The Kid Who Would Be King

The Kid Who Would Be King

Starring Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Tom Taylor, Dean Chaumoo, Rhianna Doris

Directed by Joe Cornish

The Story:
Young Alexander (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) is a valiant young man who comes to the aid of his bullied friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) against bullies Lance (Tom Taylor) and Kaye (Rhianna Doris), even though he doesn't have an ounce of strength in him, and gets picked on as well.  His mother worries that he stands up for the little man even though he's little himself, and after another encounter with the bullies, finds himself at an abandoned building site where he finds a sword stuck in a stone.  He pulls the sword out, and is visited by a strange new student named Merlin (Angus Imrie), who tells him that the sword was indeed Excalibur, and he's been tasked with saving the world from the evil Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson), who plans to attack the surface during the next eclipse.  Bedders joins his quest, and he also brings in Lance and Kaye to fight alongside him as they travel together to find a way into the underworld and defeat Morgana before she comes to the surface.

The Synopsis:
Films based off legends haven't really fared that well as of late ("Robin Hood" and "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" are prime examples), and I fully expected the family-friendly PG-version of a modern day telling of the Arthurian legend to be just as bad as those other films - and maybe it's due to this epilogue ideal that I actually found myself entertained and even moved by this film.  While it's by no means amazing, it's far from the crap I expected it to be.

In modern day Britain (during the time of the tumultuous Brexit), people are lost, hopeless, and leaderless, and it's during this dark time that Morgana - who's been banished to the underworld after loosing to her half brother Arthur - plans to re-take the world and claim Excalibur for herself.  Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, young Alexander Elliot is trying to survive school and the bullies within, as he also holds firm to legends and fantasy while defending the little man.  While being chased by two bullies, he finds a sword in a stone, and manages to pull it out.  His friend Bedders believes it to be Excalibur, but Alexander is skeptical - until they're visited by the fabled magician Merlin who tells them that it is indeed Excalibur, and they're tasked with saving the world from Morgana's reign.

What makes this film such a tricky one on paper is that it's geared for families, and does away with even the PG-13 version of violence you'd expect.  Also, the film features children as the leads, so it's even more difficult to give them anything serious or violent to work with, as you want to maintain a sense of family-friendliness.  Director and writer Joe Cornish (who also helmed the under-appreciated 2011 sci-fi film "Attack the Block") manages to tell a rich, full story with compelling characters and even some fun, decent action sequences despite his PG handicap.  While the film does tend to rely heavily on monologues (Alexander pretty much exists to state the obvious at every moment), it still provides enough action and humor to not make it a pain for parents to sit through.

The film is heavy with Arthurian legend, and Cornish uses this to his advantage to tell a story that has a deep moral center that everyone can appreciate - that anyone can wield Excalibur, as long as they maintain a honest heart and true motives, even a small, seemingly insignificant kid who's constantly bullied.  Alex manages to really live up to the Arthurian legend by not just wielding Excalibur, but by bringing his enemies together to form the new Knights of the Round Table and unite them under a common cause.  It speaks volumes to the film's positives in that it allows two different worlds - the bullies and the bullied - to come together and become friends, when it could've easily reverted to norms where the bullied turn on their bullies.  It's refreshing and uplifting, seeing how they can eventually work together.

The young actors do great at their given roles, especially Louis Ashbourne Serkis (the young son of Andy Serkis), who's tasked with handling many different emotions and thoughts in ways that seem totally normal for a twelve-year-old.  Angus Imrie plays Merlin with a truly eccentric personality that could've grown stale if given too much, but thankfully finds a delicate balance between being endearing and annoying - as well as having Sir Patrick Stewart play the older version of Merlin that helps deviate away from that.  Dean Chaumoo does well as Alex's fateful friend Bedders, while Tom Taylor and Rhianna Doris play the bullies-turned-heroes admirably.  While the film is extremely predictable and formulaic (Morgana exposes each of their weaknesses and of course uses it against them), it's still fun to see how everything turns out.

The only real downside to the film (apart from the familiarity of the storytelling) lies with the CGI.  It seems 2019 is taking a step back in CGI effects, after the awful use of it in "A Dog's Way Home" and now here, where Morgana transforms into a dragon, she looks utterly ridiculous (much like The Rock did in "The Mummy Returns").  It really takes away from the action, and provides a small break from the immersion you experience otherwise.  Still, surprisingly, it was a fantastic modern telling of the Arthur legend, told with great performances and some fun action thrown in.

The Summary:
Despite my reservations, I found myself pleasantly entertained by "The Kid Who Would Be King," a family-friendly fantasy-action adventure that's not torturous for the parents to sit through.

The Score: C