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Last year, we decided that ‘Fantasy February’ would be a thing. And also like last year, it wound up being kind of whatever we felt like doing. However, one carry over from last time was Excalibur. It was made in 1981, stars a lot of people we now know and love, and boy does it look like it’s not for us. But it’s one of those movies that we should see simply because it is a fantasy movie and we love those.
Excalibur was at a disadvantage before we even started it. It’s old, for one. Yeah I know it’s not THAT old, but the 70s/80s were a sort of weird transitional period of filmmaking. Not only were acting styles changing, but visual effects (as the always are) were progressing. So Excalibur has this weird glow to it, but at the same time it’s very dark and weird. Not our aesthetic. And based on the O Fortuna-laden trailer, we knew it was going to take itself way more seriously than we wanted.
And we were right, though we did find things to like about it. The sets were cool, and the wardrobe while probably not exactly period accurate, was stunning. Particularly all of the numbers they put Helen Mirren in. Other than that though, we found the movie to be very boring and for the most part aggressively dull. We do understand that living in today’s day and age of film, where big fantasy pieces like LOTR get done extremely well, we are spoiled. Excalibur walked so a lot of fantasy epics we now know and love could fly. And as such, we are happy to have finally seen it. But we probably won’t be popping it back in any time soon.
So have you seen Excalibur? We are actually really curious to find someone who does like it so they can tell us why. Not in a condescending way, we’re genuinely interested to know what we might have missed. Let us know over on Twitter! In the mean time, put on a big coat of armor and get rowdy for today’s episode of So…I’m Watching This Show!
