20170830: Fantasy Review--Gods of Egypt

Name: Gods of Egypt (2016)
IMDb: Gods of Egypt page

Genres: Fantasy.   Country of origin: USA, Australia.

Cast:
Nikolaj Coster-Walder as Horus.  In a sense, there are no other actors in the film.  The movie is about Horus.

Gerald Butler as Set, Geoffrey Rush as Ra, Elodie Yung as Hathor, Bryan Brown as Osirus, Brenton Thwaites as Bek, Courtney Eaton as Zaya, Chadwick Boseman as Thoth, Goran Kleut as Anubis, Rufus Sewell as Urshu, Emma Booth as Nephthys, Ya Ya Deng as Astarte, Abby Lee as Anat.

Directed by: Alex Proyas.  Written by: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless.

Hathor, Horus, Set, Zaya, Bek

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Egypt holds a great celebration for the passing of rule from Osiris, son of Ra, to his son Horus.

Delineation of conflicts:
Horus is the designated heir of Osiris.  Horus' uncle Set does not see it that way.  On the day of succession, Set stages a coup. Osiris is killed, Horus is defeated, blinded, and exiled in short order.

The large majority of the film is about Horus regaining his sight, his strength, his relationship with his grandfather Ra, and rule of Egypt.  Set did not make this easier.

By and large, opposition by other gods is put down.

Resolution: The film begins and ends with epic fights between Set and Horus.

One line summary: War of succession in ancient Egypt.

Anat and Astarte with mounts

Statistics:

Cinematography/SFX: 10/10 Visually striking. Set design was just lovely. The depictions of the afterlife, of Ra's endless fight with Apophis, of the fights of the gods (Ra vs Apophis, Set vs Horus, Set vs Osiris), and the impressive architecture--all were fabulous.

Sound: 9/10 I could understand the dialog, which is a large plus for me.  The atmospheric backgroud music was well recorded.

Acting: 6/10 Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Walder, Geoffrey Rush, Rufus Sewell, Goran Kleut, and
Chadwick Boseman were excellent, 10/10

On the other hand, Brenton Thwaites and Courtney Eaton were beyond bad.

Screenplay: 8/10 The film held my attention, which most films that contain magic do not.  Much of this was the writing, the rest was the fine acting by the principal actors, which overshadowed the failures of the children.

Final rating: 8/10

20161115: Fantasy Review--Guardians of the Galaxy

Name: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
IMDb: link to Guardians of the Galaxy page

Genres: Fantasy   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Chris Pratt as Quill, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Djimon Hounsou as Korath, Lee Pace as Ronan, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as Groot (voice), Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta, Karen Gillan as Nebula, John C. Reilly as Corpsman Dey, Glenn Close as Nova Prime, Benicio del Toro as The Collector, Brendan Fehr as Corpsman Dey's partner.

Directed by: James Gunn.  Written by: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman (screenplay); Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning.

the main five

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
1. Young Peter Quill listens to music on his Walkman in 1988 at a hospital where his mother is dying of cancer.  His mother gives him a gift and asks for his touch.  He refuses, and she dies.  He runs away, only to be captured by parties unknown in a starship.

2. Twenty-six years pass.  Peter Quill still has his Walkman and his 80s music.  Currently he's landed on a planet to obtain an artifact of some sort.  Other parties want the object as well.

Delineation of conflicts:
Thanos wants as many of the Infinity Stones as possible.  The wielders of the Stones can express huge powers, but also can be overcome by the Stones.  Unfortunately, Thanos seems strong enough to wield the Stone, and possibly all six of them.

The Ravagers, who kidnapped Peter some years ago, want the Stone to sell it.  Ronan, a leader of the Kree Empire, wants the Infinity Stone to give to Thanos, who promises to destroy the central planet  Xandar.

Quill's friends in all this mess are Gamora, a 'daughter' of Thanos, who is upset with Dad.  Drax, a large powerful warrior whose wife and daughter were killed by Ronan.  Rocket, an illegal raccoon-cyborg construction, wants Quill for the bounty on him offered by the Ravagers.  Quill manages to gain his loyalty through a variety of misadventures.  Groot is Rocket's ally.

Quill manages to enlist the help of the Ravagers (as long as Yondu gets the Infinity Stone afterward) and the Nova Corps who defend Xandar, to breach Ronan's ship and stop the destruction of Xandar.  Nebula, Thanos' other daughter, wishes to stop them.  Korath, one of Ronan's officers, has the same goal.

To make things more fun, when Ronan gets the Stone, he decides to keep it, rather than let Thanos wield it.

Will Ronan be stopped?  Will Thanos get the Stone anyway, or will Yondu make off with it?  Will Gamora and Nebula ever be friends again?  Will Xandar remain in one piece?  Will Thanos fry Ronan?

Resolution: There is a lot of fighting at the end.  Many, but by no means all, of the issues are settled, and not without significant losses.

One line summary: Comic space opera from Marvel.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Much as I do not like CGI, this was rather good.

Sound: 9/10 The dialog was clear.  Some of the old Earth music was good to hear again, even though it was usually wildly inappropriate and disruptive.  Of course, that was its purpose.

Acting: 1/10 Utter and complete scat.  Chris Pratt is a thousand tons of bad.  I've liked Michael Rooker in the past, but not this time.  I would say the same of Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, John C. Reilly, and Glenn Close.

Screenplay: 1/10 Oh, goodness.  This came from a third-rate, bottom of the barrel Marvel comic.  The first class production values did not make up for the flimsiness of the script, the bad casting for Peter Quill, or the direction that did not make proper use of the good actors who were cast.

