2 of 4

You get the idea: for all its claims to be offering a fresh spin on the Arthur legends, this bit of summer bombast is mostly a massive cinematic recycling project. If you're content simply to get out of the summer heat and settle in for some more-or-less diverting riffs on about twenty familiar story ideas, you'll have a reasonably good time. There's lots of chilly mountain scenery, including a pretty cool (if ultimately improbable) showdown on a frozen lake. There's plenty of Legolasian archery, great horse riding, and stirring adventure music, and all kinds of neat fighting (though the obligatory climactic battle scene ends up a confusing mess).

Stephen Dillane is the wizard Merlin

Most intriguing—and, when all's said and done, most disappointing—is King Arthur's effort to address spiritual and philosophical issues. I don't want to give too much of this away, since part of the movie's interest lies in figuring out what's going on with the central character himself, but let me say that Arthur is torn between loyalty to his men (central Asian conscripts), service to his country of allegiance (Rome), and an inescapable sense of identification with their enemy (the land and the people of Britain). It is to the movie's credit that the religious life of each of these groups is an important part of their identity, and I was fascinated to see that Arthur himself is passionately committed to serving the Christian God, even when he stands alone in that belief. Historical theology students will be intrigued at the medallion of Pelagius that Bishop Germanius finds in Arthur's quarters, but I'm afraid in the end that the character's (and the film's) spirituality ends up being mostly a way to talk about far more conventional themes of freedom, earthly and political.

That's the problem with the whole movie: it nods in the direction of tons of potentially interesting developments of plot, theme and character, but doesn't bother to follow through on any of them enough to pay off. It could have been a pretty good movie. It could have been a dozen pretty good movies. But it settles instead for being merely good enough.

Talk About It

1. In this film, Arthur is a strong Christian who is not afraid to stand alone in his convictions. How do you see that expressed in the choices he makes, and in his treatment of other people?
   
   
2. At one point, Arthur offers his own life if God will spare the lives of his men. How is this prayer answered? What do you think the filmmakers are saying about Arthur's faith? About God?
   
   
3. Arthur is a follower of Pelagius, a Roman Catholic monk from the British Isles who taught that the moral strength of a person's free will can attain virtue. How do you think Arthur's ideas of free choice fit with your own understanding of the Christian faith? Do we choose God, or does God choose us?

The Family Corner

if I had a 10-year-old son, I'd be thrilled to take him to this film, then go out afterward for dessert to talk about Arthur's heroic faith. I think this movie could be incredibly inspiring to a not-quite-adolescent boy. That said, we'd need to talk through some slightly "adult" content—there's onscreen violence, but it looks like a much more graphically violent film has been edited to win a PG-13 rating (for intense battle sequences that are nothing compared to Lord of the Rings, and some language, mostly soldierly banter about who fathered whose kids). There's also one pretty sensual scene, but even that is almost old-fashioned in how little it shows and how quickly it cuts away. More troubling might be the scene where a Saxon soldier begins attacking a woman (who is saved from her fate only to be killed offscreen), or a reference to the possibility of rape at the hands of the invading army.

next page... |  2 of 4