Outlaw King Review: 7 Ups & 2 Downs

Downs...

2. The Rushed Pacing

Even though the consensus is that Mackenzie's film was drastically improved by losing a perfunctory fight scene and a sequence in which Robert the Bruce (Pine) coincidentally stumbles across William Wallace, the end result does feel a little on the rushed side regardless.

The 121-minute run-time is positively scant for the standards of a typical historical epic, creating a disappointingly breathless feel at times where scenes aren't allowed to gestate for long before we're whisked off to the next set-piece or dialogue exchange.

There was clearly enough material here for a Netflix mini-series, honestly, and while many early reviews state that the TIFF cut was frustratingly overlong and plodding, perhaps Mackenzie could've let the remaining scenes linger for just a little while longer.