Final Rating: 5/10

20161115: Fantasy Review--Day of Reckoning

Name: Day of Reckoning (2016)
IMDb: link to Day of Reckoning page

Genres: Fantasy   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Jason Hurst as David, Heather McComb as Laura, Jay Jay Warren as Tyler, Hana Hayes as Maddy, Barbara Crampton as Stella.

Directed by: Joel Novoa.  Written by: Gregory Gieras.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Fifteen years ago, flying carnivorous monsters emerged from a drilling site, then from several more sites around the globe.  The human population eventually beat them back, but not without huge losses.

In the current day, the signs of their coming are repeated.

Delineation of conflicts:
Humans would like to live.  The monsters would like to kill the humans and eat some of them.

Some humans fight each other to live.  Other humans think the monsters are a sign from 'beyond' or whatever, and that humans need to be judged; such humans seem to prefer the monsters to other humans for this reason.

Resolution: Elimination derbies take their tolls.

One line summary: Another fine offering from the Epic Pictures Group.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 4/10 Most of the CGI footage was terrible.  As the film progressed, this got worse. The design of the monsters is chaotic, as if there were dozens of different kinds of monsters.

As for the natural footage, the second half was in the off-white, grey, green, black palette while barely being in focus.

Sound: 4/10 Usually I could hear the dialog.  Music seldom seemed to be an asset.

Acting: 1/10 Few of the people in the film showed any acting experience or skill.

Screenplay: 0/10 Terrible.  Going scene to scene to scene, the monsters might be (a) in the millions and invincible (b) a half dozen that look beatable (c) creatures that are destroyed by contact with water.  This endless inconsistency is pretty tough unless one is in the 'point and laugh' mood.  The minor theme of divine retribution on humans was just thrown in now and then.  Its development never went anywhere.

Final Rating: 2/10 I would not recommend this film to a friend or a stranger or an enemy.

20161013: SciFi review--Ascension

Name: Ascension (2015)
IMDb: link to the Ascension page

Genres: SciFi, Fantasy   Country of origin: USA, Canada.

Cast: Tricia Helfer as Viondra Denninger, Gil Bellows as Harris Enzmann, Brian van Holt as Captain William Denninger, Andrea Roth as Dr. Juliet Bryce, Brandon P Bell as Aaron Gault, Al Sapienza as Councilman Rose, Jacqueline Byers as Nora Bryce, Ellie O'Brien as Christa Valis, Laura Lee Smith as Samantha Krueger.

Directed by: Mairzee Alma, et alia; see IMDb link.  Written by: Adrian Cruz, Philip Leven.

Ascension cast

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
In 1963, a 100 year mission to a near star is launched with a select crew of 600 people.  The main action takes place around 2013, or 50 years into the mission.

Over time all sorts of challenges arise, but have been handled, for the most part.  However, certain internal pressures have started to break things.

In 2013, outside the project, not everyone is happy with the Ascension project, mostly because it is far from transparent.

Delineation of conflicts:
Those who work on the lower decks (the 'lowers') resent those who lived above (the 'uppers') and have more privileges and resources to use.  Not everyone gets permission to reproduce; this does not engender confidence and satisfaction.

The ship's crew seems to be hated by just about everyone.  The Stewardesses (led by Viondra) help buffer disputes among groups and gather intelligence.  They have more privilege than many, which is cause for resentment.

Councilman Rose spars with the Captain, both for fun and to get a more pliable Captain in place. Viondra, the Captain's wife, tries to blunt Rose's attempts and keep the Captain in place.

In the real world outside the ship, things are busy as well.  Harris Enzmann fights to keep control of Ascension, and to handle problems as they arise.  Samantha Krueger is hired to find out just what is going on in Ascension.  Enzmann and Krueger naturally butt heads.  Can Ascension actually continue without Enzmann's guiding hand?

Resolution: Given the faults of the setup, the resolution is pretty clear.  This is one more cliche implementation of 'the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.'

One line summary: Fake multi-generational space flight.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 No problems.

Sound: 8/10 I can hear the dialog.  The music occasionally adds tension.

Acting: 5/10 I liked Tricia Helfer and Gil Bellows.  I disliked the performances of Laura Lee Smith, Al Sapienza, and Brian van Holt.  The rest were indifferent.

Screenplay: 4/10 Meh.  There were too many cliches.  The hugely expensive experiment is riddled with obvious flaws.  The whole project is set up without sufficient oversight and transparency.  The goals of Ascension were known to a much too small set of individuals.  Worse yet, these were stupid goals.

Most of the show is about the nuts and bolts of real world science and engineering.  Then there is a jump shift.  Producing individuals gifted with massively strong occult powers is absurd in this context.

The entire final hour was a complete waste of time since the property bounds out of SciFi into the realm of bullshit fantasy.  (There is plenty of good fantasy in film; this just was not it.  This property was 5 hours of SciFi that is straight-laced to the point of being ho-hum.  This is followed by 1 hour of fantasy.  Forget this!)

Final rating: 5/10 The butt of this joke is the viewer.

20161004: Action Review--Skinwalkers

Name: Skinwalkers (2006)
IMDb: link to Skinwalkers page

Genres: Action, Fantasy, thriller   Country of origin: Canada.

Cast:
Jason Behr as Varek/Caleb Talbot, Elias Koteas as Jonas Talbot, Rhona Mitra as Rachel Talbot, Natassia Malthe as Sonja, Kim Coates as Zo, Sarah Carter as Katherine, Matthew Knight as Timothy Talbot, Barbara Gordon as Nana, Tom Jackson as Will.

