second part disappoints critics

Four years after the release of the first part, King Arthur is back in a second opus which was highly anticipated. Released in theaters on October 22, the film faced harsh criticism, particularly pointing out the slowness of the storyline and “heavy” humor.

The film that “is no longer quite a comedy” more “is not really an epic” declares Les Inrockuptibles, which “gives the feeling of seeing a kind of interstitial nothingness inhabit”. For cultural media “everything weighs a ton” and one “impression of lead-weighted rigidity emerges”. The magazine nevertheless tempers its criticism by emphasizing that we find the director’s touch with his “sense of carefully numbered narrative structuring”.

Le Figaro in the same vein, points out, “a plot that is drowned in the different quests of the characters”, “exposure sequences too long”, “a screenwriter’s cut to the devil”. It also notes the performances of the actors and the “Filming locations are breathtakingly beautiful”. Unfortunately, the plot and the tempo do not follow, generating a « forte frustration ».

La Voix du Nord maintains the same critical tone: there is no “no anthology scene or breath, just an endless succession of sketches which go a little in circles”. The daily life does not see in Alexandre Astier’s film we find “this verbose logorrhea and dialogues which are the subject of particular care” with “punchlines that hit the mark which, whatever one thinks, have no equivalent in the landscape, in Kaamelott or elsewhere”.

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The regional daily Sud Ouest criticizes Alexandre Astier for never explaining the codes of the universe to spectators: “there is no point entering the screening room without having a solid knowledge of Kaamelott, its universe, its characters and the issues exposed, particularly during the previous opus released four years ago”.

Le Parisien is one of the only ones to qualify the criticism. For him this second film Kaamelott offers the viewer a “more mysterious and threatening universe, all in superb settings”. The Ile-de-France media appreciates a scenario “never stingy with stupidity” where we find “Tolkien in the landscape, Goscinny and Uderzo in the fights”. Phew!