FROM the producers of Pirates Of The Caribbean comes King Arthur with its "moderate battle violence and mild sex".

Produced by blockbuster magnate Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Training Day director Antoine Fuqua, the latest retelling of Thomas Malory's 15th century epic tale is built to the latest cinema specifications.

A little Pirates, more than a dash of Gladiator and plenty of Lord Of The Rings go into the mix and it ends up a worthy, if over-long and unduly complicated, variation on an old theme.

What is new is the setting for the Arthurian legend. Fuelled by archaeological research, writer David Franzoni jettisons the courtly setting, mocked in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, and instead casts the mythical Arthur into the abyss of the Dark Ages, seemingly just around the corner from Tolkien's Middle Earth.

These are the last days of the Roman Empire in Britain, an empire under attack from the flaxen, heavy-metal army of the Saxons (led by the Nordic Stellan Skarsgard, with an inexplicably American accent).

Franzoni's Arthur is a complex soul, caught on the horns of a dilemma on account of his being half-British, half Roman. On the one hand, he feels a sense of duty to defend his country; on the other, he and his Knights of the Round Table are at the beck and call of the Romans. Like a gang of robbers reuniting for one last heist, they reluctantly agree to take a final task for Rome, a course of action that will ultimately force Arthur to strike out for his own sense of right.

Clive Owen has been picked for the title role by Fuqua because "there's a lot going on in his eyes", and his eyes are given plenty of work to do, but he appears to be a Henry V without recourse to a Shakespearean spin doctor. Ray Winstone's thunderous, feisty England supporter of a knight has more balls, Ioan Gruffudd's Lancelot is more mesmeric, and then there is Keira Knightley's Guinevere. She is still more clothes horse than actress - and in this case that means stripping down to the minimum for battle in the manner of a computer-game heroine - but as in Pirates, she can carry an action scene with panache.

Battle scenes are impressive, although not on a par with Peter Jackson's panoramic setpieces in Lord Of The Rings, and the shards of humour are welcome too. King Arthur is too many films and film styles in one, but in the wake of Spider-Man 2, it is pleasing to see another summer blockbuster seeking to add intelligence and a personality crisis to the combustible compound of spectacular action.

Updated: 15:55 Thursday, July 29, 2004