There's been much hype ahead of the Netflix original movie "Outlaw King"'s premiere this Friday.
One of the hottest topics surrounding the upcoming movie is lead actor Chris Pine's full frontal nude scene, but even the promise of seeing Pine in all his glory (if that's your thing) is not worth the two hours you'd have to spend watching the film.
Set in early 14th-century Scotland, "Outlaw King" tells the story of Robert the Bruce (Pine) and events that led up to Robert's rebellion against the British monarch King Edward I (Stephen Dillane) and his cruel son (Billy Howle). It kind of picks up after William Wallace's demise, but the events that follow holds no torch to the Scottish knight's tale as told in the multi-Academy award-winning 1995 movie "Braveheart", starring Mel Gibson.
While Pine seems to do a good enough job of portraying the quiet yet strong King of Scots, the story itself seems to be lacking in terms of character development and scenes leading up to core events.
For a historical drama, it's actually very unremarkable.
The fight scenes are a hot mess, and very random. We're also given about two lines worth of insight into the war strategy behind a landmark event led by one of Scotland's most famous warriors.
During the Battle of Loudoun Hill, Robert faced a superior English force led by Aymer de Valence at Loudoun Hill in Ayrshire. Some accounts suggest Bruce had 600 men facing 3 000 horse-mounted men. This was Bruce’s first major victory over the English.
It also doesn't show a timeline of events, so you don't know if it's been a matter of days, months or years. Tsk tsk.
When the credits finally started rolling I had two questions: Why did Chris Pine agree to do this movie, and what made Netflix fund it?
I'm sure the Scots will have much to say about it too.