King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

There’s precious little trace of the Arthurian Legend in this loud, brainless farrago from director Guy Ritchie (who also co-wrote with Joby Harold, Lionel Wigram and David Dobkin). There’s a guy named Arthur (Charlie Hunnam), working in a whorehouse in Londinium (aka London) after his uncle Vortigern (Jude Law) kills his parents (Eric Bana, Poppy Delevigne) and steals his throne; a sword in a stone; a Percival (Craig McGinlay); a Bedivere (an incongruous Djimon Hounsou); and way down the cast list, a Merlin. But don’t look for Guinevere, Lancelot or the Holy Grail. Instead, Ritchie gives us a weird mashup of Hamlet, a Warcraft video game, and one of his old Cockney crime comedies. There are also bits of Macbeth thrown in—especially the part about being full of sound and fury signifying nothing. J.L.