Outlaw King (2018)

[aabattery]

Discuss the dong.

[DAJK]

My dad says the movie sucks, but he gave up a third of the way in though. 

 

I love historical epics, especially when they have god-like budgets. My friend and I are going to watch this either Monday or Tuesday. 

[CoolioD1]

get tae fuck. D+

[cookie]

Feels like a three-hour movie someone decided to cut down to two just to see if they could. The costumes, sets, action and some of the performances (ATJ while one-note is pretty entertaining with crazy bug eyes) are all really neato but the movie is shallow as all hell.

 

Biggest problem for me is that you never get a strong sense of why Robert decided to become the "Outlaw King" other than "it's my duty, I guess". He kinda just arrives at the conclusion a half hour in and there's no real build-up to it. The same can be said for his supposed relationship with Elizabeth. When she first becomes his wife they act very formal towards one another as one expects they would, and Bruce respects her wishes not to engage in intercourse, but as soon as he decides to become an outlaw (which apparently is two years later, but I never got the sense of that) they suddenly act like deep lovers. Where did any of this come from?! The first act feels so slapdash because the movie seems more invested in history politics and tactical maneuvers than creating an engaging story.

 

Speaking of, the Prince villain kinda sucks. His hair is stupid, his acting is whiny and hammy at the same time and the way the movie teases for Stannis Baratheon to come in and wreck shit, only to not do that, left me with a serious case of the blue balls (yeah, I know this is based on true history but the way it plays out in the movie is really bad) since we're stuck with stupid whiny boy for the climax (though the way he limped away after getting his shit rekt by Bruce was pretty funny).

 

There's also some weird holes in the narrative. The last we see of Bruce's daughter she's taken away to be raised by nuns, then at the end when Bruce is reunited with his wife through a prisoner exchange Bruce just says that his daughter's waiting for her at the castle and I'm like "when did that happen?!".

 

A movie like this shouldn't leave me feeling as empty as it does.

 

Edit: I praised the production design earlier but this cost $120 million?! Christ.

Edited November 16, 2018 by cookie

[Rorschach]

On 11/16/2018 at 2:14 PM, cookie said:

Edit: I praised the production design earlier but this cost $120 million?! Christ.

Yeah this felt just above TV movie quality for me. I did not get the sense this was a $100 mil production at all.