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Dylan Frazier
@dylanfrazier44
With yet another major release for Netflix, The King hit the streaming service last Friday. Starring Timothée Chalamet and Robert Pattison, the movie has potential but never truly reaches it because of a boring story and not much else besides a great performance from Chalamet. Even being a Netflix movie couldn’t help this movie all that much.
The King follows Prince Hal (Chalamet) leading the English throne in the 15th century while war against the French looms large for he and the rest of the country. A once drunken teenager soon realizes that becoming the king is more than just being a figure head.
The story in this one is so boring; it feels so long in parts. There is just too much dialogue in this movie and not enough action, that it makes it hard to truly feel invested in the movie. The action and war scenes in this movie are great, but it always goes back to the political dialogue that slows down the movie immensely. The front half of the movie is enough to put you to sleep, there is just too much dialogue and talking that it really makes it hard to sit through this one. The back half is great with great battles and at least a little more emotion from other characters besides Hal.
The most glaring issue in this movie, however, was not the story but rather Robert Pattison’s character. From his very strange French accent he tried to do, to having comically bad lines, he was easily the worst part of the movie. I can’t get over how bad his accent was, I don’t really know what he was trying to do but it has to go down as one of the worse accents I have ever heard in a movie. Not only that, but he also tried to be an enigmatic villain that had this great master plan, but it ended up being a terrible one-dimensional villain that has no real motives. They seriously misused Pattison in this movie, which is a shame because he is a great actor.
With all of the negative that I found in this movie, which was a lot, Chalamet was very good as Prince Hal. He didn’t have that much to work with, but he dominated the scenes he was in. He put a lot into the movie and delivered a great performance. The back half of the movie really lets his acting prowess really show.
Overall, a boring script and terrible secondary characters hurt what could have been a great movie because of how incredible Chalamet was. The only true advantage was this was a Netflix movie that I didn’t have to see in theaters.
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