Medieval (2022)
For Honor. For Justice. For Freedom.
Time for a flight of fantasy - well, at least a back with knights kind of movie. Technically - if the movie doesn’t lie to us, wherein there is no real rules about, this is based on a true story of one armored mercenary whose a bit of a legend in his parts. Arms, armor, and plenty of cuts and concussions, travel back to a time when everything wasn’t great and awesome, and to be a peasant was to have everything try to abuse you. Embark on a movie that for a guy who loves knights as much as me will ironically always spell wrong on the first try: tonight we watch Medieval.
Back in middle-age Bohemia, some stuff is going down. Political power plays are all over the place, with the Church having two popes, and king’s vying for power with back-handed assistance and not always very stealthy assassination attempts. In the middle of all of this for tonight’s story is a little band of mercenaries. We see them rescue (one of) the current King’s aide, and they end up with a new job. A job that might as well have come from god, since god selects the Kings and the Kings make the laws and specifically requested this job. For the good of the kingdom, and particularly to force a certain back-stabbing lord into some financial support, these mercs need to kidnap the princess - the lord’s fiance. Obviously, this isn’t something that’s going to be taken well to, and the resistance the merc force ends up meeting is only bolstered by the king’s brother getting his own greedy fingers into the betrayal pot - for the greater good of the lord, of course. All the while, the princess gets to see first hand some of the real muck these higher-ups are getting up to with their treatment of peasants and undesirables.
Actors do a good enough job here that you won’t feel like folks are phoning it in. If there is a moment of stiffness or acting that you feel like could be more well done, it’s not movie breaking as much as just wanting perhaps a bit more. Largely, I think that comes more to a “this is desired” sense - our main character can be quite controlled and of few words, for example. The actor doesn’t lack intensity in the slightest, and gets plenty enough across with just a glare or his body posture, but i could see the desire for more banter since most the times the banter is floating about it’s pretty decent. There’s a good chemistry between a bunch of the main character crew, and even the villains act believably vile throughout the flick. Yes, it’s a backstabbing extravaganza, and people are staking folks and the likes - but it never really feels like they are going so overboard it doesn’t feel accurate for the movie.
The writing and reasonable realism are the biggest things that might keep characters at the point they are. The most over-the-top thing we really see is a dude shove a horse and rider over a ledge like Chris Redfield punches boulders. Some of the characters might end up feeling a bit bland because of this as well - most the main crew you really don’t get much of a feel for outside of the main. Part of it might be the lack of backstory or anything that’s given to them, part of it might just be that most of their screen time is as background accessories or battle accessories. It doesn’t mean you won’t like some of them, but it also means that as opposed to something like The 13th Warrior, you won’t really find yourself getting really attached to them. The female lead gets to play with the most stuff I would say, as she has to cope with everything she’s seeing and we get to witness how that affects her as the movie goes on. Our lead is next up in line, having the most stuff that impacts him between his knowing the main combat villain and some of the stuff that happens to other background characters on top of getting some backstory for him.
A band of merry mercs
Outfits get to have a lot of fun stuff there. Why? Well, because it’s middle ages so we get armors of various degrees, some fancy dress from the noble likes, some sloppy dress from the low-classes, and plenty of weapons to go along with it all. Each of the main crew has their own weapon they tend to use and stick with, and their own little armor stylings. The armor itself isn’t unrealistic, although often times the combinations of things can feel a bit fantasy-esque in the practicality of it all - you know, like fighting with your plate-reinforced shirt open for comfort, or style, or ventilation or whatever. This doesn’t bother me as much as some folks would be bothered by it - it’s cool enough and it keeps people looking somewhat different in the normal shots, and given the fact it’s a mercenary group it would make sense they wouldn’t all be kitted out the same. The other clothes all looks pretty well done as well, and some of the higher-up stuff looks quite fancy and adds a pop of color.
The action scenes are a bit hit or miss in this in my opinion. Largely, they are pretty good - with Mortal Kombat style stand out violent spots. That being said, the movie really likes both it’s shaky cam and it’s cuts. Given the similarities between some of the outfits during battles, it can be a bit confusing to follow. That added oomph of the violence effects adds some meat to the conflicts and makes them feel more brutal, but I do suppose some of the levels of violence might not be to everyone’s particular taste. If you can still enjoy something like a Bourne movie, then you’d probably still enjoy the action in this without any complaints what-so-ever. When it’s good, it’s good. When it’s not, it’s at worst meh with a bit of whiplash.
Of course, there’s plenty of stuff to find in this one to talk about for the thinking folks. The whole power plays between all the groups including the church gives that whole “fools can be kings” philosophy time to be discussed, as does the treatment of the lower folks. The morals or lack there of of most action forces, not always limited to the bad guys, could also be a discussion point. Most the movie is a good example of how unpleasant it would be to live in those times for most people, and hits on all those sorts of topics like justice and honor and stuff people who watch movies on an intellectual level would be better suited to discuss. Audio was fine, balancing didn’t hide any line deliveries behind a wall of clangs and stab sounds. I’m pretty sure music was there, but I also don’t remember a lick of it.
Another kidnapped princess.
It’s a pretty not bad movie. It feels rather at home with all the middle ages movies you normally see, like that absolute swath of King Arthur based movies that came out at one point. The action is a bit more violent than most of those, not shying away from some literal disarmament. It has the political backstabbing that sweeps into plenty of these movies, and although it’s certainly not my favorite of the genre it does a good enough job that it’s way far from being the worst as well. Might not be for everyone, but if your looking for a few good, slightly hectic, fight scenes with a female lead that probably changes the most out of any character across the run, it might be what your looking for. It’s more like a historical Game of Thrones - with actual fights and stuff instead of dragons.