'King Arthur: Legend of the Sword' is two movies in one, and one is way better than the other

The pitch for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is "Guy Ritchie does medieval fantasy." Or so it would seem based on the marketing, which tries very hard to convince you that it is cool and different and Not Your Father's King Arthur Movie.

The trailers are set to pop songs, and emphasize Arthur's upbringing in the mean streets of Londinium. Arthur himself has the body of a superhero (and the camera spends plenty of time leering at it, lest you fail to notice). The action scenes do that speed-ramping thing.

But King Arthur feels less like "Guy Ritchie does medieval fantasy" than it does "Guy Ritchie coexists uneasily alongside medieval fantasy." There are two different movies inside King Arthur – one an epic big-budget blockbuster, the other a slick heist comedy – and one of them works way better than the other. Read more...