King Arthur (2004)

King Arthur is a 2004 American-Irish adventure-fantasy film. A retelling of the King Arthur stories, it stars Clive Owen, Keira Knightley and Ioan Gruffud. The film differs from traditional Arthurian lore as its title character is a cavalry officer in the late Roman Empire, instead of a Medieval Knight.

Plot
In the 5th century AD, Arthur (Clive Owen), is a cavalry officer in the Roman army, guarding Hadrian's Wall against the Celtic tribes. When they are sent on a mission to rescue the family of Marius Honorious, who has been exterminating pagans, Arthur meets a beautiful pagan woman Guinevere (Keira Knightley), and the two team up to forge an alliance with the warring tribes and drive away the invading Saxons.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The divergences from the original King Arthur legends. In this movie he is depicted as a soldier of Late Classical antiquity, rather than a knight from the Middle Ages. (However the movie depicts the Sarmatian theory that says Lucius Artorius Castus was the inspiration of the more well known Arthurian legend.)
 * 2) The action scenes are bland and generic.
 * 3) Lack of sorcery, and Merlin, Arthur's sorcerer friend, is restricted to a very minor role.
 * 4) Several important characters and events, such as Bedivere, the Lady of the Lake, Morgan le Fay, pulling the sword from the stone and finding the Holy Grail are omitted.
 * 5) Keira Knightley is miscast as Guinevere.
 * 6) *In fact, she looks like a reject from Xena: Warrior Princess.
 * 7) Poor attempts at being a grounded version of a classic story over 1000 years old.
 * 8) Lack of chemistry between Clive Owen and Keira Knightley.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Hans Zimmer's score is decent.
 * 2) The cinematography is nice.
 * 3) The director's cut is slightly better than the theatrical version.