This past weekend Eva and I had the fortunate luck to be present at a Press Event for the movie, The Kid Who Would Be King. We saw the movie, interviewed some of the cast and had some excellent experiences all around the city of New York. I detailed those adventures in posts earlier this week. What I am talking about today is the movie itself. This is our review. I will give you Eva’s review first. She wrote it out for me to copy here.

“The Kid Who Would Be King is the most amazing, adventurous, magical, incredible, unbelievable movie you will ever see. The actors are absolutely incredible and the special effects are the most realistic ones you will ever see in a movie. The Kid Who Would Be King is a must see for fans of the King Arthur legend or anyone who likes magical, mystical legends. This story really carries the message that no matter what your background, you can go from living in a tiny one room apartment with barely enough food to go around to living in a fifty room mansion with enough food to feed a village.” – Eva Bennett

Suffice to say, Eva was really taken with the movie and I think with the whole experience so hyperbole is her forte. The movie was good, I am looking forward to taking Allison and Andrew to see it as well. I personally am a huge fan of anything King Arthur related. I have several different book series featuring the legend of King Arthur and if I am completely honest I always wanted to see a modern take on the legend. I applaud Joe Cornish for writing and directing this movie and taking one of his childhood dreams and turning it into a full on movie. I was lucky enough to talk with Joe after the formal interview of he and the cast. My pal Adam Cohen of Dada Rocks pulled me into a photo with Joe, too.

The movie itself had a very Goonies-esque feel to it. The coloring and the characters. We start off with Alex. He’s just a regular kid, he lives with his mom and he goes to school. He has a best friend named Bedders and there are two bullies at school who beat on both Alex and Bedders. Alex stands up to them and they chase him down to an abandoned worksite. There Alex find the sword, Excalibur. From there the adventure really picks up.

I love the hero’s journey. What is funny about this movie and it is not a spoiler, it is in the trailer, is that the movie is self aware of the hero’s journey. Bedders even says that people like Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter came from nothing and became great. There is a great message in this movie, too in that you can become something more than what you think you are. More than where you were born or who your family is. You can rise above anything is you are virtuous and true. You can even rise above being a bully. That was true in the movie and it was truer still of Sir Patrick Stewart as he revealed in the press conference.

I enjoyed the adventure of the movie. Loved the sword fighting and the person who really stole every scene that he was in was Angus Imrie who plays Merlin. He had these great looks and the way he delivered his lines was so funny. He also had to do these complex hand movements, which Sir Patrick Stewart ad to also copy exactly, and they were so funny, too. Seeing him sort of hypnotize people with his movements and get them to do things for him was hilarious. I think the best part of his lines was a scene where he was explaining how he found the ingredients to make himself stronger from things found in the real world.

Louis Ashbourne Serkis does an excellent job as Alex. He made me think, on more than one occasion, about Mikey The Goonies. Maybe it was the haircut, maybe it was that fresh faced attitude that he could see things through to the end. This movie made me cry several times, too. I loved the characters and how they each progressed to become more than what they were. Rhianna Dorris portrays a bully with a lot of heart and you can see her change that heart to become one of Alex’s strongest knights.

The Kid Who Would Be King is a wonderful family movie, there may be some scary parts as far as creepy whispers but the main big bad is seen from a distance most of the time. You never really get a really good look at Morgana, at least enough to get too scared. But the creepy whispering voice might be a bit much for Andrew. There are also scenes where the kids are being chased by flaming skeletons on flaming horses. I thought Eva might have some trouble with those parts but there is enough humor in the moments to break the tension well. Let me say that the whole “Mario Kart” comment is not the funniest part of that sequence. The trailer definietly do not reveal all the jokes.

THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING
Release: January 25, 2019
Written and Directed by: Joe Cornish
Produced by: Nira Park, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Cast: Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Dean Chaumoo, Tom Taylor, Rhianna Dorris, Angus Imrie, with Rebecca Ferguson and Patrick Stewart

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: www.TheKidWhoWouldBeKing.com
FACEBOOK: www.Facebook.com/KidWhoWouldBeKing
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