I went to this movie with zero expectations. Every review had lambasted it as an awful effort. Well, the critics are just plain wrong. Alright, it's not exactly the towering greatness that the LOTR films have achieved, and some of its shots may be derivative of LOTR, but this is no turkey. The story of course, is based on the ancient Germanic 'Ring Cycle' legend, which J.R.R. Tolkien ( along with other ancient sagas like the 'Edda', the 'Kalevala' and 'Beowulf' ) derived inspiration. The film may not live up to its source material, but its certainly a more interesting effort than the woeful 'King Arthur' recently released.
Some Slight SPOILERS ( If you don't know the legend )
Our hero Siegfried ( Benno Furmann ), is a prince lost as a boy, living with a blacksmith who found him after a great battle. Raising him as his son, the blacksmith ( an interesting turn from Max von Sydow ) teaches him the crafts of smithy. And when he meets the Queen of Iceland ( Kristianna Loken ) at the site of a meteor crater, the pair fall in love and vow to meet again. On the tale goes, with Siegfried slaying a dragon, capturing his horde of gold, and meeting the king, Gunther ( Samuel West ), and his beautiful sister Kriemhild ( Alicia Witt ). West is excellent as always here. He knows this kind of stuff in his sleep, being a veteran of Fantasy as a genre: playing Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia BBC TV series ( 1989 ) all those years ago.
Worth a mention are the many and varied visual effects in the picture. The Dragon especially is an amazing creation. Perhaps not of the standard of the more celebrated effects houses, like ILM, Weta Digital, Digital Domain, Sony Imageworks, et all. But certainly an interesting concept and design. Though obviously not on the scale or scope of the films its attempting to copy, this is no 'Hallmark' production, having the look and feel at times of a film three times its low, 30 million dollar budget. Perhaps the only real problem is the disappointing performances of the two leads, Furmann and Loken. Lokens' accent can be questionable, and Furmann struggles to rise to the levels of Von Sydow and West. And despite the lengthy-ness ( some would say over-length ) of the film, characters like Icelandic Queens' rune-seer, and the Ghosts of the Nibelung feel like token additions, with no character work done here.
All in all, this film is far from perfect, and has aspects that disappoint, but, it IS a worthwhile attempt to visualize one of the most important works to the whole fairytale/fantasy genre. It isn't flippant, or played for laughs ( like the woeful 'Dungeons and Dragons', 1999 ); it attempts to present a legend come to life. And in comparison to some other recent stabs at this, it ain't half bad.
Some Slight SPOILERS ( If you don't know the legend )
Our hero Siegfried ( Benno Furmann ), is a prince lost as a boy, living with a blacksmith who found him after a great battle. Raising him as his son, the blacksmith ( an interesting turn from Max von Sydow ) teaches him the crafts of smithy. And when he meets the Queen of Iceland ( Kristianna Loken ) at the site of a meteor crater, the pair fall in love and vow to meet again. On the tale goes, with Siegfried slaying a dragon, capturing his horde of gold, and meeting the king, Gunther ( Samuel West ), and his beautiful sister Kriemhild ( Alicia Witt ). West is excellent as always here. He knows this kind of stuff in his sleep, being a veteran of Fantasy as a genre: playing Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia BBC TV series ( 1989 ) all those years ago.
Worth a mention are the many and varied visual effects in the picture. The Dragon especially is an amazing creation. Perhaps not of the standard of the more celebrated effects houses, like ILM, Weta Digital, Digital Domain, Sony Imageworks, et all. But certainly an interesting concept and design. Though obviously not on the scale or scope of the films its attempting to copy, this is no 'Hallmark' production, having the look and feel at times of a film three times its low, 30 million dollar budget. Perhaps the only real problem is the disappointing performances of the two leads, Furmann and Loken. Lokens' accent can be questionable, and Furmann struggles to rise to the levels of Von Sydow and West. And despite the lengthy-ness ( some would say over-length ) of the film, characters like Icelandic Queens' rune-seer, and the Ghosts of the Nibelung feel like token additions, with no character work done here.
All in all, this film is far from perfect, and has aspects that disappoint, but, it IS a worthwhile attempt to visualize one of the most important works to the whole fairytale/fantasy genre. It isn't flippant, or played for laughs ( like the woeful 'Dungeons and Dragons', 1999 ); it attempts to present a legend come to life. And in comparison to some other recent stabs at this, it ain't half bad.