THE OUTLAW KING

                                  The Outlaw King:A Netflix Epic

   

After being crowned King of Scotland, legendary warrior Robert the Bruce is forced into exile by the English and leads a band of outlaws to help him reclaim the throne. 

The Outlaw King tells the story of Robert the Bruce, a Scottish nobleman who turns away From servitude to the English Crown and leads a guerrilla attack against the Crown.  

The movie being a historical tale didn't leave a whole lot of room for maneuverability or creativity, it was essentially about how well the story could be told to entice and engage the modern day audience, it has to factor in the story telling technique for the movie not to be a bore or at the very least, not to be another cliché, and boy did Netflix deliver on that aspect.

   David Mckenzie writing, directing and producing at the same time may have felt a little too much, but it also meant that the idea was developed and executed from one source, perhaps that accounts for the ease with which the story transitioned into the characters' lives, and ultimately into a brilliant on screen presentation. One thing we did like about the production was the absence of over elaboration. It's absence meant that the story kept true to its origins, there was no need in over emphasising on certain aspects such as dressing, attention to tactical warfare or over indulging the characters' emotional transgressions.

   Let's do a quick one on the story, plot and the conflict elements. The plot itself is pretty mediocre, drab and a little too bare for fans of creative works, however where the plot lacked depth and insight, the script writing more than made up for it in spades. At this point again, we must give credit to David Mckenzie for doing a diabolically brilliant job of making a marvel out of a regular tale. The way the story was crafted to develop with every passing moment was astonishing, the way the characters came into their role and developed with every passing moments of the movie is pure genius. As for the conflict itself, that's where we are most pleased. One would think that being a combat story or a war story, the strength of the conflict will be in the fight scenes, the combat simulations and the likes, but no, the conflict element here was more on the psychological and political plane. It did entail some elements of emotional conflict towards the midway part of the movie, but that was kept to the barest minimum and we are most pleased with the production team. The conflict is not complex, the plot is not rich in diversity, but the creative acumen of the team delivered something that an epic, deeply rich in character diversity and resplendent with rich acting.

   The cast for the movie were awesome, Chris Pine was brilliant at his role, and then, Aaron Taylor-Johnson was a good support cast for the movie. The performance of the rest of the cast even though not as amazing ad the first 2, they also delivered some top notch performances.

Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of the movie is the ending. We loved the humiliation meted out on the English forces, most especially after we saw the dramatic raising of the Dragon banner. It was amazing. We however did like that the team decided to leave out some details for the end Credit scenes. At the conclusion of the battle, one would have wondered what became of the Crown Prince or the Queen of Scots. But then...... End credits were for the first time in a while employed to the best effect. Impressive.

   Staring Chris Pine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Florence Pugh, Billy Howle, Tony Curran, Callan Mulvey, Stephen Dillane and Alan Cooney.

Co-written, Directed and produced by David Mackenzie.

Fans definitely do have mixed reactions about this movie, but we at FCA have an opinion about this that we feel strongly about. The movie does definitely lack in plot depth, but it has storyline depth, it lacks creative flexibility and surely does not have a very strong conflict element. What this movie really has going for it is the storytelling and the A List performance of the cast. Plus, perhaps a little bit of the nostalgic scenes the movie served up in aces. 

Mention must also be made of the fight scenes, the simulation is well orchestrated, it didn't need to be over done ( being a historical tale), but you would do well to look out for the brute James Douglas. His combat performances had everything to make a movie great. He definitely does stand out though.  

  Overall a good movie that everyone with a bit of time should pick up and watch. We did like this one, and give credit to Netflix for telling a good story once again.

FCA's AppR 7.5/10