This sounded as if it was going to be great - I loved the trailer, and the idea of a Guy Ritchie heist film set in Arthurian England, around the theft of Excalibur. And there were lots of good things about it - Charlie Hunnam is a movie star despite his bad luck of vehicles; Jude Law is an excellent villain; production values are excellent; there are some great Guy Ritchie montages; I like the idea of Arthur being like Moses in a basket and being raised by prostitutes.
But it's confusing - all the stuff with the "mages", the conflict with humans and their role in Arthur's prophecy seemed pointless. It seemed awfully easy for Uther to beat them (they're losing the war but he just leaps from a horse onto their mobile castle thing and kills Mordred and bang that's it - they've won).
They introduce Mordred at the opening then kill him off. They introduce this interesting character, the head of the blacklegs (local cops) and we never see him again. We never meet Merlin or anyone famous - no Lancelot, no Guinevere, no Gawain. I guess there is Bedivere, Tristan, and Percival - though it's hard to tell them apart. None of the sidekicks have really different personalities - you differentiate them by race. This character Maggie is introduced - she's given these close ups and you think she's going to be important but she isn't.
Occasionally it's reminiscent of Game of Thrones - the combination of medieval political drama, action and fantasy, some of the same cast (Aiden Gillett) - which isn't to the piece's advantage, since GOT is so better.
I feel this could've been great but it needed to be made for a lot less money - just turn it into a Guy Ritchie film in the vein of Lock Stock. Cut out all the excess stuff. It's like it was weighted down with "franchiseness" and the result is a mess.
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