Guy Ritchie once again proved that he no longer has any interest in making good movies, only mediocre ones that he can use to show off his style.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, like Guy Ritchie's previous movies Sherlock Holmes 2 and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., doesn't feel like a complete movie. Instead, Ritchie's choppy and fast-paced style of editing created something that feels like a teaser, an impressive one visual-wise, but still just a teaser for a better movie. It continuously, throughout its entire run time, teases at a legendary story set in an elaborate world full of magical creatures, only to skips forward the minute something interesting appears on screen.
The clearest evident of this problem is when Arthur goes to a place called The Dark Island to train himself on how to wield his power (sounds familiar, Star Wars fan?). This happens half way through the movie and after all the buildup, you wouldn't be faulted for hoping to finally see something truly epic. Unfortunately, this entire sequence takes less than 10 minutes and the movie spends all that precious time jumping back and forth between the action on the island and two characters talking about how dangerous that island is. What is the point, I must ask. If you want us to know the island can prove a big challenge to Arthur, then just show it to us. Show us all the action and all the danger uninterrupted and we'll see for ourselves. Cutting it short and interjecting it with mindless drivel will only make the whole thing meaningless.
And that was only one example. The movie commits this fault time and time again. It loses focus too quickly and never truly invests in its own content until the final third. It's almost as if Ritchie simply had no confidence in the script or the actors and saw the needs to 'enhance' their performances with his editing magic (again, sounds familiar, Star Wars fan?).
It's really a shame because beneath that atrocious editing, you can almost see a good story waiting to be told and good performances waiting to be witnessed. But I guess we'll never truly know and that thought alone makes the whole thing even more frustrating.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, like Guy Ritchie's previous movies Sherlock Holmes 2 and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., doesn't feel like a complete movie. Instead, Ritchie's choppy and fast-paced style of editing created something that feels like a teaser, an impressive one visual-wise, but still just a teaser for a better movie. It continuously, throughout its entire run time, teases at a legendary story set in an elaborate world full of magical creatures, only to skips forward the minute something interesting appears on screen.
The clearest evident of this problem is when Arthur goes to a place called The Dark Island to train himself on how to wield his power (sounds familiar, Star Wars fan?). This happens half way through the movie and after all the buildup, you wouldn't be faulted for hoping to finally see something truly epic. Unfortunately, this entire sequence takes less than 10 minutes and the movie spends all that precious time jumping back and forth between the action on the island and two characters talking about how dangerous that island is. What is the point, I must ask. If you want us to know the island can prove a big challenge to Arthur, then just show it to us. Show us all the action and all the danger uninterrupted and we'll see for ourselves. Cutting it short and interjecting it with mindless drivel will only make the whole thing meaningless.
And that was only one example. The movie commits this fault time and time again. It loses focus too quickly and never truly invests in its own content until the final third. It's almost as if Ritchie simply had no confidence in the script or the actors and saw the needs to 'enhance' their performances with his editing magic (again, sounds familiar, Star Wars fan?).
It's really a shame because beneath that atrocious editing, you can almost see a good story waiting to be told and good performances waiting to be witnessed. But I guess we'll never truly know and that thought alone makes the whole thing even more frustrating.