The Green Knight is the latest cinematic outing in the world of King Arthur and the Knights of The Round Table, and features a… DIFFERENT take… on a LESSER Knight…
Director David Lowery takes on Arthurian legend in a film so anodyne this reviewer fell asleep… MULTIPLE times. Stick around until the end of the review to find out how many exactly.
The Plot
Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel takes on the role of Gawain, the not-at-all titualar lead character. However, Gawain is the polar opposite to Patel’s ‘Slumdog’ character.
Gawain is ‘callow’ if you’re being generous, a douche-bag if you’re being honest. The nephew to the King, Gawain coasts through life off Arthur’s royalty, shacks up with a commoner named ‘Essel’, played by Alicia Vikander.
The King, played by Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’s villain, Sean Harris; invites Gawain to regale the court with tales of himself. But, Gawain has none to tell.
Gawain’s own Mother magically conjures up The Green Knight, for some logic that escapes this critic. The Green Knight then challenges the assembled Knights Of The Round table to a game.
The rules of ‘game’ are simple: hit the Green Knight and win his Axe, and in exchange, travel to the Green Knight’s Green Chapel in exactly one year, next Christmas, and receive an equal wound to the one given to him today. Only one person takes up the ‘challenge’.
Most of the next year, Gawain continues his hedonistic hobbies; until Arthur convinces him to go on a road trip to the Green Chapel.
The Good – The Green Knight
The Green Knight’s relatively low $15 Million budget stretches to good effect on the big screen. The costume design, Cinematography, practical location shooting sets, and excellent cast, all work together to produce a finished product that seems to fulfill a coherent Director’s vision.
The extensive use of practical special effects, and minimal use of Computer Generated Images/characters also helps the aesthetic and storytelling.
The Bad
However, The Green Knight is as brutal and exhausting a slog through the wilderness to watch as it is for Sir Gawain to journey through up on the big screen.
While the Cinematography and locations may be somewhat pretty to look at; the many extended, SLOW 360 degree pans bring the pacing of the film to a rather painful halt.
The slow pacing/editing on this film, combined with a rather unremarkable lead character leads the audience on a long walk to nowhere. What is supposed to be a classical hero’s journey, actually has very little, if any, character development or growth.
You don’t have to be likable as a main character, even if it helps, but there needs to be some sort of internal journey to go along with the external, physical journey. This film lack that.
Dev Patel’s performance is ‘fine’, and seems to fit consistently with David Lowery‘s vision for this film. However, for being a film that should rely on the lead character’s journey/presence/gravitas; we instead get a Gawain who’s just sort of… there.
Patel has given great performances in the past, but this one lacks.
The Review – The Green Knight
I fell asleep THREE times in the first hour of The Green Knight. The film is officially two hours and ten minutes long, but it FEELS like it’s four hours long.
Simultaneously, there is only about an hour’s worth of plot and story, stretched out over the 130 minute runtime. This slow pacing includes extended walking scenes with no dialogue, AND scenes where Gawain stands still while the camera literally does a 360 degree pan that takes half a minute… THEN, pans backward 360 degrees for another 30 seconds.
The mere fact that the movie’s title isn’t even the main character, or one who is even in most of the movie, also, speaks volumes.
As someone who loves Director’s cuts, Extended cuts, Deleted scenes, etc.; for me to say this film is SLOW should say volumes. I can watch the 4 1/2 hour Directors Cut of Dances With Wolves in one sitting, but Green Knight had me counting sheep during a 3 P.M. showing.
While I respect the many actors, set designers, cinematographers that worked on this film, the Director dropped the ball. Then, had the camera do a 360 degree, minute long pan around the ball he dropped. THEN, had the camera do a REVERSE 360 degree minute long pan around the ball.
By the time he was done, even the dropped ball was bored. SKIP IT.
Additional Information
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9243804/?ref_=ttmi_tt
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Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, & Sean Harris battle a non-existent script in David Lowery's take on Arthurian legend in The Green Knight.