Directed by: James Isaac.  Written by: James DeMonaco, Todd Harthan.

Rhona Mitra

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Young Tim starts a walk through town with his tall, alert Nana.  In parallel, some biker thugs ride toward town.  Two or so minutes later, everyone in the town and all the invaders are in full-on deadly combat.

The invading murderers claim loudly, "We just want the boy."  Everyone in town would like to live, but each of them is willing to die to protect Tim, especially if they can kill the damned bikers first.

Delineation of conflicts:
The bullet-ridden dialectic reaches an impasse which enables a bit of narration.  The local werewolf (skinwalker) population has been present for quite some time, but it has become divided and polarized. There is a prophecy that a hybrid (Tim) will be born.  There will be three nights in which the blood moon will shine near the thirteenth birthday of the boy.  On the midnight of the third such night, the power of the hybrid will be manifest.

That power is the ability to end the curse that werewolves suffer.

Some of the werewolves embrace the power and bloodlust that the curse brings.  They want the boy dead.  The other faction cherishes their humanity, and wishes the hybrid to survive, to flourish, and to completely fulfill his destiny.

Resolution: Much of the prophecy is fulfilled while each of the two factions quite effectively reduce the numbers of the opposite side.  As the witching hour draws nigh, secrets are revealed and the plot moves forward from one last minute fight to the next.

One line summary: Not your typical werewolf elimination derby.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 This is a good-looking film, especially the daylight shots.  The dark inside and night time shooting was better than most in this genre.  The skinwalker masks were pretty poor, though, and there was a lot of werewolf footage.

Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.

Acting: 8/10 Rhona Mitra, Tom Jackson, Elias Koteas, and Barbara Gordon gave fine performances. I never expect much from child actors, but Matthew Knight was pretty good.  Jason Behr was better than I thought he would be.

Screenplay: 7/10 Daybreakers (2009) owes the current film for some of its concepts.  Daybreakers had a bigger budget, a more highly regarded cast, and a more detailed script.  Daybreakers was more on the science side of fantasy, while Skinwalkers was more in the traditional fantasy horror side.

In any case, I liked the film's energy, its nice combination of plot elements, and its ending.  Right up until the finish, I thought this was one of the usual bloody 'kill them all' movie.

Final Rating: 7/10

20160911: Fantasy Review--It Follows

Name: It Follows (2014)
IMDb: link to It Follows page

Genres: Fantasy  Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Maika Monroe as Jay Height, Keir Gilchrist as Paul, Olivia Luccardi as Yara, Lili Sepe as Kelley Height, Bailey Spry as Annie, Jake Weary as Hugh, Daniel Zovatto as Greg.

Written and directed by: David Robert Mitchell.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
There is an opening, very short sequence about Annie, who is running from something.  She drives to a beach, then waits.  Next morning, she's dead.  Do we reconnect with this?

The film is about Jay Height, not Annie.  Jay grows closer to a boyfriend, Hugh.  They have sex at a remote place in the back of his four door sedan.  Then he drugs her, takes her to an abandoned car park, then ties her to a chair on rollers.  The boyfriend says that he's passed something on to her.  As they speak, a woman approaches.  The boyfriend gets agitated.  Unless Jay passes it on to someone else via sex, the whatever-it-is will come back for him.

Delineation of conflicts:
The police interview Jay.  They find the parking lot that Hugh took her to, chair she was tied to, her lost purse, and the apartment that Hugh said was his.

Jay seems to be followed by various characters.  Are they figments of her imagination, or is something real after her?  She has a difficult time showing anybody direct evidence of the followers, who seem to be reanimated dead.  Does that change?  Does she pass 'it' on to someone else?  Can she escape with the help of friends?  These are Jay's attempts to deal with the unknown.

Resolution: Jay finds that 'Hugh' was a Jeff Redmond.  Jeff tries to be helpful with limited success.  Greg tries to take the problem away from her in a bit of macho display that fails.  Where is the solution, or is there one?

One line summary: Slow boiling fantasy thriller.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Dingy and dark realistic photography of a town in steep decline in Michigan, USA.  It looks professionally done and adds to the atmosphere, I suppose.

Sound: 7/10 I can hear the dialog, which is the first big test on sound.  Did the foley or background music add much to the proceedings?  During the first 50 minutes, not so much.  Later the electronic music did some mood augmentation.

Acting: 6/10 The acting was much better than I expected for this sort of film.

Screenplay: 4/10 There is no possibility that any of the events in this film could happen, so this is supernatural horror, which I label as fantasy these days.  As usual with fantasy, one has to judge the film against its internal rules, since it has it has decided to lose connection with reality.

The one rule seems to be "if you've got it, you'll know it; convincing anyone else is another matter;" another is "pass it along or it will kill you."  The film stays pretty true to those two fantasy premises.

The film moves slowly, which was not a plus for me.  There was barely enough content here for a 42 minute television episode, much less a 105 minute feature film.  The tiny theme of the safe suburbs versus the evil city never seemed to go anywhere for me.  Just to cap everything off, the ending is nebulous.  Perhaps that was meant to be an opening for a sequel.

Some of the visuals seemed to be disconnected islands, such as when Jay swam out to a boat on a lake, and the opening scene with Annie.

Final Rating: 6/10

20160902: Fantasy Review--The Last Witch Hunter

Name: The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
IMDb: link to The Last Witch Hunter page
Genres: Fantasy, Action.   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Vin Diesel as Kaulder, Rose Leslie as Chloe, Michael Caine as Dolan the 36th, Elijah Wood as Dolan the 37th, Olafur Darri Olafsson as Belial, Julie Engelbrecht as the Witch Queen.

