Outlaw King

This was a legitimately moving and entertaining movie. The acting is absolutely fantastic, the cinematography is impeccable and the practical effects are undeniably realistic.

So I had no idea what this was going to be about, but the movie works even without any previous knowledge. Actually even if you haven't seen Braveheart, you will get thrown into circumstances that you will get very quickly. Maybe not have seen Braveheart works better for some, because they won't compare the two movies, no matter when they play time wise in History.

Having said all that, Chris Pine is really relishing in a role that is quite difficult to pull off. He has to be tough yet show a "softer" side too. Especially when it comes to his wife. Now how much of this is accurate, I can't tell, because I'm not read up on the details of what actually happened. I'm guessing that the bigger events/fights are more or less accurate. There is blood, there is a bit of nudity and there is a lot of fighting with swords ... if that sounds like "fun" to you, the movie will be entertaining. And you will also learn a little bit of actual history

The older generation of Scottish nobles tired of war and surrendered to the English King Edward, but the younger generation only surrendered reluctantly. After his father's death, Robert the Bruce (with a reasonable claim to the Scottish throne) led a rebellion, with multiple victories and losses, in battles small and big.

There are too many minor Scottish leaders who joined the cause, only to be slaughtered in the battles. (I can't call them cannon fodder - cannons had yet to be invented.)

The film is spectacular on the big screen, especially the large-battle scenes. I saw it in a 2000-seat theatre at the Toronto International Film Festival. I'm not sure it will translate well to TV, unless you have something like a 70-inch beast.

Outlaw King is a eminently enjoyable film. The acting is serviceable, but the costumes, period sets, and cinematography is world-class. The battle scenes are realistic to the point a few may find certain ones too much so. The story works and it's not meant to be any kind of definitive history lesson which it is not. That would be a different movie and would likely be too long eschewing much of the entertainment factor which is the point here. It gets the gist of something historical and makes it interesting and highly entertaining. I think it's well worth watching.

As a Scot I can say that I found this film superb, great acting, scenery as expected stunning and the filmography amazing. Even the accent of Chris Pine was spot on and the storyline fantastic. The negative Joe's will do their usual and look for the faults as they do in every film rather than having watched someone they like but still feel the need to pick a fault, so ignore these as the film is brilliant in every way (and no I don't work on it, or was an extra)