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King Arthur

Play trailer 2:03 Poster for King Arthur PG-13 Released Jul 7, 2004 2h 6m History Drama Adventure Action War Play Trailer Watchlist
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30% Tomatometer 187 Reviews 59% Popcornmeter 250,000+ Ratings
In this interpretation of the classic tale, Arthur (Clive Owen) is a cavalry officer in the Roman army defending Hadrian's Wall against rebellious Britons. He and his troops are expecting to be relieved but are instead sent on a risky mission to rescue the Roman family of Marius Honorius, who proves a despicable torturer of pagans. Arthur frees one of them, Guinevere (Keira Knightley), who in turn brokers a truce between Arthur and the Britons so as to ward off an invading Saxon army.
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King Arthur

King Arthur

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Critics Consensus

The magic is gone, leaving a dreary, generic action movie.

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Critics Reviews

View All (187) Critics Reviews
Nell Minow Common Sense Media Entertaining, but ultimately forgettable. Rated: 3/5 Dec 24, 2010 Full Review Sara Michelle Fetters MovieFreak.com Maybe I'm too close to the material, maybe I wanted more from Bruckheimer and Fuqua than they could ever be expected to deliver. Rated: 1.5/4 Dec 13, 2005 Full Review Jeannette Catsoulis Las Vegas Mercury Misguided, miscast, and completely misconceived, the wretched King Arthur is one of the grittier, more earnest failures to appear this summer. Rated: 2/5 Sep 9, 2004 Full Review Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com This is a film devoid of soul. Rated: 1.0/4.0 Sep 13, 2020 Full Review Micheal Compton Bowling Green Daily News Summer action fare with just enough intelligence to put it above the mindless action films that usually litter multiplexes this time of year. Rated: B- Nov 16, 2019 Full Review Mark Steyn The Spectator Clive Owen is a very dour plonker of an Arthur and has zero chemistry with Keira Knightley. Jan 25, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (1000+) audience reviews
Luka H Ver good. Worth seeing. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/23/24 Full Review Dani G They had good intentions... An attempt to demystify the legend and present a different version of what we've seen before of this tale, but it wasn't well executed Rated 1 out of 5 stars 06/08/24 Full Review ANY1aBLUE Oh dear. Given the amount of ‘Arthurian' competition there is, you'd think a director wanting to make his mark would be careful about the casting and script - unfortunately, this one is so bad in both aspects it's laughable. The acting is tragically dreadful. The saving grace, if there is one, is that the storyline is interesting and the production quality good too. But that doesn't make this even averagely watchable. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/06/24 Full Review R 9 I had a lot of fun with 'King Arthur'! It has all of the ingredients of an entertaining film for me. I'm a sucker for a great score and this 2004 flick has just that, from the very first scene in fact - great way to open the movie! Absolutely no surprise whatsoever to see that Hans Zimmer was on music for this - legend! There are also a number of actors that I like from other productions. Keira Knightley is the standout in my opinion, followed by Ioan Gruffudd - who has a great voice for narration, which kept bringing back fond memories of his showing as Henry Morgan in severely underrated television show 'Forever'. Those two I enjoyed most, though Ray Winstone, Stephen Dillane (if underused) and Stellan Skarsgård (if a tad underwhelming) are positives as well. The one obvious omission from that previous paragraph is Clive Owen, who of course plays the titular character. I'm mixed on his performance. He nailed (most of) the speeches, though I wasn't convinced with his overall acting level. I feel like the filmmakers should've chosen someone more commanding to lead this, Owen is a little bit too meh in my eyes. No idea, nor interest in truth, in how supposedly accurate this is in regards to folklore, but simply judging it as a film I can only say I got what I wanted from it - entertainment. 8/10. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/04/23 Full Review isa e Really liked this, a lot of things you can nit pick, like the teleporting around prior to final battle. But well acted well directed and a fine time . Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/31/23 Full Review Kris G just look at hugh dancy and don't think too much about the plot Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 11/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews
King Arthur

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Movie Info

Synopsis In this interpretation of the classic tale, Arthur (Clive Owen) is a cavalry officer in the Roman army defending Hadrian's Wall against rebellious Britons. He and his troops are expecting to be relieved but are instead sent on a risky mission to rescue the Roman family of Marius Honorius, who proves a despicable torturer of pagans. Arthur frees one of them, Guinevere (Keira Knightley), who in turn brokers a truce between Arthur and the Britons so as to ward off an invading Saxon army.
Director
Antoine Fuqua
Producer
Jerry Bruckheimer
Screenwriter
David Franzoni, John Lee Hancock
Distributor
Touchstone Pictures, Buena Vista Pictures
Production Co
Touchstone Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Rating
PG-13 (Scene of Sensuality|Intense Battle Sequences|Some Language)
Genre
History, Drama, Adventure, Action, War
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 7, 2004, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$51.9M
Runtime
2h 6m
Sound Mix
Surround
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