Directed by: Breck Eisner.  Written by: Mark Sazama, Cory Goodman, Burk Sharpless (screenplay).

Image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Initial, part I: We're in the black plague era in Europe, say 13th century.  The spread of the plague is attributed to the spellcasting of evil witches.  Vin Diesel's character, Kaulder, is one of the witch hunters who finds the Witch Queen.  Kaulder and company put an end to the plague, but at the cost of Kaulder's wife, his only child, and most of his hunter friends.  While dying, the Witch Queen curses Kaulder.

Initial, part II:  In current New York City, Kaulder is still hunting witches.  Yes, the same Kaulder. He's allied with an old group within the church, the Axe and Cross, which tries and imprisons witches.  They also keep secrets.  Kaulder's main contact with Axe and Cross is Dolan the 36th, played by Michael Caine, in one of those short roles that he does so well.  Dolan is quite old, and Dolan the 37th seems ready to take over being contact with the immortal Kaulder.

Delineation of conflicts:
In the present, witch activity seems to be picking up.  Something large is brewing.  Kaulder suffers a number of reverses, and his list of allies shrinks.

The film began in apocalyptic mode, and near the end it is almost there again.  Kaulder must face what he did not face the first time, 800 years ago.

Resolution: Will Kaulder find new allies, or must he carry the day himself?

One line summary: Attempt at another Vin Diesel movie franchise.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Well done on the whole; the visuals kept my attention.

Sound: 8/10 Dialog is clear.  Music seemed appropriate.

Acting: 5/10 Michael Caine was fine in his short role as noted above.  Vin Diesel is convincing as an action hero, even here with swords, magic, fists, and intention instead of cars, guns, and explosives. Julie Engelbrecht had her fine moments as Kaulder's arch nemesis, the Witch Queen, at the very beginning, and at the very end. Olafur Darri Olafsson was a blast as Belial, an in-your-face opponent for Kaulder.

Elijah Wood's performance sucked rocks.  Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones, 17 episodes) was almost interesting as Kaulder's on-again, off-again witch ally.  That was a bit weak, since she was supposed to be the female lead.

Screenplay: 5/10 Violence and threat moves the plot along, so the 106 minutes runtime does not drag too badly. I'm glad I saw the film, but would not watch it again.  Why not?  The narrative is not well-constructed.  It seemed like every five minutes there was some change or rules, or some impressive (?) artifact to consider.

At the end of the film, I felt that I should have been happier for the protagonist, but just could not be. Would there be major challenges for him in the centuries to come?  Would Chloe be a reliable ally? By this time I did not care, and I felt this to be a major failing of the film.

Final Rating: 6/10 I liked it better than most people did, but I would be hard pressed to say, 'you must see this one.'

Checking against Box Office Mojo and IMDb, the film took in 27 million USD domestically, against 90 million USD production costs, so the chances for a sequel are slim.  The Numbers website puts worldwide revenue at 131 million USD, plus 19 million in disks. This does not increase the likelihood of a sequel by much.  Chances for a franchise: none.

20160719: Fantasy Review--Jurassic World

Embrace the Suck, review #2: Jurassic World (2015)
Pre-emptive considerations:

1. Chris Pratt.  A poor man's version of Tyler Labine.  I don't believe any line that he says as an actor; he is a strong deal breaker.


2. Bryce Dallas Howard.  Why, just why?  Two deal breakers in one film!


3. Counter-balancing the nausea caused by the choice of lead actors was the presence of much better actors such as Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Omar Sy, BD Wong, and Judy Greer.

So why did I watch it? I liked very much the source material from Jurassic Park.  I thought the SFX might be a step up from the original, which would be worth seeing.

------Return to normal review mode.------

Name: Jurassic World (2015)
IMDb: link to Jurassic World page

courtesy of The Movie Database (TMDb)

Genres: Fantasy   Country of origin: USA

Cast:
Chris Pratt as Owen, Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire, Irrfan Khan as Masrani, Vincent D'Onofrio as Morton, Omar Sy as Barry, BD Wong as Dr Henry Wu, Judy Greer as Karen, Nick Robinson as Zach, Ty Simpkins as Gray.

Directed by: Colin Trevorrow.  Written by: Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
In modern day Costa Rica, the theme park Jurassic World has completely replaced the theme park Jurassic Park, which closed twenty years earlier due to a disaster involving multiple human deaths.  The new park has bigger dinosaurs with more teeth and greater ability to do damage.

Claire has a position of responsibility at the park coordinating operations.  She promises her sister Karen that she will show her nephews Zach and Gray a good time at the park.  Claire provides them with bracelets that let them get on rides without waiting in line, and hires a nanny to oversee them.  However, she does not provide them with more than a few minutes of her own time.

Owen is still bonding with the four raptors he has dealt with since their hatching.  As an accident early on shows, the training and loyalty are a bit iffy.

Delineation of conflicts:
The animals at the exhibits would like to escape their jails; the owners of the park would like them kept in captivity.  The makers of the film think that the viewers would like to see human beings slaughtered by the animals.   Said human characters would like to continue living.

The owners of the park experience decay in attendance when there are not enough new attractions every so often.  In order to keep profits high and push them higher, the owners fund the creation of 'new' animals made from dinosaur DNA plus other DNA.  The danger in this seems to elude the park owners, who set up testing, but do not spend enough money or thought on safeguards.

