6 Best & 6 Worst Historical Movie Epics Of The 2000s

2. King Arthur (2004)

King ArthurBuena Vista PicturesJerry Bruckheimer tried his hand at the historical epic, with Antoine Fuqua the strange choice to direct this $120m retelling of the King Arthur legend. Taking a more grounded approach with the material, the movie aims for gritty realism but instead comes off as dull and uninspired, with Clive Owen giving one of the blandest leading man performances in recent memory. For a genre that relies heavily on its battle sequences to excite audiences, the action in King Arthur is generic at best and plain tedious at worst. A multitude of half-baked subplots and underwritten characters waste a great ensemble cast that features Keira Knightley, Ray Winstone, Hugh Dancy, Stellan Skarsgard and Mads Mikkelsen. The Director's Cut is a slight improvement, but overall King Arthur takes itself so seriously that it forgets to be entertaining.
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