Not quite a medieval jaunt
Speeches on honor and loyalty stretch a humorless, armor-clad adventure thin.
The band of warriors behind the dreary film “Last Knights” are mostly all talk.
Armor-clad hooey straight from the “Game of Thrones” imitation playbook, although decidedly less cynical than HBO’s wily political saga, the medievaltinged adventure “Last Knights” will test your patience for speeches about honor, grim declarations of loyalty and pre-battle glowering.
Japanese director Kazuaki Kiriya’s handsomely straightforward but humorless tale, written by Michael Konyves and Dove Sussman, concerns a tight band of warriors led by Raiden (a suitably commander-like Clive Owen) who seek revenge for the unjust treatment of their master, Bartok (Morgan Freeman), a principled lord openly defying the emperor’s corrupt minister (Aksel Hennie).
The first hour is a wintry talkathon, while the second — set a year later and concerning plans for a climactic castle siege — plays like the dreariest feudal heist movie until the swordplay starts. The most intriguing feature is the movie’s nation-blind casting, imagining a feudal world with faces and accents from South Korea, Norway, Japan and Iran. (The dialogue doesn’t always help a few of the English-as-second-language performances.) But even with this admirably international approach to fantasy roles, it’s noteworthy that none of the warriors or leaders — the ones who drive the story — are played by women, meaning a great actress like Shohreh Aghdashloo is relegated to a few pained expressions as Freeman’s worried wife. “Last Knights,” as generic as it is, is nevertheless a Boys’ Club.