Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

It might be a little bit excessive to use such language but if someone were looking for the worst movie of King Arthur, I would not go as far as saying this is the worst in my opinion King Arthur: Legend of the Sword does a better job being the worst than this movie this is at least a miss and King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table does give the top ten list possibilities without batting an eyelash. However, this poorly shot and constructed movie does have some very few I must say positives.

I admit that my title for this caption needs a few corrections and modifications. Setting the record straight, King Arthur does not make it to Thailand, still there is a narrower part of the film that occurs in the Thailand. To summarize it all, King Arthur and his men have been battling Morgana and Mordred for so long that both King and his men had to retreat to hiding.

He defeated them in the last battle, where Arthur powered up his enemies and hurled them deep into the void inside a gigantic rock. Fast forward to 1500 years in France, there are now some descendants of king King Arthur and his Knights, who for some unknown reason are situated in Thailand. (I think it was because it was the cheapest country to make this particular movie which apparently had budget of $300,000. You’d think that was enough explanation as to why this movie is deemed the worst King Arthur movie that ever came out however, since the Legend of The Sword ended up losing 175 million dollars, we all know that it is worse).

But anyways, Morgana and Merlin go and do battle with the Arthurian bloodlines from the film as they’ve moved into modern day France. (Again, Grant does not explain how the Arthurian bloodlines would even know to go treat Thailand as an alternative, xyz they simply go to Stonehenge or Cadbury Castle or at the fake round table in Winchester wherever that is). Kay, Tristram, Lancelot, and most of the heroes amongst the bloodlines are in the descendants. But at least one, or two counts must be there somehow who claim sonship to King Arthur.

In the ensuing scuffles some martial arts are utilized. After all, they are in Thailand. Eventually, the most sacred object in their possession, which they had claimed was the Holy Grail, is found to be the melted Excalibur.

Only a true heir of Arthur is able to use it, and it turns out to be the heir who is least honored of all the descendants: Penn, who believes he is merely a descendant of Sir Kay, Arthur’s foster brother. But c’mon, Penn, doesn’t being called Penn, an abbreviation of Pendragon, suggest anything to you? He has just asked his girlfriend Jenna (think Jenny from Camelot in this case Guinevere) to marry him. Later in the story we find out that Jenna is pregnant with twin babies and thus the dynasty of king Arthur will clearly not come to an end.

Morgan le Fay uses Mordred as her errand boy for almost all the battles and the man gets sick of it and eventually switches sides. Naturally, he dies during the combat but not before redeeming himself. And so as Penn is on his deathbed he tells Mordred that he considers him a friend. Penn also addresses him as Sir Mordred which is actually rather confusing as in legends Mordred is always Sir Mordred, isn’t he?

Now before Mordred’s death, viewers see Morgana metamorphosing into a giant china doll who goes about wrecking Bangkok. The visuals are akin to Ghostbusters’ ghost or Godzilla trashing Tokyo or New York you get the drift. (Yes, this film is that original.) That was at least positive since we have not seen New York blasted into the sky yet again. I have seen enough of that in The Avengers movies, and oh, ten other movies, possibly more than that them as well).

The movie ends with the Arthurian lineage and knightly descendants victorious, who goes by “Knights of New Camelot.” This film is viewed by at least one website as the forerunner of a series something the last scene also points out. Luckily, that did not come true, but the ending does seem to borrow from the Librarians series of films that led to the television series.

I find it fascinating that the descendants of the other knights also live and have Fellowship so I have the idea that the descendants of King Arthur are still alive. I did, however, think that Mordred’s angst was quite well executed. In all honesty, Mordred was the only truly interesting character in the movie. Other than that, Most of the other characters were pretty average and it was even hard to recollect their names. Still, the film did manage to give some of the knights a female portrayal which is a good touch.

I am not really expecting this film to provoke any tours around Thailand to any Arthurian sites in the foreseeable future. But for people wanting to visit regions connected with King Arthur, knights, and the round table, they should look up Scholarly Sojourns’ Arthurian Tour.

This is a movie I would not recommend unless you are a very committed enthusiast of King Arthur’s cinema. I would nevertheless love to know what other movies are the peak contenders for the worst portrayal of King Arthur ever in your opinion.

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