The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)

Director: Joe Cornish
Stars: Louis Ashborne Serkis, Denise Gough, Dean Chaumoo
Runtime: 120 minutes

Synopsis: A band of kids embark on an epic quest to thwart a medieval menace.

Performances: 3/10
Screenplay: 2/10
Special Effects: 4/10
Costumes/Makeup: 4/10
Editing: 4/10
Cinematography: 6/10
Score/Soundtrack: 5/10
Entertainment Factor: 3/10

Verdict: Alright, I think it's time to pull the plug on movies based on King Arthur's legend.

Directed by Joe Cornish, "The Kid Who Would Be King" stars Louis Serkis (Son of Andy Serkis) as Alex, a child destined to save the world from a medieval menace after successfully pulling Excalibur from a stone found at a construction site.

Before I delve into my issues with this adaptation, I'll quickly list what I liked about it. The film begins with an animated segment explaining the origins of the legend of King Arthur that I found to be done in a quite nice and effective way. And that's pretty much it. That is the only positive aspect I can think of.

Because everything else was catastrophic. Every single actor seemed lost, the story was nothing we haven't seen a million times before, the dialogue was cringeworthy  an uninspired, the characters were  all parodies of themselves and just plain annoying (especially the main character's best friend and Merlin), the CGI was terrible, the props and costumes looked like they were coming straight from a cheap costume place... Every single element is so poorly executed that it resulted in some moments being entertaining for all the wrong reasons, which at least brought some sort of enjoyment unlike Guy Ritchie's extremely boring but technically superior version of the tale.

The fact that this movie has an approval rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes will remain one of cinema's greatest mysteries to me. It was a cliché, unoriginal, forgettable, poorly made, about 30 minutes too long movie that I certainly regret wasting my time on.

FINAL GRADE: 2.5/10