Outlaw King

Saw this at TIFF and it was definitely a fun and interesting movie. As a history buff the costumes and overall historical accuracy was great. However the scenes moved incredibly quickly, and the writing didn't have a lot of heart. Bruce is all the good guy and the king and prince of wales pure evil. The characters are so much more complex in real life and adding that to the script could have made it fall a little less flat. Again it was fun, but not exactly an Oscar film.

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.

The Outlaw King is a film about Robert The Bruce that picks up where Brave heart left off. The cinematography, costumes and f/x are all excellent. The acting is also up to par as well. The battle scenes are also quite good and get brutal at times. The Outlaw King is a good film and has a lot going for it. However, Chris Pine is not Mel Gibson and the storytelling is not as engaging or as smooth. While I thought the performances here are adequate, there is nothing electric that goes above and beyond that. The Outlaw King is certainly a quality production and good for an evenings entertainment.

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.

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)