This humble opinion is brought to by you T. K. Edwards
THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING – Rated PG
Director by: Joe Cornish
Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Tom Taylor, Patrick Stewart, Angus Imrie, Rhianna Dorris, Dean Chaumoo
A modern day retelling of the legend of King Arthur and his sword Excalibur.
NO SPOILERS BELOW
THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING is definitely a movie for kids and not adults. It’s a pretty creative retelling of the King Arthur story set in modern times, but it has that feeling of “being done before”. It reminded me of PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTING THIEF and its sequel PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS, where you have a decedent of a famous character or person from either legend or history going on the same quest as the original person did from their epic tale. The problem with this kind of story is it has been done before…a lot. These stories may not have been put on the silver screen enough to notice, but I KNOW I’ve seen numerous stories like this one throughout the years on NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX as either their movie of the week or mini-series. And I would bet money that one of the “cable” networks (aka SYFY, USA, TBS, or TNT) has something like this running right now too. They do this because these are easy stories to write, families/kids love them, the acting can be subpar and the movie itself is cheap to make. That being said, THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING did have all those symptoms I just mentioned. The story was very generic and not too creative. For example, the Lancelot character in the movie is named Lance…need I say more? LOL. Moreover, there wasn’t any stand out performances from any of the actors in the film. I am big fan of both Rebecca Ferguson and Sir Patrick Stewart and I was pretty disappointed in how nonchalant their characters were in this film. Almost like Ferguson & Stewart were just showing up for a paycheck, which is understandable because they both were not in the movie that much anyways. Now, all this being said…I’m looking at THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING from the point of view of an adult (although my friends and family would say otherwise…lmao), so after the credits started rolling and the theater lights came back up, I made sure to listen to what the kids in the audience were telling their parents about what they thought of the movie. And my suspicions were correct…they really enjoyed it. THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING is movie made specifically for kids. It has everything they want from a movie. Action, adventure, cheesy comedy, great special effects and most importantly, the actors are their age. So, if you have any kids that are between the ages of 6-12 years old, feel free to take them to see THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING. I really think they’ll love it. As for the adults out there, I would skip this one and watch something at home. Until next time, thanks for reading.
P.S. – There is no post credit scene.
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 