Claire delegates her responsibilities for Zach and Gray to an English nanny, and the results are not good.  Consequences here are many. Claire and Owen spend a lot of effort finding the boys then helping them survive.

Claire and Owen have some nebulous past relationship, and that seems to be going nowhere.  Despite this, when the going gets tough, she calls on Owen for help.

The Morton character represents interests who want to make huge amounts of money by weaponising the dinosaurs, particularly the raptors.  Chaos at the park represents an opportunity for Morton to take over the park and scoop up the full research on dinosaur redesign technology.  This would circumvent dealing honorably with the owners.

Owen sets up a pilot project to see whether raptors can bond with humans.  He has some success since he has interacted with them from birth.  Later these raptors meet with the indominus creation, and are drawn to it, since it has some raptor DNA.  The raptors have divided loyalties.  How will that play out in the final battle?

Resolution: The dialectic of conflicts ends late in the film.  Most of the resolutions end up the way one would expect, and take most of the movie and much effort.  So the film at least goes through the motions of good storytelling, but fails chronically in delivery.

One line summary: Same plot as Jurassic Park with newer SFX.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 I rather liked this, despite the overabundance of CGI.  The skill level and care in editing was high.  In particular, the sequence where the indominus comes out of camouflage is just brilliant.

Sound: 6/10 I could hear the dialog clearly, which was usually a plus.  The main score by Michael Giacchino would have been more at home in an historical costume drama, rather than in a high tech fantasy.

Acting: 4/10 The two lead actors are walking disasters, and the director did not do enough to blunt this weakness.  Sam Neill and Laura Dern (the leads in Jurassic Park) outshine Pratt and Howard by orders of magnitude.

In contrast, I would like the fine actors Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Omar Sy, BD Wong, and Judy Greer in just about any property in which they appear, including this one.  However, I do wish that each of them had had more screen time plus better dialog.

Screenplay: 5/10 This was a rehash of Jurassic Park, but with more CGI and lesser actors.  The 'new' elements were just excuses for more butchery of human beings by mindless, ridiculous, and impossible monsters.

There were natural (for a fantasy) conflicts aplenty, and the storytelling brought them to reasonable conclusions in most cases.

The dialog struck me as poor.  Part of that was the lack of acting skills on the parts of the lead actors (Pratt and Howard), but not all of it.  Even the much better supporting actors sounded terribly stupid here and there.

Final Rating: 6/10

20160227: Fantasy Review--The Taoist Wizard

Name: The Taoist Wizard [alternate title: Woo-Chi] (2009)
IMDb: link to The Taoist Wizard page

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy.   Country of origin: Republic of Korea.

Cast: Kang Dong-won as Jeon Woo-chi, Yeom Jeong-Ah as the Actress, Kim Yun-Seok as Hwa Dam, Song Young-Chang as Buddhist Monk.

Written and directed by: Dong-hun Choi.

The initial tableaux:
A short tale is told of demons being contained by a flute being played.  It was to be played for 3000 consecutive days, but the player miscounted.

So we have a comedy.

The monsters get loose and take possession of the flute.  Transfers of mastery among humans fails repeatedly.

The incomplete Tao wizard Woo-Chi causes a lot of trouble to obtain the obtain the flute.  His master saves his neck and gets the flute.  A second master, Hwa-dam, fights him for the flute, which is broken in the process.  Since it is split, perhaps the monsters will be contained.

The master of Woo-Chi is killed by Hwa-dam, but Woo-Chi is blamed for it.  He is cursed to imprisonment for 500 years, and awakens in the present.  The break occurs at 46 minutes into the 135 minute film.

We switch to current times; the monsters are present, the flute is still broken.

Delineation of conflicts:
The monsters would like to be free and remain free using the restored flute.  The guardians, or whatever, of the flute free Woo-Chi from his prison inside a painting.  He is not interested in defeating the monsters and restoring the flute.  The guardians, the Shin-shun, work on his ego, which has plenty of soft spots.  The monsters try to kill all of them to get the two pieces of the flute.

There's a subplot about a young woman whom Woo-Chi meets in the past.  He also thinks he meets her again in the present.  This was not done well at all, but got all too many minutes of screen time.

Resolution: Who cares?

One line summary: Terribly ineffective Tao wizard.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Mostly OK.  For a relatively low-budget film, the SFX looked fine.  I wish Hollywood delivered such bang for the dollar.  The standard camera work looked good.

Sound: 8/10 The music was decidedly funnier than the dialog.

Acting: 2/10 Plus one for the actor who played Hwa-Dam; plus one for the actor who played Woo-Chi's master.  If I never see any of the others again, it will be too soon.

Screenplay: 0/10 Stealing from Naruto?  It is difficult to sustain any interest in such a story.  The tipping point for me was around 67 minutes into the film during a tremendously boring and stupidly designed fight scene.  The prolog was distressingly long, and the longer section in the present was much too long and uninteresting.

Final rating: 1/10 

20160112: Action Review--Constantine

Name: Constantine (2005)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Drama, Fantasy, Horror   Country of Origin: USA, DE.

Cast: Keanu Reeves as John Constantine, Rachel Weisz as Angela Dodson/Isabel Dodson, Shia LaBoef as Chas Kramer, Djimon Hounsou as Midnight, Max Baker as Beeman, Tilda Swinton as Gabriel, Peter Stormare as Lucifer, Jose Zuniga as Detective Weiss, Gavin Rossdale as Balthazar, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Father Hennessy.

