Kaamelott - Deuxième volet: Partie 1

The movie lasts 2 hours 19 minutes. It could have lastet 19 minutes. There is no action happening. The characters are roaming around, King Arthur spends the whole movie in his pyjamas and at the end your are pretty much at the same place you started. The characters are not funny and it's hard to get attached to them, which was one of the strong points of the TV series. The costumes are beautifully made, which was the highlight of the movie for me.

I'd already started to drift away around season four or five, when the series took a darker turn, and I wasn't even fully convinced by the 2021 film - though I genuinely wanted to love it. This time, despite all the goodwill I still have for Alexandre Astier, I just can't pretend anymore: this second part of Kaamelott is, frankly, a misfire.

It could be explained away by its transitional nature - a film tasked with throwing out multiple fishing lines in preparation for the grand finale, and therefore doomed to feel a little thankless. But there are simply too many threads, too many subplots, half of which make you sigh with boredom as the script lingers on them. It also feels as though, in order to squeeze in a few blockbuster-grade effects - polished but utterly unnecessary - the trademark attention to dialogue has been largely sacrificed.

And that's precisely what makes Kaamelott special, at least for french-speakers: that sly, archaic wit, those turns of phrase that sound both old-fashioned and perfectly natural in the mouths of its characters. The banter is still there, but it's lost its bite - the fault of ill-defined or meaningless characters, or fleeting appearances that have no room to breathe.

Ironically, all it takes is Christian Clavier's two-minute cameo - all delicious cowardice and duplicity - to realise that if the whole film had operated at that level, Kaamelott 2.1 could have been a triumph. But Astier clearly couldn't, or wouldn't, choose. Determined to give every secondary player, every member of his extended cinematic family, a slice of screen time, he ends up diluting the impact of them all.

Messy, diffuse, and surprisingly dull where it should have shone, this chapter leaves the distinct taste of disappointment - though its true measure may only be revealed once it's paired with the final film, due in 2026.

Still, I can't shake the sense that this is the film Alexandre Astier wanted to make - a reflection of himself more than ever, as a king weary of the world's noise and stupidity. It's sincere, even moving in that respect.

But if that's the film he wanted to make, it's definitely not the one I wanted to see.

When a script void meets lazy TV-style direction, boredom spills over for more than 2 hours.

If this sequel was made for the fans, then good for them. But let's be honest. Scenes cut right when something finally happens, as if to stretch the running time rather than the story. The endless parade of familiar faces feels less like a cast and more like a summer holiday at Astier's place. And yes, a few smirks here and there. But a whole comedy film without a single real laugh? That's a tough sit.

The truth is, Kaamelott 2 belongs to that sad family of overhyped sequels that forget what made the first one charming. It's heavy, cluttered, self-satisfied. There are too many characters, too many subplots, too little air.

Replacing Franck Pitiot with an imitation rather than an evolution was the final nail. It says a lot about Astier's refusal to open his world, and the silence of those who chose to walk away says even more.

In the end, nostalgia will carry some viewers through, but honesty should stop most at the door. Kaamelott 2 isn't a disaster, it's worse: a disappointment that mistakes comfort for creativity.