I had no idea Quest for Camelot even existed until recently. I was only 10 years old when the movie came out, and I don’t think Warner Bros. did a great job advertising it. It didn’t perform well at the box office and received pretty mixed reviews. Still, I wanted to give it a shot, so I found it on the Fandango at Home app for free. While the title of this blog post might suggest I hated the movie, the truth is—I just didn’t like it.

The film is obviously based on Arthurian legend, but it’s one of the rare King Arthur stories where Arthur himself barely appears. Instead, the story focuses on Kayley, the daughter of one of Arthur’s knights who dies early in the film. She becomes the main character.

As she grows up, Kayley dreams of becoming a Knight of the Round Table, just like her father. It’s kind of funny to imagine anyone from that time being okay with a woman becoming a knight—let alone one who wears pants.

The main villain is Sir Ruber, a former knight who’s now a dark sorcerer bent on conquering Camelot by stealing the legendary sword, Excalibur.

One reason the movie is hard to take seriously is that Kayley doesn’t really seem to have the skills needed to save the day. Her love interest, Garrett, is basically her only real help—and he’s a blind hermit. He’s a somewhat charming character, but not very convincing as a warrior.

Then there’s Devon and Cornwall, a two-headed dragon with wildly different personalities. They’re supposed to be the comic relief, but they’re mostly annoying—until the very end when they finally become useful.

This is probably my least favorite portrayal of King Arthur ever. I get what the filmmakers were going for, but seeing the legendary king of Camelot in such a sad, watered-down form was just disappointing and a little weird.

Quest for Camelot isn’t a terrible film, and I can definitely see why it has a small fanbase. It had the potential to be something much greater, but Warner Bros. didn’t put enough effort into polishing it into a true gem. It gets a few things right, but the overall execution feels lazy at best.