Directed by: Francis Lawrence.  Written by: Kevin Brodbin and Frank A. Capello

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: The titles say, 'The Spear of Destiny' has been missing since the end of World War II.  So what is this spear?  Perhaps we will find out.

In the present day, Manuel and friend are sifting debris.  Manuel almost falls through some rotten floor boards.  Beneath the boards he discovers a spearhead wrapped in a Nazi flag.  He walks away from his friend with the spearhead, but is immediately hit by a car.  He receives a mark, then rises and trots away, seemingly unharmed.  What could this mean?

In the second thread, John Constantine and his allies watch for incursions from hell, and act against them as best they can.  Hennessy calls John for an exorcism, and the type of demon that John scotches tells him that something is afoot.

In the third thread, Detective Angela asks her priest for guidance.  Her twin Isabel commits suicide.  Angela is at a loss.

Delineation of conflicts:  Lucifer and company have plans for broaching the barriers to invading Earth.  The archangel Gabriel (heaven) and the demon Balthazar (hell) each has plans of his own.  John is dying of cancer while he's trying to protect as much of Earth as possible.  Angela wants to know what is going on with her life, and what happened to Isabel.  Chas wants to get more out of his apprenticeship with John.  Hennessy would like to live a bit longer, and help John if he can.  Midnite tries to stay neutral between heaven and hell.

Resolution: I thought the film came to a good, though harsh, conclusion.  What did you think?

One line summary: In the Catholic mythos sub-genre, my favourite.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 8/10 Too dark for my taste, but otherwise fine.

  b. Sound: 9/10 I could hear the dialog and the incidental music as quite good.  I liked Passive by A Perfect Circle and Take Five by Dave Brubeck the best.  Not everybody liked the original work, for instance as mentioned in sound review , but I thought it fit nicely with the subject, cliches and all.

  c. Acting: 10/10 Brilliant.  Reeves, Weisz, Stormare, Swinton, Baker, Hounsou, Rossdale, Vince, and even LaBoef did fine jobs.

  d. Screenplay: 9/10 I thought the dialog was good, and the story threads fit together nicely.

Final rating: 9/10

20151209: Fantasy Review--Painted Skin 2

Name: Painted Skin: the Resurrection (2012)    IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Fantasy, mystery, romance.    Country of Origin: China.   Directed by:  Wuershan.

Cast: Zhou Xun as Xiaowei (fox demon), Chen Kun as Huo Xin (warrior), Zhao Wei as Princess Jing, Mi Yang as Quer (bird demon), Morgan Benoit as the Wolf Boy of Tian Lang Kingdom, Shaofeng Feng as Pang Lang (the Monster Slayer), Kris Phillips as the Witch Doctor of Tian Lang.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: Sequel to Painted Skin (2008).  Five hundred years have passed since the fox demon Xiaowei was imprisoned in the original film.  The bird demon Quer helped Xiaowei escape, and travels with her.  Xiaowei has a habit of eating the hearts of human men whom she had seduced.  She does this to regenerate the pleasing side of her visible form.

Xiaowei rather disliked the time in the frost prison, and looks for a change to her life.  She encounters Princess Jing and Huo Xin, the warrior who was entrusted to guard Jing.  However, Jing's face was disfigured on Huo Xin's watch.  He blames himself for this; Jing had a golden mask made to cover it.

Delineation of conflicts: Xiawei comes to like Jing and Xin.  She sees a process to become mortal, but it involves bringing harm to Jing and Xin.  Jing would like her own beauty restored, but the cost might be steep indeed.  The Tian Lang state would like to make inroads in Jing's kingdom; Jing and company would rather that not happen. Tian Lang's true motives are darker.

Resolution: One might guess how the film's climax comes to pass, but difficult choices are involved.  Are the principal characters up to it?

One line summary: Poor effects, poor script, so-so actors.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 2/10 The visuals are largely spoiled by effects.  The green screen composites were many, and looked fake.  The models used are not all that well done, and looked to be perhaps 1970s quality.  The credits in the opening sequence looked bad.  Clearly a lot of money was dumped on this project, but the effect was not worth it.

Makeup and wardrobe were poor, obvious, badly done.

  b. Sound: 4/10 The background music seemed overly florid.  The spoken dialogue was irrelevant to me, since I do not understand spoken Mandarin Chinese, and will not any time soon.  The subtitles seemed adequate, and not glaringly incorrect.  The +4 is for the lovely music over the closing credits.

  c. Acting: 0/10 I've seen American directors get better results from unknown actors.  Having to watch the dreary performances of the actors who played the fox, the princess, the warrior, the bird, and the Tian Lang folk was drudgery.

  d. Screenplay: 1/10 Did I identify with any of the characters? No.  Did I empathise with any of the characters?  No.  Did I like any of the characters?  No.  Were the Tian Lang opposition members (the bad guys) interesting? No.  Was there any comic relief?  No.  Did I enjoy 30 minutes of plot being stretched over 131 minutes with this uninteresting group?  No.

Final rating: 1/10, though not that good.  I am usually a fan of Asian film, and this property received much critical praise.  For the reasons given above, I think it deserves little if any.

20151101: Fantasy Review--Van Helsing

Name: Van Helsing (2004)
IMDb: Van Helsing on IMDb

Genres: Fantasy  Country of Origin: USA

Cast: Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing, Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious, Richard Roxburgh as Count Vladislaus Dracula, David Wenham as Carl, Shuler Hensley as Frankenstein's monster, Alun Armstrong as Cardinal Jinette, Elena Anaya as Aleera, Silvia Colloca as Verona, Josie Maran as Marishka, Kevin J. O'Connor as Igor, Will Kemp as Velkan Valerious, Tom Fisher as Top Hat.

