The Kid Who Would Be King  ★★★½

IT’S not often that I watch family or children’s movies these days.

Long gone are the days when I woke up to Dumbo being watched every morning for a year. But with the first grand-child on the way, I’m sure to be back in that world in a few years’ time.

The new English film The Kid Who Would Be King is an entertaining and clever modern take on the Arthurian legend,  but I fear it may struggle to gather a large audience falling as it does between the cracks of what is generally expected.

It’s too frightening for the very young, with flaming skeletons on horseback charging at the audience; it doesn’t have enough of the sweeping spectacle of the Harry Potter films to cross generations; nor does it examine young adult themes enough to appeal to the older teenage market.

But Joe Cornish’s second directorial effort, after 2011’s Attack The Block, is consistently funny, excitingly staged and well-acted with excellent fusion of special effects and practical stunt work.

It also delivers some heart-felt messages about respecting others and giving the younger generation the confidence to tackle the future.

Louis Ashbourne Serkis, son of motion capture acting pioneer Andy Serkis, plays young teenager Alex who lives with his mother on a typical inner-London housing estate.

Alex’s best friend is Bedders (Dean Chaumoo)  and they are inseparable. But they are also different enough to be bullied, particularly by two older teenagers, Lance (Tom Taylor) and Kaye (Rhianna Dorris).

It’s while escaping from this persecution one night that Alex stumbles across a sword buried in a stone within a building site.

He removes the blade with ease and, after consulting Google, he and Bedders laugh off the suggestion that they have uncovered the actual weapon brandished by the legendary King Arthur.

But when a bizarre new student with an unusual fashion sense, ancient manner of speech and the ability to turn himself into an owl arrives at the school and confronts them, the boys are convinced.

The wizard Merlin, who has developed the ability to appear younger even with advancing years, convinces them that Arthur’s evil step-sister Morgana and her legion of skeletal warriors are rising from the underworld due to upheaval in the modern world creating the atmosphere for their return.

Some critics have suggested Cornish may be making a comment on the tumultuous Brexit debate here, but I suspect it’s more a general comment on our increasingly insular and polarising society.

Either way, the reasons aren’t really central to Cornish’s story which becomes a rollicking, old-fashioned adventure full of well-constructed and exciting action sequences and plenty of laughs, particularly involving the young Merlin grappling with modern life.

All the cast have a great time with Serkis and Angus Inrie as young Merlin the stand-outs. Patrick Stewart is the older version of the wizard and Rebecca Ferguson plays Morgana.

Cornish is more known as a writer but successfully manages both roles again here. His first film, Attack The Block, was an under-rated and similarly-themed story centered around an alien invasion of a London neighbourhood and the fightback waged by a bunch of teenagers with attitude.

Cornish has a good grasp of this type of film and audience and The Kid Who Would Be King deserves a wide audience.