Outlaw King Review

*Minor Spoilers*

This is a movie I was interested in watching after seeing the trailer. Unlike other Netflix films this one seemed to actually be higher quality than some of the other movies they have produced. It also stars Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce which paired with the topic made me willing to watch it at least once. The movie Outlaw King is set around the historical events of Scotland regaining its freedom.

The Movie does a very good job of portraying the intense conflict of Robert the Bruce, who decides to rebel against the king and try to regain Scotland’s freedom. One issue I thought they could have done better in the movie is create a more compelling reason for Robert to rebel. They do have a tragic event that could be considered a good explanation except they also try to provide other supplementary reasons for his choice. If they had instead united behind the tragic event as his primary reason to rebel it would have likely been better. This movie is fast paced. Also, because of how fast paced it is there doesn’t feel like there is a lot of weight placed on his decision to rebel due to the movie having the plot move very quickly.

One thing the movie is very good at showing are the consequences for Robert’s choice to rebel, but I partly wished I fully understood what changes Robert’s mind when he chooses to rebel. This isn’t a major flaw in the movie, just something I wish was handled better.

There is a lot of good fight scenes in this movie. While throughout the film it is largely Robert who is on the run against England’s forces, they still have various large and small battle scenes that do deliver. The final battle scene at the end is definitely the best with large scale action.

I also enjoyed how fast paced the movie was. Once Robert makes his decision to rebel against England the movie’s plot is advanced rather quickly. Even though the movie has to follow specific historical events the film isn’t heavily bogged down with scenes they must include for historical accuracy.

In the end the movie is interesting because it follows Robert’s choices, primarily his choice to rebel. You don’t just follow his choices but the consequences he faces because he chose to rebel. This movie has a lot of bad things occur to Robert, but he is able to triumph in the end.

Outlaw King is a very good film. It was a very enjoyable film to watch with great action scenes. I would give it an 8.5 rating. The film is streaming on Netflix.