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This movie is a real mixed bag. It has some great elements in it but some weak ones as well. I ultimately wasn't too fond or impressed by the movie its approach and story. A real shame, since this movie seemed to have plenty of potential and had also a great cast in it.

Thing with this movie is that it that combines far too many different genres and elements. At first the movie seems to be a good old fashioned adventures medieval movie, with also plenty of action in it but the movie soon turns into a slow drama, that mostly consists out of talking and gets restrained with its settings.

Sure, it's original that the movie throws in all of its religious aspects and it provides the movie with some good moments but overall it just didn't made the movie a very interesting one, at least not for me. I just never really got into this movie and its story failed to intrigue me. It besides got far too slow at certain points. It all makes the movie also ultimately a very forgettable one.

Pacing seems to be really an issue with this movie. I can't really say that it's well directed, since the movie is at times all over the place with all of its different story elements and pacing as well. Some moments are rushed, while others are really stretched out. It also causes the ending to not really work out. The entire ending seems like it's part of a totally different movie and seemed to have been written for a possible sequel, instead of as the ending for this movie. It's very rushed and sort of comes out of the blue and doesn't really feel connected with the rest of the movie.

Sean Bean, Carice van Houten and David Warner (though his role is far too small and pretty pointless as well) are all more than capable actors and also gave away some fine performances. They truly lifted the movie up and still made it a watchable one but they can only make the movie good and watchable to a certain extend. They can't really help the fact that the story isn't that well written or intriguing and that director Christopher Smith didn't really did a great job with the available material.

The movie is still good looking and has a good atmosphere over it. It obviously wasn't the most expensive movie to make but not all movies need to cost millions of dollars of course. They simply did a good job with its available budget, though some more action and excitement wouldn't had harmed the movie.

And on a side-note, I wasn't always too happy with some of the hand-held camera-work. This is something that should mostly get used during battle and action sequences, not when people are walking or just talking to each other. It actually really took me out of the movie at times, even though I never really got into it in the first place.

Nothing too horrible but still a very forgettable little movie.

5/10

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About Frank Veenstra

Watches movies...writes about them...and that's it for now.
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