Antoine Fuqua (“Olympus Has Fallen”) is the right man when it comes to gritty genre material that needs to be presented in a dark and heartfelt way. The director has proven this several times with ‘Tears of the Sun’, ‘Law of the Street’, ‘Shooter’ and the thrillers ‘The Equalizer’. But you probably only want to talk about masterpieces very, very rarely, because Antoine Fuqua’s cinema offers solid entertainment in between, which is sometimes more, sometimes less virtuosic. The only thing that stands out is his formidably acted police thriller ‘Training Day’, a class that Fuqua has never managed to reach to this day.
Not even with the historical adventure”King Arthur“, which airs today, October 19, 2023 at 10 p.m. on Vox. This is the theatrical version. But if you prefer something bolder, you’ll have to turn to online retailers like Amazon. There you can get “King Arthur” in the bloodier director’s cut on Blu-ray, which certainly improves the fight scenes by making them tougher.
That’s what ‘King Arthur’ is about
King Arthur’s (Clive Owen) brave knights are on the verge of achieving freedom after 15 years of bitter and costly fighting. As children, some of them were captured and put into the service of the Roman Empire. Over the years they have accepted the role of involuntary soldiers, but now the return home is near and with it the beginning of a new phase in their lives.
On the day they would receive the liberation documents, they are given one last task: they must rescue a family from the far north, whose son will most likely play an important role in the Roman Empire. On their mission they soon encounter the Celts, a primitive people living in the forests, but also the powerful Saxons, who are already advancing under the leadership of the barbarian Cynric (Til Schweiger)…
Blockbuster average from the Jerry Bruckheimer factory
You have to lower your expectations a little to really get your money’s worth from “King Arthur”. In the official FILMSTARTS review, the historical actioner received an average of 2.5 out of 5 stars. In his conclusion, our author Stefan Ludwig states that the lack of surprises is a serious problem with the film: “The predictability in particular makes ‘King Arthur’ just another Hollywood product that simply lacks its own character to really be worth watching.”
In the case of “King Arthur” you also have to be prepared for some implausibility in order to follow the story with any degree of seriousness. If you want, you can let yourself be lulled in an uncomplicated way by Antoine Fuqua’s rather banal hero’s journey. This is ensured by the well-known cast, which not only stars Clive Owe, but also has many other stars to offer: Keira Knightley (“Pirates of the Caribbean”), Mads Mikkelsen (“Indiana Jones 5”), Stellan Skarsgård ( “Thor”), Ray Winstone (“Departed”), Joel Edgerton (“Master Gardener”), Ray Stevenson (“Punisher: War Zone”) and of course the aforementioned Til Schweiger (“Manta, Manta – Second Part”), who appears here with an almost legendary goatee.
The choreographies that result from it lavish battles and hand-to-hand combat put together, are in principle not badly made. Because they are constantly drowning in fog and/or fire, the gray smoke above the armed conflicts is quite disturbing. Furthermore, there is not a drop of blood in the theatrical version, which obviously robs the fights of a certain degree of urgency.
Nevertheless: Antoine Fuqua certainly does not deliver a masterful performance here, but he always proves to be a skilled craftsman, even if his dark interpretation of the legendary figure ultimately lacks an identity of its own.