The Kid Who Would Be King

Dir: Joe Cornish

2019

**

I’ve been a fan of Joe Cornish since the 90s and his Adam & Joe days. I thought Attack the Block was an unexpectedly edgy sci-fi, when in truth I was expecting a Shaun of the Dead-style film vs Aliens. I think he’s wasted too much time with the likes of Steven Spielberg and I really felt for him when he left the Ant-Man project, even though the film still turned out to be great. So I was excited about The Kid Who Would Be King but ultimately disappointed with it after viewing. The story is solid, it’s the first really great British sci-fi fantasy in a very long time, I just don’t think it was executed that well. The story follows Alex Elliot, a twelve-year-old boy who is starting a new term at school while struggling to adapt to his new surroundings. When his best friend Bedders is bullied by older students named Lance and Kaye, Alex comes to his aid but ends up in a fight and gets his face punched. Alex, Lance, and Kaye are given detention by the headmistress while she tries to encourage Alex to live up to himself. Meanwhile, Lance and Kaye plot to harm Alex further. That night, the duo chase Alex as he is on his way home but he hides in a nearby construction site, where he finds a mysterious sword and removes it from its position. Taking the sword with him, Alex shows it to Bedders, and they discover that its markings identify it as Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur. Alex then playfully "knights" Bedders, shrugging off the idea that it really is Excalibur. Elsewhere, the wicked sorceress Morgana awakens underground and sends her minions of Mortes Milles after Excalibur. The next day, a teenager appears from inside Stonehenge and presents himself at Alex's school as a new student. The boy reveals himself to Alex as the wizard Merlin, capable of aging backwards, but is also able to shift between his Arthurian counterpart. Alex plans to return the sword, wanting nothing to do with ancient myths. That night, Merlin saves Alex from a demon and explains that he has four days to destroy Morgana or she will enslave all of England. Morgana's demons can appear only at night and can only be seen by Alex and those he has knighted, but an upcoming total solar eclipse will enable her to emerge fully into the world. Alex realises that these events parallel an inscribed storybook his estranged father once gave him. Alex concludes he descends from Arthur through his father and later recruits and knights Lance and Kaye, who fight beside Alex and Bedders, defeating three demons. Alex declares them a new Round Table. Merlin soon tasks Alex to find the entrance of Morgana's prison. Believing his father is the key, Alex leads the group to Tintagel where he last saw his father. En route, Merlin trains them in swordsmanship. But when Morgana infiltrates the lesson, Lance betrays Alex and takes the sword for himself. Merlin barely saves them and Excalibur is broken when Alex and Lance come to blows in a marsh. Alex calls upon the Lady of the Lake who appears and restores the sword. Rededicating themselves to the quest, the four overcome a horde of demons by luring them over a cliff and arrive at Tintagel. Alex meets his aunt Sophie who tells him that his father was revealed to be an alcoholic who abandoned Alex's family, and that it was secretly his mother who inscribed the book. Alex is enraged to discover that not only has he come a long way for nothing but also that his mother had lied to him about the book and is overcome with resentment. Merlin tells Alex that Excalibur is not handed down by birthright, but by individual merit. Alex and his friends arm themselves and Alex uses the storybook to locate the entrance to the Underworld. Alex challenges Morgana who takes on a monstrous form and breathes fire, but Alex strikes her down and the children escape. Believing Morgana is dead, Alex returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake knowing that if he was caught with it back at home the police would confiscate it. On the day of the eclipse, Merlin informs Alex that Morgana was merely wounded and Alex realizes that he violated the Chivalric Code by lying to his mother. In desperation, Alex tells her everything that has happened. His mother reveals her own lie that she never told him the truth about his father or the book, because if he had known the truth to begin with, it would've hurt him. Eventually, he stuns her by summoning the Lady of the Lake into the bathtub, where he regains Excalibur. At the school, Merlin enchants the faculty and Alex knights the entire student body. During the eclipse, Morgana appears with her entire army and now takes on a huge, semi draconic form. The children fight back, using strategies combining medieval warfare with modern technology, but ultimately retreat to the rooftop. Merlin casts a magic spell to pull Morgana from the world and Alex decapitates her as she vanishes, dispelling all the demons. Alex, Bedders, Lance, and Kaye bid farewell to Merlin, who encourages them to become leaders with Alex once again returning the sword to the Lady of the Lake. While there is a lot I liked about the film, ultimately it is let own with a few glaring issues. The pace of the film is all over the place, with long scenes where nothing happens and then over the top action scenes that are a little too CGI heavy. I liked Louis Ashbourne Serkis as Alex and Dean Chaumoo as Bedders but Tom Taylor and Rhianna Dorris  are rather boring as Lance and Kaye respectively. The only kids film that I can think of that truly unites the bully with the bullied, and they cast two of the most plain actors I’ve ever seen. I think Rhianna Dorris has around three lines, and she’s one of the main characters. The kids are a little too drama school for my liking and they don’t come across as normal state school kids. I hated the school battle at the end, it was a real anti-climax, and when I was a kid I’d refuse to watch anything set in a school, I didn’t want to think about school when I was at home. I also hated the absent father sub-plot. It’s quite a tiresome story now, why can’t interesting things happen to kids with both parents still alive? Angus Imrie and Patrick Stewart are the film’s highlights, both playing Merlin at different ages. Other than that, it was only the expected Adam Buxton cameo that kept me watching. Like I said, the idea is great, it just needed a 95% change in cast and a different ending. The Lady in the Lake coming out of the bath was about the only hint that it was written by Joe Cornish. He’s a great director, a great writer and a very funny man but I’m afraid The Kid Who Would Be King was ultimately over-ambitious and missed the mark.