DAY 18: you've got to be kidding me

Note: Spoilers ahead. If you're planning on watching and/or reading Avalon High, and don't want me to spoil it for you, read no further than the period after this sentence.


Earlier, I watched Disney's Avalon High movie interpretation of Meg Cabot's book. And frankly, I was disappointed. It was too...cheesy. I was gagging at the lines, and then I got handed the surprise of a lifetime: King Arthur is a GIRL. Seriously??

Will Wagner, played by Gregg Sulkin

Call me narrow-minded, but there was something seriously wrong about that. It's not the whole King Arthur has become a bloody female issue (coz I am all up for girrrrrrl power), but the abrupt way it was done in the movie. I've yet to read the book, but I sincerely hope it was done loads better there. In the movie, Will Wagner (Gregg Sulkin) had all the signs of being King Arthur--the cheating girlfriend, the best friend in love with his girlfriend, the evil stepbrother out to ruin his life, the entire football team of Knights, and the jock-straight-A's-gentleman perfect-guy image. On the other hand, Allie Pennington (Britt Robertson) was a new student with Arthurian fanatics for parents. No cheating boyfriends, no cheating best friends, no stepbrothers or half-brothers (evil or otherwise), no knights around her (obvious or otherwise). And yet she's King Arthur.

If you were gonna make a girl King Arthur, you might as well have all those elements mentioned in Will Wagner's almost-bio transferred to her. You know, so it'll be a tad bit more believable instead of leaving me grumbling about the ludicrosity of it all. Because what it seemed like to me was a Will Wagner who had everything except Excalibur, and an Allie Pennington who had nothing Arthurian except Excalibur (and her best friend who turned out to be Merlin, but Merlin was not solely Arthur's magician anyway). So now someone is more Arthurian than King Arthur. Grrrrreat.

What should have been.

I'm ranting, but seriously, it was frustrating to watch. All the cheesy lines. And then that twist in the end that went too abrupt and too farfetched for my taste. I need to download Meg Cabot's book NOW so I can feel better about this entire thing. Maybe I wouldn't have criticized so much if it weren't for the fact that I was looking forward to finally watching this movie.

But a last opinion: Gregg Sulkin was cute. Yeah. I never thought of him as cute before (in Wizards of Waverly Place), but in Avalon High...whoa! So yeah, that was the highlight of the movie.



Photo credits to Disney Avalon High and Just Jared Jr.