I’m Trevor with the Sasquatch Movie Minute with a Wonky Wednesday RETRO look at KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD, a 2017 film, directed by Guy Ritchie, starring Charlie Hunnam. A scrabbly knockabout kid pulls a sword from a stone and must fight various demons, elephants, and squids to become King of Camelot.

2 out of 5

What a fascinating disaster this film is, I mean, this thing is weird! I don’t remember the King Arthur legend have quite so many creatures and monsters, but I really dug the surreal 90s-album-cover type of visual imagery here. The fight scenes play around with different shooting techniques and technologies to spice up the story. I mean, the story is a mess. You can feel the whole script being bent and broken by pure willpower so it can fit Ritchie’s aesthetic; a banter-filled, hyper-edited, Cockney action romp. Huge actors like Eric Bana and Jude Law are just there for the paycheck, and Hunnam does his predictably empty SONS-OF-ANARCHY swagger. The ending drowns in too much CGI and felt like He-Man instead of anything connected to Arthurian legend.

Best Scene. That first action scene with the hundred-foot tall demon-led beasts attacking a castle is just a blast! The film wants to read as Camelot on steroids and for that first part, it succeeds! It made a promise of visual excess and absurdity that the rest of the film couldn’t live up to.

Best Performance. One of the great under-utilized and forgotten actors is Djimon Hounsou. Seriously, what happened to this guy? He is in ANOTHER sidekick role here, but even in his paltry screentime, he has charm and humor and wiliness begging to be cut loose in a lead role.

A silly mess of film, but there are some groovy-rad action scenes work thanks to bombastic overkill. Dig it!