6/10 “Desperate for one last chance to win, Michael Light convinces a sponsor to back him and a team of athletes for the Adventure Racing World Championship in the Dominican Republic. As the team gets pushed to the outer limits of endurance, a dog named Arthur comes along for the ride, redefining what victory, loyalty and friendship truly means.” Based upon Mikael Lindnord’s book with the overly long title “Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home” comes this Simon Cellan Jones directed adaptation. While my expectations were about as low as they could be, I was pleasantly surprised that this movie turned out much better than I was expecting, despite the overly sentimental ending.
Before I get to the problems, I will begin with what worked with this movie. Despite me personally not caring about extreme sports/adventure racing nor dogs, even I was able to find this true story fascinating. I wasn’t even aware of adventure racing (I’ll stick with sitting and watching films in an air conditioned house) prior to this movie and these athletes are some of the most incredible in the world as they run, bike, climb, row and do everything they can to go 435 miles to the finish line across five grueling days. The harsh terrain, lack of sleep and physicality needed is mind blowing and it seems people who are gluttons for punishment would enjoy going through this painful experience. The fact that a greatly injured dog was able to follow Michael (Mark Wahlberg) and his team across the same terrain but obviously without the ability to rock climb or bike showed the strength and resilience of this dog as much as it did for the humans. The acting is strong across the board and there was a solid diversity of personalities in Michael’s team. Sometimes they lifted each other up and had each other’s backs while other times they were sleep deprived and at each other’s throats with fights about to break out. This made for some good tension between the characters and Michael’s journey, featuring highs and lows, was pretty inspiring, despite his many mistakes. Set and filmed in the Dominican Republic, the cinematography perfectly encapsuled the beautiful but difficult landscape our characters traverse. The pacing worked well and it is nice seeing a true uplifting story as Wahlberg is at the point in his career where he wants to inspire with some motivational, true stories like this and 2022’s “Father Stu” (8/10). While dog lovers will likely get even more out of this movie, there were some negative aspects that bring the movie down a few notches, making it nowhere near the laughable 97% it has on Rotten Opinions.
There are a few problems with “Arthur the King” (since the title “King Arthur” was already taken). First off, Michael is somewhat of a hard protagonist to root for since he is constantly sabotaging himself. We see how thick headed and headstrong he is in the beginning of the movie as he doesn’t listen to the advice of his teammates. While Leo (Simu Liu) is made out to be somewhat of an antagonist for his obsession with social media (which is incredibly annoying and self serving), Leo also gives good advice which Michael ignores and is one of the biggest reasons he was able to race again, when the movie takes place. For someone obsessed with winning, he can’t stop making mistakes. While the movie is mostly predictable, the only thing I didn’t predict came near the end when, you guessed it, Michael once again sacrifices his last chance at victory for the dumbest reason imaginable, which was incredibly frustrating. It is supposed to be a selfless, inspiring moment but I found it to be a horrible decision and idiotic. Finally, the last 20 or so minutes of the movie get incredibly cheesy and becomes like dog porn for pet owners (in a non-sexual way obviously). Michael and this dog have known each other for about three days and he acts like it is more important than his wife, child, team and himself. Pet owners are overly attached to their pets and put them on the same level as human beings (just look at any cringe “Dog Mom” bumper sticker) and since I am not overly emotional, I found the ending to just be too much.
While the ending goes a bit off the rails and Michael is an incredibly flawed protagonist who makes some horrible and selfish decisions, I did admire the movie a lot more than I expected to and found moments to be heart warming and inspiring. The movie is well made with some great acting and the score gets the job done. The setting is unique and the movie was educational and entertaining as it dealt with a subject matter that many like myself will be unfamiliar with. If you are into extreme sports or are a dog lover, you could probably give this movie an extra point. While this isn’t a must see in theaters, I hope it finds a decent audience on streaming if the movie appeals to you.
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