The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
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The Kid Who Would Be King Movie Review
The Kid Who Would Be King is a 2019 family fantasy film directed by Joe Cornish and starring Louis Ashbourne Serkis. It’s a solid family flick.
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“Where did you learn how to drive?
Mario Kart“
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It is a film that mixes the modern world with the Middle Ages as it tackles the Arthurian Legend head-on, but with a family approach instead of a more serious one. We’ve seen this story so many times before done cinematically, but here it’s different enough that I in the end approve of it having been filmed.
I am talking about its message which is amazing as the film updates this legend for the modern audience by focusing on the modern instead old morality. Yes, it still focuses on the Chivalric Code and it does that very well, but it also teaches children that they can be heroes whatever background they’re coming from as “royal blood” doesn’t matter at the end of the day. That was a wonderful sentiment for sure.
But the movie stumbled in its fantasy elements which are ridiculously dark, but not in a good way as the monsters are dark, but bland and never creepy. Those elements simply felt too modern and forgettable and I wanted more memorable creatures and battles.
I liked the characters quite a bit. Louis Ashbourne Serkis is Andy Serkis’ son so this is an obvious case of nepotism, but the kid was so solid in the role that I didn’t mind it too much. I really liked his friend too and the two bullies are also well developed. Merlin himself is very silly, but a solid comic relief for this type of movie. Rebecca Ferguson’s Morgana is very bad and Patrick Stewart is wasted though.
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Yes, the humor is pretty good and the highlight of The Kid Who Would Be King which is an overly long movie as it felt boring in its last act with too much action and not enough memorable sequences. I did like its audio-visuals, the dialogue and the messages, but I wanted bigger imagination and better world building from it. It’s solidly directed by Joe Cornish, but very badly paced. It’s in the end a solid children’s flick, but it could have been much better.
The Kid Who Would Be King is somewhat bland in its fantasy elements and it needed better world building, better pacing and a more memorable third act, but the characters are solid and quite likable, the humor is pretty good and the film updates the Arthurian Legend for today’s kids by giving them a wonderful message.
