villain, the
heroes’ adventure lacks urgency. Despite the fact that the heroes know that
their world is at stake, there’s very little indication that Morgana is out to
get them.
Morgana’s introduction to the movie though
does suggest a complex, menacing force, but that’s the extent the story goes in
the way of complexities and menace. For a bulk of the second act, she
completely disappears. Ferguson’s
voice-over actually appears more often than her physical presence. Even when she
finally shows her physical form, the screenplay doesn’t give her anything interesting to do. In the Mission: Impossible movies, Ferguson proved that she can handle
choreography. At least, allow her to exert her muscle a bit when she unleashes
her spell, instead of just letting her stand around and spout sermons. Whenever
Morgana is forced to do the hard work, she either summons her army of undead or
transform into a CGI monster, which feels like a complete waste of the actress’
talent.
Talking about CGI, it’s an element that helps
and hurts The Kid Who Would Be King. It’s
a movie that relies so little and so much on CGI.
In cases where the movie decides to
scale down on the CGI, it is where the imagery looks the most convincing. Take
the training sequence for example, which sees Alex and his gang practice
medieval fighting with sentient trees. Almost everything in that sequence is
shot on location, except for the CGI trees. Yet it’s the photorealistic way the
visual effect artists render the trees that make the objects feel at home in
the live-action environment. Sure, the actors are interacting with thin air, but
it is the smooth blend between the live-action performances and CGI work that makes
it easier for the audience to believe the authenticity in such fancy.
Any time the movie decides to flood the
screen with CGI, it is where the CGI quality takes a slight turn for the worst.
There is one sequence where characters are suddenly transported to a
post-apocalyptic landscape. In contrast to the training sequence, almost
everything here is fully CGI, except for the actors. In contrast to the CGI in that
sequence, the CGI here is so overproduced that it is hard to believe that the
actors are in the aforementioned location. It becomes so clear that the actors
are standing in front of a green screen that even faint green outlines of their
bodies manage to show themselves in split second. It doesn’t help that this
sequence looks too much like a video game, especially Morgana’s army of undead
who would suit the DCEU world more than Arthurian.
Following in the footsteps of Attack the Block, a good portion of what
is going to make The Kid Who Would Be
King work hinges on its teen-dominated cast. And yes, a good portion of
what makes this movie work is the strong chemistry between the four main teenage
characters. There is just so much endearing love, respect, humor and lots and
lots of clashing heads moments to be had with the teens’ relationship that
makes what’s going on with them internally as fascinating as what’s going on
externally.
Leading this ensemble is Louis Ashbourne Serkis as this film’s
version of King Arthur. Serkis’ natural
performance as Alex offers a sense of genuineness and
relatability to a boy that’s struggling with his own confidence. What Alex is
going through doesn’t just make the audience acknowledge the weight pinned on
his shoulders, but also feel it. Beside Serkis’
character Alex at all times is Dean
Chaumoo as Alex’s best friend Bedders. In a film that relies quite a lot on
pop culture references for comedy, the jokes mostly land because of the two’s
easy interplay. They could just go rat-tat-tat with the references, name
dropping as many intellectual properties as possible and that’s more than enough
to show that they have such a close, sweet bond, without having to resort to
sentimentality.
To round out the teen actors are both Tom Taylor (of the Dark Tower (2017) fame) and Rhianna Dorris, who play Alex’s bullies-turn-closest-allies Lance
and Kaye. Early on in the movie, they’re portrayed like the stereotypical
bullies, and performance-wise, Taylor
and Dorris convince as a pair of
obnoxious, egoistic high schoolers who like to pick on kids, particularly Alex
and Bedders, and care less about the implications. But as the movie progresses,
as the bullies and victims bond, as it finally reveals why both Lance and Kaye
are who they are, the screenplay does well in humanizing what were essentially
awful characters. And both Taylor
and Dorris are equally convincing in
conveying the humanity of a pair of bullies, who are just as victimized as its
victims.
But the true revelation here comes from Angus Imrie’s portrayal of young
Merlin. Time will tell whether Imrie
will follow Attack the Block’s John Boyega’s rise to stardom, but,
based on his performance in this film, who is to say that he doesn’t deserve
the same opportunity? Merlin is such an eccentric character that it requires an
equally eccentric actor to truly embody the legendary wizard, and Imrie, in his feature film debut, doesn’t
pull back. His mannerisms, line delivery, language choices, and the funny hand
movements he makes every time he tries to manipulate people into doing things
for him, are the ultimate definition of eccentricity. Every time he’s onscreen,
he just holds the audience’s attention and never lets it go. Imrie’s performance is an example of
how a character’s personality can make a fantasy world feels so whimsy and fun,
without having to lean too much on technical wonder. He’s so much of a
lightning in a bottle, a scene stealer that the film dips in the way of whimsy
and fun when he’s not around. For Imrie,
this could just be a start of a brighter future.
CONCLUSION:
The
Kid Who Would Be King
integrates the traditional Arthurian yarn with modern-day realities so
seamlessly. Cornish brilliantly
crafts a fun, whimsical young adult fantasy filled with his signature
meta-humor, imaginative set-pieces and a quartet of engaging teen leads.
Score: 8/10
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