Winston’s The Kid Who Would Be King says it’s the same old King Arthur story with a new, modern twist.

The Kid Who Would Be King is a modern update of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which many of us learned through Disney’s The Sword in the Stone (I prefer Monty Python and the Holy Grail). It has neat action andis not slavishly devoted to previous versions.

Present-day teen Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis, son of Andy Serkis, who you know as Caesar in the Planet of the Apes movies) pulls a sword out of a concrete block in a London construction site. It turns out the legend he knew from the comics is true, and he has to fight the evil Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson), who is returning from exile to take over the world.

He enlists his best friend, Bedders (Dean Chaumoo), and the school bullies, Lance (Tom Taylor) and Kaye (Rhianna Dorris) to help  him. He also gets training from a young version of Merlin (Angus Imrie) and an old one (Sir Patrick Stewart) along the way. To fight the evil sorceress, he eventually has to get his entire school to help against the vile un-dead knights Morgana raised.

The opening sequence is like a comic: the illustrations are colorful and lively. They are trying to connect with people who like comics.

The movie has an okay plot; the story of King Arthur has been done many times. The script is very predictable – I didn’t worry about spoiling that the bullies become his allies because they spell it out way in advance.

Yet the movie has some very funny moments. For instance, when Merlin needs to recharge his powers he drinks beaver urine and eats weird stuff like animal bone that turn out to be normal ingredients from a fried chicken restaurant. The humor in it works because it shows how old Merlin is and how fried chicken has weird ingredients in it.

The effects are really good and so is the fighting. So despite how predictable The Kid Who Would Be King is, it’s a self-discovery/Hero’s Journey adventure movie that’s OK for the whole family.

Rated PG

1 hour 50 minutes

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Winston’s The Kid Who Would Be King says it’s the same old King Arthur story with a new, modern twist.