I thought this time I would do something a little different than my “Nostalgia Fever” game reviews, and do a movie review as noted in the title. This will be about Last Knights.

Don’t get me wrong; I love looking back to games from yesteryear. I love playing games that stand the test of time and are enjoyable whether or not they’re popular or new. But like video games, movies have a bias and opinion on what’s good and what’s bad. Movies are meant to be enjoyed at once with family and friends, sitting in family rooms or theaters as a special night.

I also think back to my old job before I moved out of Nashua. It was a fun job bagging at a supermarket. Everyone was usually friendly, from the customers to the employees. I earned a good pay every week. And it was so close to home too. But what I liked best was how I could abuse the Redbox. Renting a movie costs a dollar a day ($1.50 for Bluray). So whenever I had to work 2 or 3 days in a row, I would rent the movie after work, watch it at home, and return it the next day before my shift.

I watched a lot of movies this way, some that just came out on DVD and others. Divergent,  Penguins of Madagascar, Big Hero 6, the Hobbit Trilogy, Godzilla… I could go on about reviews about each of them, from the ones I loved (Godzilla, Penguins), to the ones I actually felt were kind of bad (The Book of Life… and yes I will get into detail of why I didn’t like this one in a future review). But I also want to go over movies I think were panned too badly by critics who believe their egos are all that.

I want to review Last Knights, starring Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman, if only because a lot of people hated it for some reason.

And personally, I beg to differ on what the critic believe about Last Knights.

I can’t even begin to describe how angry it gets me to see how many people slam this movie. How the plot dragged on. How bland it was. How boring it was.

They came to a movie expecting something action packed and dynamic. I can’t blame them, because at some points the movie was more exposition than action. But once the mandatory exposition happens, the real meat starts. And it’s not the night of the invasion at the climax. Well, partly. It’s the build-up towards it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The movie Last Knights takes place in a medieval world, and throws us right into the action with Clive Owen, playing as Raiden, quickly dispatching a group of bandits in a routine patrol with his fellow knights. It’s the action promised here that keeps you glued in your seat and hoping for more, as well as asking questions.

The questions are asked first. Raiden serves his benevolent lord Bartok (Morgan Freeman). Things take a turn for the worse when a corrupt and evil minister, Geza Mott (Aksel Hennie) tries to assimilate the neighboring lands of the empire through bribery and show of force. Bartok refuses, and is put into trial when what was meant as “negotiation” escalates to assaulting the minister. But because Geza is minister to the Emperor (Peyman Moaddi), he has to be slain as punishment. As added insult, it has to be Raiden that makes the killing blow; and this is after Bartok had accepted him as his successor for his land.

Geza is satisfied to have taken revenge on Bartok, but he’s also worried that Raiden and his knights will return the favor if given the chance. He hides in his castle, fortifies its defenses, and assigns his warrior Ito (Tsuyoshi Ihara) to follow Raiden.

The Last Knights then makes a year-long time-skip. We focus on Raiden and the knights of Bartok, disbanded and living as common men without honor. Raiden in particular has become a drunk and despondent man, which eventually drives away his wife (Ayelet Zurer). But it is all a clever ruse, and I realized what it was emulating before the reveal.

The Last Knights is a movie adaptation to the real historic event of the Forty-Seven Ronin.

To summarize, a daiymo of a group of samurai was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) after assaulting a court official. For a whole year, the samurai waited and planned to strike back,

Other critics recognize the similarity too, but seem to find the movie boring for not being original or entertaining enough. Maybe it’s because there was already a movie that aired with the same plot, called 47 Ronin no less, but I liked the direction of this movie.

The plan of the infiltration, even before Raiden broke out of his drunken persona, was carefully planned by each knight in the know. But it didn’t completely go off without a hitch. One of their own knights had planned to turn in another for monetary reward, and was killed before he could. The guards managed to sound the alarm during the ambush and ruined the sneak attack. A lot of Bartok’s knights died trying to take revenge, as opposed to the flawless victory in the story.

And in the end, Raiden successfully defeated Ito, before slaying the eccentric Geza. But despite the honor they have shown for the late Bartok, the Emperor has to punish the knights for slaying his minister. And unlike the original story where all the ronin turn themselves in, Raiden becomes the sole martyr. The movie ends without implying if he survived or not.

I don’t really see what the problem was with The Last Knights. Was it not actiony enough? Kind of hard to show constant fighting with the plot of 47 Ronin. Was it too dragged on? Admittedly the movie was slow to build momentum but I believe the climax really paid off. There were also enough differences to take it away from just another retelling of the story, like a romance side plot between one of the knight and an abused servant girl in Geza’s care.

I honestly recommend The Last Knights, though not if you’re expecting something intense and fast paced like Mission Impossible. The Last Knights is a tale of intrigue, redemption and honor, even at the cost of one’s life. I say it was a well done movie, though my opinion probably doesn’t matter. I’m not a critic, after all.