Review: Last Knights

"The wounds of honour are self-inflicted," Morgan Freeman's nobleman Bartok intones as Last Knight's most compellingly acted scene comes to a close. Bartok is moments away from martyrdom, his life the price for refusing to be extorted by the Emperor's greedy minister Gezza Mott (Aksel Hennie). "This man, Gezza Mott, is a cancer growing," Bartok announces to the Emperor (Peyman Moaadi) and his court, "and the only proper thing to do is to cut it out...for we are helping this man forge the very chains that bind us."

Gezza, acknowledged by the Emperor as a necessary evil, pours salt in the wound by having Bartok's devoted commander Raiden (Clive Owen) behead his own master, who has also been a father figure for this formerly lost soul. Bartok's family are evicted, his lands divided, all traces of his name destroyed. Raiden, consumed with guilt, falls back into his self-destructive ways whilst Gezza, fearing reprisal from Raiden and his band of warrior brothers, takes all available measures to ensure his own safety.

Screenwriters Michael Konyves and Dove Sussman insert a yearlong gap between Bartok's death and Raiden and his men's attempt to storm Gezza's compound to avenge their master's death, and that temporal shift seems to have impaired the film. The first and second halves feel awkwardly fused; there is a disconnect that almost suggests a change of intent on the filmmakers' parts, but also a lack of consideration in bridging the transition. A sizable chunk of the second half is spent running in place, and it may have been wiser to dispense with the time jump and simply accelerate the revenge plot so as not to compromise the narrative momentum. For that matter, the film could have also jettisoned all female characters since what is the point of having actresses as talented as Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ayelet Zurer, and Sung-kee Ahn and then saddling them with next to nothing to do.

Last Knights possesses a solid narrative, if nothing else, and there is undeniable care and attention in how the events unfold. A little abandon would have been welcome as the film is often bogged down by its methodical execution. Nevertheless, Japanese filmmaker Kazuaki Kiriya's workmanlike approach pays off where it counts the most: the neatly staged, well-sustained, and often remarkable siege of Gezza's heavily fortified complex.

Last Knights

Directed by: Kazuaki Kiriya

Written by: Michael Konyves, Dove Sussman

Starring: Clive Owen, Morgan Freeman, Aksel Hennie, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Peyman Moaadi, Cliff Curtis, Michael Lombardi, Noah Silver, Daniel Adegboyega, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ayelet Zurer, Sung-kee Ahn