DIRECTOR:
JOE CORNISH
LEAD CAST: LOUIS ASHBORN SERKIS, DEAN CHOUMOO, REBECCA
FERGUSON,
PATRICK
STEWART, TOM TAYLOR, RHIANNA DORIS, ANGUS IMRIE; SCREENWRITER: JOE
CORNISH; PRODUCER:
NIRA
PARK, TIM BEVAN, ERIC FELLINER; EDITOR: JONATHAN AMOS, PAUL MACHLISS; MUSICAL
DIRECTOR: ELECTRIC WAVE BUREAU; GENRE: FANTASY ADVENTURE; CINEMATOGRAPHER: BILL POPE; DISTRIBUTOR: 20TH CENTURY FOX; LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM; RUNNING TIME: 120 minutes
Technical assessment:
3
Moral assessment:
4
CINEMA rating: V13
Twelve-year-old Alex
(Louis Ashbourne Serkis) and his best friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) are picked
on everyday by school bullies. One day
as the two boys are pursued in an abandoned building, they fall over an open
space and land near a rock where an ancient-looking sword is… well, planted. They can’t believe the sword is what it
seems, but it is—King Arthur’s legendary sword, the Excalibur. And so Alex draws the sword out of the stone,
thereby unleashing Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson), the evil sorceress of the
Arthurian era, who now wants to destroy the world. But Merlin (Patrick Stewart) soon enters the
picture in the new-kid-in-school form, and the plot thickens.
Opening the film
is a colorful animation of something that happened “Once upon a time”—about a
king called Arthur, who united his kingdom with his Knights of the Round Table
and whose famous sword, Excalibur, was caught in a vast rock. The sword could be drawn out solely by an
authentic descendant of Arthur. Who
would have thought that the celebrated sword would wind up in 21st
Century US of A? That the underdogs in The Kid Who Would be King would turn
out to be the chosen ones in this sword-centered contemporary adventure fantasy
clearly says this movie is made for boys their age. And maybe subteen girls who wish to find
superhero boyfriends.
The appreciation
of The Kid Who Would Be King depends
on the maturity of one watching it. The
story has more layers than an onion and is heavy with symbolism. To the very young it is obviously a
good-vs-evil thing and we know very well which should win. But to the more experienced, the battle is
not simply between Team A and Team B.
The message is that one triumphs over evil when one succeeds in battling
the dark forces within oneself, the demons of fear, self-doubt, insecurity. When one remains in sin—in darkness, not in
light—evil inevitably wins. (Morgana
waits for darkness to strike). However
young people may view it, the film is empowering in that it gives hope—lest we
throw in a spoiler, just watch what happens to the bullies.—TRT