Written and directed by:  Stephen Sommers

The Three Acts:

The initial tableau: There is a lot going on in this film.  The initial context comes from four vignettes:

(1) Doctor Frankenstein has successfully brought life to his cobbled together monster.  Dracula, who funded Frankenstein, figures that his investment has borne fruit, and kills the doctor. The monster is enraged by this, and manages to escape Dracula and the mob with their torches. Dracula recruits Igor.

(2) Van Helsing confronts Mr. Hyde in Paris at the behest of a secret group operating out of the Vatican.  In doing such work, Van Helsing has become a wanted criminal of international renown.  He has no public support whatsoever, and is hated by many.

(3) At the Vatican, Van Helsing is dressed down by Cardinal Jinette.  He gets a new assignment: to protect the Valerian family (Anna and Velkan), and to help them kill Count Dracula in a fulfillment of a family oath.  The oath was that the family would not enter Heaven until Dracula was destroyed. Van Helsing meets the friar named Carl, who is both timid and talented.

(4) Velkan and Anna attempt to trap the werewolf that has been terrorising the village.  Velkan kills the werewolf, but is bitten in the process.

Delineation of conflicts:  Velkan becomes a rather powerful werewolf.  Dracula would use Velkan for his own purposes.  Van Helsing and Anna have a chewy first meeting, then agree to oppose Dracula's intentions toward Velkan.

Dracula and his trio of mates (Aleera, Verona, and Marishka) want their undead offspring to have life.  Van Helsing, Anna, and the Vatican want them to die: Van Helsing, to follow orders; Anna, to save her family from Purgatory; the Vatican, to drive the spawn of Satan from the face of the Earth.

Frankenstein's monster would like to live in peace with some degree of freedom.  Dracula wants to consume him to transfer life to his offspring.  The Vatican wants the monster dead since he's not precisely human, and his life was not given to him by God.  Carl would like to comply with the Vatican's wishes, but cannot in good conscience.

Dracula wants Van Helsing dead for strong reasons of his own.  Van Helsing, Carl, Anna, and the monster are opposed.

Resolution: Excellent, difficult, and harmonious.

One line summary: A wonderfully constructed remix of modern fantasy themes.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 10/10 Beautiful natural shots plus excellent CGI.  Many of the sets were gorgeous in design and intricate in detail.

  b. Sound: 10/10 Lovely.

  c. Acting: 9/10 This is my favourite from all Hugh Jackman performances I have seen.  Richard Roxburgh was great as Dracula, Kevin J. O'Connor made a fine Igor, David Wenham was wonderful playing Carl. Kate Beckinsale, Elena Anaya, Silvia Colloca, and Josie Maran were excellent as Anna and the brides of Dracula.

  d. Screenplay: 10/10 There are several threads as described above, all woven together nicely.  Great writing, with some good dashes of comedy thrown in.  Carl's discoveries and deliveries of intelligence dovetailed nicely with the needs of the action heroes.  The culminating action sequences were gripping, and the final, parting scenes definitely pulled at the heartstrings.

Final rating: 9/10

20151031: Fantasy Review--Zhongkui

Name: Zhongkui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (2015)
IMDb: Zhongkui

Genres: Fantasy   Origins: Mainland China

Cast: Chen Kun as Zhong Kui/Demon King, Li Bingbing as Snow Demon/Little Snow, Winston Chao as Zhang Dao Xian, Zishan Yang as Zhong Ling (Kui's sister).

Directed by:  Peter Pau, Tianyu Zhao.  Written by: Chen Kun, Li Bingbing, Winston Chao.

The Three Acts: 

Initial Tableau: Every 1000 years at July 15, a period of travel among Hell, Heaven, and Earth ensues, where travel is done by reincarnation.  Devastation results as demons reincarnate near the village of Hu on Earth.  The powers that be in Heaven dispatch a volunteer, Zhang Dao Xian, to help out the humans caught in the crossfire.  Zhong Kui steals the 'Dark Crystal' from an active ceremony in Hell itself, and is spirited away by Zhang, one of the gods.  The Snow Demon volunteers to the Demon King to fetch back the crystal.  Her sister, Little Snow, is being held captive by the King, so her compliance is assured.

Delineation of Conflicts: Snow Demon wants the crystal for her King.  Heaven wants to keep it, so as to restore all the souls taken by demons.  Zhong Kui is assigned to protect the Dark Crystal as it lies hidden within Hu.  When a traveling troupe of entertainers arrives from the west, Zhong finds that Little Snow came with it.  Can Zhong help free Little Snow from Hell, or will she seduce him away from his primary duty to Heaven?  Will he successfully defend the Dark Crystal and the captured souls within it?

Resolution: There are some major reversals during the final segment as resolution approaches.  Those were quite well done.

One line summary: Grand fantasy, Chinese style, from the video game of the same name.

Statistics: 

Cinematography: 8/10 Variable.  Most of it is quite good.

Sound: 8/10 Some instrumental sections of the background music are way too florid for my tastes.

Acting: 7/10 Again, quite variable.  Some of the bit players are not very skilled.

Screenplay: 7/10 Being a fantasy involving three realms, the film has to deliver a lot of context in a short time.  I watched this on Netflix, and was glad to be able to roll back and clarify points now and then.

SFX: 7/10 Quite variable. Some of the effects are amateurishly bad. The majority look mature and impressive.

