My Review of 'The Kid Who Would be King'

The Kid Who Would be King is yet another take on the King Arthur story. We had a recent King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, that starred Charlie Hunnam only about two years ago. I didn't think that movie was all that bad, but it flopped in the box office. This is why I was so surprised that they'd come out with yet another King Arthur movie so fast.

To be fair the look and feel for this movie is vastly different from the one that came out two years ago. I think they were trying to go for a King Arthur meets the Goonies and Harry Potter vibe with this movie. Theoretically this sounds like a pretty happening movie but it doesn't quite pull it off.

So this movie is about a kid named Alex (played by Louis Ashbourne Serkis). He's this kid that tries to do good, but seems to not have much faith in the world lately. His best friend Bedders (played by Dean Chaumoo) is constantly being picked on by two bullies.

Alex, of course, comes to his friend's aid. Due to a domino effect of events from helping Bedders, Alex soon gets bullied by the same bullies. He comes upon a sword in the stone and pulls it out. Boom he's the chosen one.

This is first and foremost a kids movie. A lot of the jokes are played off for a younger audience. You'll see young Merlin (played by Angus Imrie) make a ton of weird hand gestures and get into a lot of physical prat falls. It's obvious they are trying to get a laugh for a younger crowd. The older Merlin (played by Patrick Stewart) hardly needs to be there however I think they wanted a little star power from Patrick Stewart.

The movie is a bit of a mess. There are huge lulls where they're trying to explain the King Arthur lore, but they're trying to be cognizant that their target audience are a bunch of kids. This doesn't really go well. I know what they're trying to do and it's commendable, but it doesn't really work. These parts could have been simplified a bit more for the kids. Some of the scenes aren't even that necessary.

It's pretty obvious throughout the movie that the makers of this movie are King Arthur aficionados, however they didn't have to give all the details to us as general viewers. I'm sure many that watch the movie aren't going to be big King Arthur geeks as well.

There are a few scenes in this movie that are hardly believable as well. I know they did these scenes with kids in mind, but even kids would probably wonder why they had kids defending the earth while putting adults into a coma was a good idea.

There are a few enjoyable moments, but not too many. It's too bad too because I think this iteration of the King Arthur story had a ton of potential. I thought they could have had the kids use the fact that they're kids a little more wisely and outsmart their opponents in that aspect.

There are heavy aspects of magic and that's to be expected from such a movie. I thought that the special effects in this movie were actually done pretty well. They put a ton of production value into this movie and it shows.

The actors all did a fine job, as well. Despite the fact that the majority of the actors in this movie are kids they all had pretty good performances.

My only gripes were the pacing of the movie and the level of detail that came to the storytelling. Maybe they could tell the story with that much detail, but do it in a more entertaining way.

Overall, I didn't enjoy the movie as much as I had hoped. I don't think it's worth seeing in the movie theater and I don't really recommend watching it as a rental. You can probably skip this movie if you see it on streaming. Again, I'm speaking as an adult, realizing that the movie is specially catered to kids. I can see how kids might have a totally different perspective on this movie. They might actually enjoy this movie. It might become a cult classic for the next generation, but we won't know that until maybe 10 to 20 years from now when the kids now become adults and have nostalgia for this movie. I hardly think so but who knows. The Mighty Ducks technically isn't the best movie out there. but it's a cult classic of the 90s.