Touchtone Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films, 2004. Written by David Franzoni. Music by Hans Zimmer. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Directed by Antoine Fuqua. Starring Clive Owen, Keira Knightly and Ioan Gruffudd as "Lancelot."

     By Stephen Pytak 

     It's got good intentions.
     It sets out to be "The Untold True Story
That Inspired the Legend."
     The casting is dead on. 
     And it's got a few new character twists.
     Here Arthur is a Roman, and 
Guinevere is a bow slinging bush warrior
who picks off her enemies wearing face 
paint and kinky leather. 
    But despite being interesting on many 
levels, the film ultimately fails to deliver. 
     Problem one is the screen story. It 
doesn't really focus on the title character. 
     A few weeks before the film came out,
I saw a press poster for it. It was long and
horizontal and, like the release poster, it
featured the three main characters. But
other sides of this thing featured other
pictures as well.
     When folded up, there's an image on
the sunny side of a boy pulling a sword 
from either dirt or a stone.
     I remember seeing this boy in the film.
He was the one Arthur and his men 
rescued from a dungeon kept by a band
of religious fanatics.
     In the film, this kid (who's name I
can't seem to fimd) doesn't touch a sword.
And he's not the kid who played "Young
Arthur."
     What am I getting at?
     When I saw this image, it kind of stuck
in my head and it gave me the impression
we were going to get a decent story about 
Arthur's origins.
     Not really.
     The film starts out with Lancelot as a boy
being recruited for service under Rome. 
     Then the next thing you know, it's 15
years later and we're riding along with 
Arthur, Lancelot and the others from The 
Round Table.
     While they're anticipating discharge,
Rome asks them to perform one last duty,
a rescue mission in no-man's land.
     They reluctantly accept and soon find
themselves on the journey which leads
Arthur to forge a new kingdom.
     There are a few cool battles. The best
one takes place on a frozen lake that's
slowly cracking. But it's nothing we haven't
seen before. 
     Even though there are a lot of soldiers 
butchering soldiers with swords, there's 
nothing here to push the limit of the
film's PG-13 rating. You'd think they'd cut
a few limbs off or a head or two. Peter
Jackson did stuff like that for "Lord of the
Rings."
     But, of course, this isn't "Lord of the
Rings," not by a long shot.
"King Arthur" kind of reminds me of
a forgotten film, the kind Anchor Bay 
would pick up and dress up for re-release 
on DVD.
     It's an O.K. adventure film that has 
enough juice to fuel a coversation over
pizza or coffee afterwards, or maybe
a fantasy or two.
     Keira Knightley is a cool Guinevere.
My brother and I talked about her more
than anything else. She's gorgeous and
bad ass. 
     If you notice, she's the centerpiece for
all of the publicity posters. 
     Maybe the reason why is the filmmakers
decided once was all said and done that
she was the reason to see the film.
     It's interesting to note that some fans
of lead actor Clive Owen feel he should
take over the role of "James Bond."
     There have been numerous polls
done of fans of the 007 franchise on 
the matter.
     In one I read about, Owen received
11 percent of the vote and topping it
was Hugh Jackman, who received 24.
     Owen would be an interesting 
choice and if he approached it the
way he did the role as Arthur, he'd
inject the series with a new kind
of intensity.