The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
Joe Cornish made a nice, albeit low-key (by today’s standards), leap from TV to movies as a writer-director with 2011’s surprise cult sleeper, Attack the Block, and as a screenwriter the same year with Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin. Since then, not a great deal of output in his filmography, save for taking a stab, along with Edgar Wright (the intended director) at several drafts of the script for Marvel’s Ant-Man, which still retains him in the screenplay credit despite being kicked off the project. He was also attached briefly to Star Trek Beyond and Kong: Skull Island before he decided he wasn’t quite ready to take the mantle of a huge blockbuster franchise, preferring to do his own thing.
His own thing turns out to be the story he’s wanted to bring to the surface that he has carried with him since he was on the verge of becoming a teenager. Having child protagonists was important to him, having grown up with films in which children were the heroes (1979’s The Black Stallion and 1982’s E.T. being a prime example Cornish cites), unlike the recent slate of anthropomorphic 3D cartoon creations, comic book superheroes, or young adult properties that cast adults into roles playing heroes in their late teen years. There are no actors among the kids who will be readily recognizable as movie stars, making them easier to relate to as every-kids. The adults have Patrick Stewart (who also had a small role in John Boorman’s Excalibur, also a pivotal film in Cornish’s childhood, released in 1981) and Rebecca Ferguson, but those are fine as known quantities because they represent the older ways of the past, while the kids are the next wave to make their own names for themselves – a theme of the movie as a whole.
The story involves a young boy in London named Alex, who spends his days bullied at school, primarily because he sticks up to those bullies – Lance and Kaye – to protect his bullied friend Bedders. In the heat of one of those skirmishes, Alex stumbles upon a ‘sword in the stone’ like the one in his book on King Arthur left to him by his absent father, and he manages to pull it out from the concrete block that had been its home. Knighting Bedders with it, the boys are soon visited by a teenage representation of Merlin (he claims to age backwards), who is lost in time and newly in disguise as one of their schoolmates. Merlin gets Alex up to speed about his quest to save humanity from enslavement from the coming of the dormant but powerful witch Morgana within four days (when a solar eclipse will happen), and that he’ll need to raise an army of his friends, and enemies, to become the king of legend.
A lesson to be learned from The Kid Who Would Be King is not only the importance of the next generation in becoming the champions of our world of tomorrow, but also one of how tales of old can be handed down from many generations in the past to become something new and relevant. The film is an example itself, but there’s also the notion within Alex’s story that suggests that his Arthurian tale is something that is meant to recur, and that it will be modern and relevant for other children to become a part. Each generation makes the story their own, rather than just cling to a past etched in stone from a time they don’t fully understand. Cornish also breaks the chain of lineage as the sole aspect that makes you important, very much preferring ordinary kids who come to greatness on their own merit, rather than being great as a result of family succession, like the Skywalkers. It’s about honor, pride, teamwork, and putting petty issues aside for a greater good in this world.
The performances are a delight, with Serkis (yes, son of Andy) a good find for the lead role, and lots of solid supporting performances to chip in the fun. The scene-stealer of the film is Merlin, particularly in his younger incarnation, played wonderfully by Angus Imrie, acting in the oddest of behavior (lots of arm-waving, finger-snapping, and hand-flapping to cast a spell that will inevitably drain him of power without rest or buckets of junk food) while both intentionally and unintentionally sneezing his way into becoming an owl to take flight on occasion. Patrick Stewart is also a welcome presence in relief to give us the Merlin we might generally envision, used as sparingly as he should be to keep the gimmick from growing stale. Rebecca Ferguson is a presence with Morgana, though the character is mostly a CG creation for most of the run time, picking the appropriate spots to employ the flesh-and-blood actress to alluring extent.
Any complaints I might have are trivial nitpicks. It is a bit lengthy, with a prolonged climax that’s not as interesting as the build-up, leading to a final thirty minutes or so that peter out interest just when it should be hitting a crescendo. Seeing the kids gear for the upcoming battle seems to be more engaging than watching them actually do battle, primarily because much of what is so enjoyable about their repartee and bits of personal discovery are put to the wayside for the tumult at hand. While the kids are skeptical of whether what they’re seeing is real, there are also a great deal of shortcuts involved in getting all involved to become true believers in the incredible things they are witnessing without a great deal of shock, awe, fear or utter astonishment on display for more than a beat. The kids also are experts at horse riding, with heavy armor on, without any discernible rhyme or reason.
The Kid Who Would Be King is bright, funny, and endearing in a way that will keep adults content with the new twist on an old tale, perhaps even entertaining a percentage of adults who genuinely enjoy young adult properties that don’t have children. The characters and their interplay manage to be more fun to watch than the effects and action, as it should be. The Kid Who Would Be King may not be the most impactful entertainment you’ll see this year, but it has a sincere and earnest approach that gets you on its side early and entertained enough throughout to become one of the nice youth-minded surprises for 2019. Given what’s going on in Britain today, and in the United States, a film targeting future generations on finding unity among different people and points of view to work together with trust and honor to solve problems that face them all seems a more welcome message than what we’re getting from our leaders today. When adults have all but completely abandon the children to their hopeless feelings on the mess the world is in, it’s up to the kids to save themselves from the ills of the past.
Qwipster’s rating: B+
MPAA Rated: PG for fantasy action violence, scary images, thematic elements including some bullying, and language
Running Time: 120 min.
Cast: Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Angus Imrie, Tom Taylor, Denise Gough, Rhianna Doris, Rebecca Ferguson, Patrick Stewart
Director: Joe Cornish
Screenplay: Joe Cornish