The legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table is amazing because of its story, the lady of the lake, the Guinevere and Lancelot affair and etc. However, all good legends have a history to it, which is usually quite boring compared to the legend. I don't know if the history of the Arthur legend, which the movie "King Arthur" presents, is accurate, but it is one of the better movies made about King Arthur.

"King Arthur" revolves around six men forced into the Roman Army for 15 years and fighting the native British people, called Woad's, in the Roman part of the British Isles. Five men come from continental Europe, somewhere in modern day southern Russia, a province called Samaria. The leader comes from Rome name Arturious--forgive the misspelling, or Arthur.

He and his Sumatran Knights have never lost a battle, although they have lost men. Before they are allowed to leave, the Knights are asked by a Roman Bishop to go north of the Hadrian Wall, find the Godson of the Pope and bring him and his family back on the other side of the wall to join the rest of the Romans leaving Britain. This is because the Romans did not want to fight the Saxon Army arriving from the north. So, Arthur, played by Clive Owen (Closer), leads Lancelot, played by Ioan Gruffudd (Black Hawk Down), and the others on a mission of mercy through Woads and Saxons.

Director Antoine Fuqua (Tears of the Sun, Training Day) does a nice job of balancing the action, suspense and drama. David Franzoni wrote the story, and he has previously done "Amistad" and "Gladiator." His touch definitely showed, because the fight scenes are as excellent as the ones in "Gladiator," just not as bloody to nab its PG-13 rating.

All of the actors I noticed were from Europe, including Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean) who played Guinevere and Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting) who plays Cerdic, the leader of the Saxons. All of them did a good, not spectacular, job. One character from the Arthur legend, Merlin, had such a small role in this movie, it isn't really worth mentioning. Considering previous movies and the legend of Merlin, it is somewhat surprising.

Overall, this movie was a pleasant surprise, but I fear, since "King Arthur" is not the same kind of movie the other legendary films are like, this probably wont last long in the movie theater, and that is too bad. This movie is a definite must see, especially at the cinemas.

Brian - the Naked Gun