Game of Thrones might be one of the most popular medieval-esque epics ever, as it counts the likes of Diana Rigg, Charles Dance, Natalie Dormer, and Peter Dinklage among its cast. But does it have Morgan Freeman? No? Well, Last Knights does, so you should watch it instead.
Last Knights features Morgan Freeman as…someone with a very deep and pleasant voice, who may or may not be the antagonist. It also has Clive Owen brandishing a sword and looking very dark and grimy. The plot consists of a tale of a warrior (Owen) who leads a band to avenge their dishonored master. It looks somewhat like a medieval English version of a samurai flick, which makes sense when we realize that the director is Kazuaki Kiriya, who did Goemon, based on a Japanese folk legend that sounds a lot like Robin Hood.
The trailer for Last Knights does seem to be appealing to the Game of Thrones fans, emphasizing issues of honor, sex, and bloody swords. While there’s no reason why that can’t work, there’s something a bit lacking in this trailer. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with the plot or the performances – at least, what we see of them – and yet I cannot get worked up about it.
Perhaps Last Knights bears too much resemblance to Game of Thrones to be credible, or perhaps it has an edge of those failed epics we’ve seen so much of recently. More troubling, the film was actually completed in 2012 and has sat around for the past three years, gathering dust. Somehow this does not bode well.
Still, the cast is excellent and perhaps it will be a better film than its trailer. You can certainly watch it and find out for yourself if this might be worth a few hours on VOD.
Last Knights comes to select theaters and VOD on April 3.
