Genre: Fantasy
Related Titles: The Sword in the Stone, Excalibur, Attack the Block,
By Leanne Harragan
Old magic meets the modern world when Alex finds Excalibur. He unites his school who become knights and join forces with Merlin to defeat the evil enchantress Morgana.
Targeting a younger audience Joe Cornish's latest release is very good, it's slick, clever and is an interesting way to modernise the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. As the title suggest it's about the discovery of Excalibur and the kid who ends up stepping into the role of King. From there a wild adventure ensues and these kids have to find the courage to face up to their demons both literal and metaphorical.
Joe Cornish has real knack for capturing a moment in time in society. His previous film Attack the Block is fantastic, it really captures a moment in London youth culture from the language, the stereotypes and the style. This film does the same capturing the stereotypes and style of being in year 7. This is helped along by actually casting kids who are roughly the age of their characters, while they may not be exactly the age but they are pretty close. The way they speak and act is very realistic and that what makes his films work so well.
The story is nothing new, it's a tale as old as time, the tale of King Arthur, Merlin and the battle against Morgana, this is a great story but in it's original form is just a little boring. This will flip that on it's head and brings it into the modern tale to tell a story that I'm sure all ages will love. Things that make this work are the simple story telling, nothing is too complicated or hard to keep up with but at the same time it's exciting and you don't know what this team of kids are going to do next!
Design work on this film is great. While the costumes are simple but effective, the visuals are awesome! The costumes are pretty much made up of school uniforms for the most part, but with the addition of some armour, a shield made up of a 'construction at work' road sign and wielding some big ass swords makes them into the knights they become. The visual design of Morgana and the horse riding demons are amazing. The detail is incredible and the demons that are on fire, literally light up the screen. The score is also worth mentioning because it really ties everything together to give this film the whole deal, it mixes modern with the medieval and this is a great addition in modernising this old school tale.
There's some exposition at the beginning of the film about how the king will be found in a leaderless world facing global division - then it jumps to the modern day and a car radio exposes that the rise of dictators and extremist groups threatens to further global division. This is a clever way to set the scene and let the audience know what is happening without just sticking a couple of lines at the beginning to read.
As usual in modern films there are some great references including reference to similar tales comparing the two heroes like Donkey and Shrek and Samwise and Frodo. There's also a couple of references to video games like Mario Kart and it's just generally modernised by having characters cleverly named Kaye, Bedders and Lance, all shortened versions of the knights themselves Sirs Kay, Bedivere and Lancelot. I also appreciated the school kids using their school as a fortress and fighting off the demons using everyday gym equipment and objects found around school.
Overall The Kid who would be King is an all round great film, it's a very clever modernisation of the medieval tale. There are plenty of laughs along the way and of course a message about stepping up and doing what's right no matter watch. Looking for a film to waste an afternoon on..this is the perfect choice!
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