The Kid Who Would Be King review

THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING:

KIDS RULE IN THIS MODERN TAKE ON THE CLASSIC KING ARTHUR LEGEND!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX

Louis Ashbourne Serkis in The Kid Who Would Be King

            No, this is not a sequel or rip-off of the infamous 90s film, A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, because nobody saw it. Anyway, a twelve-year-old boy in Britain pulls a magic sword out of a stone and must fend off an army of darkness to save the world in The Kid Who Would Be King, a modern retelling of the tales of King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone, I guess Disney can go ahead and scrap their live-action remake of that.

            My expectations were low at first when I saw the trailer, not that it looked bad, it seemed like a perfectly fine children’s movie. But, when I hear the concept of a kid in a modern setting being whisked away to the fantasy world of King Arthur, I have horrific memories of A Kid in King Arthur’s Court.

            Then the reviews came out and was shocked to hear about the film’s positive responses from critics. So, I sat down in the theater to see if this “Kid” is truly worthy of being a king.

            Yeah, pretty much, The Kid Who Would Be King is a clever update on the classic King Arthur story and an all-around fun family adventure. It’s no masterpiece or anything like that but compared to some of the other retellings of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable that came out in recent years like Jerry Bruckheimer’s King Arthur movie from 2004 or the notorious King Arthur: Legend of the Sword in 2017, this kid-friendly variation of the story is a lot cleverer and more entertaining than those films put together. That’s right, Jerry Bruckheimer and Guy Ritchie got beaten by a kids’ movie!

            In ancient Britain, Arthur pulled the magic sword, Excalibur out of the stone and was crowned king. He had the ability to turn enemies into allies, created the Roundtable so all of his knights would be treated equally and was able to keep the country safe from the wrath of his dark sorceress half-sister, Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson-Mission: Impossible 5 and 6, The Greatest Showman, Men in Black: International) for several generations after banishing her to the underworld.

            Flash-forward to modern day London and the film follows a young boy named Alex Elliot (Newcomer, Louis Ashbourne Serkis) who is picked on at school by bullies and thinks he’s a nobody with no real purpose. That all changes when he comes across the sword in the stone at a construction site and manages to pull it out.

            Alex and his best friend, Bedders (Newcomer, Dean Chaumoo) assume that it’s just an ordinary sword until they are greeted by the shapeshifting wizard, Merlin (Angus Imrie-The Archers, The Hollow Crown, Restless) and in his real form, Patrick Stewart-Star Trek: The Next Generation, X-Men franchise, Green Room) and informs them that the sword really is Excalibur and warns them that the evil sorceress, Morgana is returning to the living world to take back the country and plunge Britain as well as the world into slavery and destruction.

            In order to stop her army, Alex must create a new roundtable of knights that will aid him in his battle against Morgana. He recruits Bedders and much like King Arthur, turns his enemies into allies and in this case, the bullies, Lance (Tom Taylor-Doctor Foster, The Dark Tower) and Kaye (Newcomer, Rhianna Doris), but with the future at stake and Morgana’s army growing stronger, it’s going to take a lot more than just four kids and a wizard to stop this evil force.

            The film also stars Denise Gough (Robin Hood (2010), Titanic: Blood and Steel, Colette) as Mrs. Elliot and Genevieve O’Reilly (The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions, Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith/Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Legend of Tarzan) as Sophie.

            Overall, The Kid Who Would Be King is a refreshing take on a familiar story with just enough originality and charm to differentiate itself from previous King Arthur adaptations. It’s a basic good vs evil story but modernized just enough so it doesn’t feel forced such as when the kids are outrunning and destroying an army of demonic soldiers with a car and especially during the climax when they recruit the entire school into helping them in the battle by using street signs as shields and cars and items found around the school as traps for Morgana’s soldiers, fun stuff.

            The film plays more like a King Arthur version of Harry Potter or Percy Jackson where a kid in the modern world learns he is descendant of a magical family and all the fantasy things are happening in the present day. In fact, they even namedrop Harry Potter as well as Luke Skywalker from Star Wars and Frodo and Sam from The Lord of the Rings in the movie, luckily the film still has plenty of originality and those references never get in the way.

            The main characters are all likable and they work off each other very well, Alex is basically the Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter of the movie who doesn’t realize magic is within him, and Louis Ashbourne Serkis does a solid job portraying the part. I thought for sure the best friend and bullies would get on my nerves as either obnoxious or one-dimensional, but they won me over, Bedders gets some good laughs once in a while and Lance and Kaye at first act like generic movie bullies but change their ways as the film progresses and it shows their softer sides when they accompany Alex and Bedders on their adventure.

            But, who really steals the show are Angus Imrie and Patrick Stewart as Merlin, the film acknowledges that Merlin is supposed to be an old man, so seeing a younger Merlin who’s wise but also funny is quite refreshing and Imrie gets plenty of time to shine. Despite only appearing in a few scenes Patrick Stewart is great as the older Merlin and the filmmakers must have basked in the moment of casting him as a wizard when Ian McKellen played the wizard, Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings films and both of them starred together as Charles Xavier and Magneto in the X-Men franchise.

            The villain however is pretty bland and forgettable, as much as I like Rebecca Ferguson as an actress, she doesn’t really do much as Morgana. For most of the movie she’s in the underworld constantly whispering that she will take Excalibur and rule the world, if she was more like Voldemort or Darth Vader and they made her more interesting, she could have been a really intimidating villain, but as is, it’s proof that scary whispering doesn’t immediately translate to being threatening.

            The Kid Who Would Be King is an entertaining adventure for the entire family and easily one of the better versions of the King Arthur story in recent years. It never takes itself too seriously nor is it too silly for adults to be invested, grab a sword and see for yourself.