Film Review: ‘The Kid Who Would Be King’

A likable enough, Amblin-esque update to the classic Arthurian legend, “The Kid Who Would Be King” is hardly the first time a group of adolescents have saved England from supernatural harm in a Joe Cornish movie.

That said, much of the attitude and originality that drew fans to the irreverent writer-director’s inner-city alien-invasion debut “Attack the Block” — wherein underdog heroes faced off against fluorescent-fanged beasties from outer space — has gone missing from his eight-years-later second feature, which skews considerably younger and safer than that 2011 cult favorite.Maybe that’s because the kid in question is bland 12-year-old Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis).

Polite, white, and thoroughly unexceptional, Alex comes across as an average student in most respects, proving that chivalry is not dead by intervening when best friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) is hassled by classmates Kaye (Rhianna Dorris) and Lance (Tom Taylor), two bullies who would no doubt have

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