King Arthur (PG-13, 2004)

Arthur and his six knights have completed the fifteen year tour of duty guarding Hadrian's Wall required of them by Rome. Arthur's knights are conscripts from Samaria, young, pagan horsemen from the Steppes of present day Georgia/Russia, who cannot return home without safe passage papers from Rome. Meanwhile, half-Roman/half-Celtic Arthur hopes to be reunited with his friend, the moral reformer, Christian, and free-will proponent Pelagius, to partake of the democracy and equality that Arthur believes now rule Rome. However, the Bishop who carries their release papers also brings the news that Arthur and his men have one final mission to complete: they must cross Hadrian's Wall to face the blue-painted tribes to the North led by the sorcerer-warrior, Merlin, in order to retrieve a noble Roman family.

Saying that this KING ARTHUR is "The Truth Behind the Legend" is an overstatement of epic proportions, making the movie's tagline the only thing epic about it. The battle scenes, the dialogue and the attractive actors all place this film squarely in the realm of summer popcorn flicks -- entertaining and briefly uplifting but not destined to linger in memory, much less in history. The story sounds complicated, especially considering that it jettisons just about everything you expect in a story about King Arthur but the Round Table. It piles on the history, but there is just enough plot to fill the scenes between battles.

Those looking for the familiar terrain of King Arthur's legend -- the silvery arm holding Excalibur aloft, the search for the Grail, and the illicit love between Lancelot and Guinnevere -- should head to the library or the video store. Those in search of the true stories behind King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table can look to Celtic, Scottish, Welsh, Roman and Assyrian legends. But those looking for some memorable battle scenes and some attractive actors without too much plot to slow things down can fill up the popcorn bucket and sit back for some summer entertainment.