Final Rating: 7/10

20150831: YA Review--Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Name: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)
IMDb: City of Bones

Genres: Fantasy, YA female,  coming of age, romance, comedy

Cast:  Lily Collins as Clary, Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace Wayland, Kevin Zegers as Alec Lightwood, Jemima West as Isabelle Lightwood, Robert Sheehan as Simon Lewis, Lena Heady as Jocelyn Fray, Jared Harris as Hodge Starkweather, Aiden Turner as Luke Garroway, Godfrey Gao as Magnus Bane, CCH Pounder as Dorothea, Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Valentine, Kevin Durand as Pangborn, Robert Maillet as Blackwell.

Directed by: Harald Zwart.  Written by: Cassandra Clare (book), Marlene King and Jessica Postigo (screenplay).

The Three Acts

The initial tableau: In New York City, young Clary starts having problems.  She sees people and things that others cannot.  She obsessively draws strange symbols in her room.  She gets in trouble with strangers at a club and sees impossible actions.  Her friend who is a young man is interested in her in a way that she is not interested in him.  To top it all off, unknown forces kidnap her mother and ransack the apartment where the two of them lived.

The delineation of conflicts:  Clary discovers that she is a Shadowhunter, a dying breed who have fantastic magical powers, but are fully mortal.  That is, they age normally and they die fairly easily. Shadowhunters fight and kill demons as best they can.  They get their magic from inheritance (parents were Shadowhunters) or transformation (drinking from the Cup of Raziel). Drinking from the Cup also confers the ability to write runes on one's body; these often yield magical assistance.

Their recruiting has been weak of late since two of the most powerful of their members  (Valentine and Jocelyn) have gone off the rails.  Valentine consorted with demons to gain their powers.  Jocelyn hid the Cup to keep it away from Valentine.  Valentine wants the Cup back, and goes to all sorts of foul actions to get it.  Clary needs to go from her 'mundane' (ordinary human) state to being the most powerful and inventive of all the Shadowhunters in order to stop Valentine.  She's shorted on time, since Valentine and his henchmen move things forward quickly.

Simon is in love with Clary, Clary is in love with Jace, Jace is in love with Clary, but Valentine convinces Jace that he is Clary's sister.  Oi.  Magnus and Alec might be attracted to one another, but there is so much going on.

The resolution:  Well, watch the movie.  Many things get resolved, but not all.

One line summary: Reasonable coming of age #fantasy.

Statistics: 

  a. Cinematography:  8/10 Good looking film.  There are plenty of SFX, but not the massive destruction type.  Rather, the up close and personal type of SFX, showing the unexpected.

  b. Sound:  7/10 Not a hindrance, but not much of a help, either.

  c. Acting:  7/10 I liked most of the performances, both from the young crew (particularly Collins, Bower, and West) and the older crew (especially Heady, Harris, Turner, Gao, and Pounder).  The triumvirate of villains (Valentine, Pangborn, and Blackwell) was a very effective block of trouble for the young heroes to overcome.

  d. Screenplay:  4/10 There seemed to me to be just too much going on.  I do not fault the actors, but rather the script/book.  For this film, we inherit structure from werewolf, vampire, and warlock lore.  We inherit structure from biblical warrior angel lore.  But wait!  There's more!  On top of all the rules and logic already involved, we have the invented Shadowhunters.  Much of their baggage is not all that well explained.  Where did the portal come from?  How did they get all that real estate?  How do they keep the real estate when there are so few of them, and none of them work, apparently.  Where did the underground group dealing with the dead come from?  How are they connected?  Anyway, much as I liked the film, I thought it was dreadfully short of reaching sufficiency on exposition.  Since there is likely no second film matching the books, explanations will likely remain lacking.

  e. Final Rating: Six of ten

Concluding remarks: This is the film version of a six book series written by Cassandra Clare; City of Bones is the first book of The Mortal Instruments series.  In 2014, Constantin Films, which owns the film rights to the series, decided not to make a film from the second book.  Rather, they are opting for a Mortal Instruments TV series  in 2015.

20150831: YA review--Beautiful Creatures

Name: Beautiful Creatures (2013)
IMDb: Beautiful Creatures main page

Genres: Fantasy, YA female, coming of age, romance, comedy

Cast: Alden Ehrenreich as Ethan Wate, Alice Englert as Lena Duchannes, Jeremy Irons as Macon Ravenwood, Viola Davis as Amma, Emma Thompson as Seraphine, Emmy Rossum as Ridley Duchannes, Thomas Mann as Link.

Directed by: Richard LaGravenese.  Written by: Richard LaGravenese (screenplay),  Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (book).

The Three Acts:

Initial tableau: Ethan lives in Gatlin, South Carolina and visits high school there.  He bemoans the fact that he has little prospect of leaving, and has applied to a number of colleges.  The town seems stuck in the past, particularly the Civil War.  His mother is dead; his father is next to catatonic. His welfare is looked after by himself (somewhat) and Amma (mostly).  One day a new girl arrives in his class, Lena Duchannes.  Her family founded the town some centuries ago, and still owns everything of importance in it.

The delineation of conflicts: Ethan wants to get to know Lena, which immediately creates separation between him and almost all of his former friends in town.  Ethan visits Lena at home, which creates immediate tension between him and her uncle, Macon Ravenwood.  The Ravenwood/Duchannes clan are gathering at the family compound to witness the coming of age birthday of Lena.

So far, this all seems rather ordinary.  The fantasy element is that all members of the Ravenwood family are casters; that is, beings who cast magical spells, often with considerable power.  At the sixteenth birthday, Ravenwood teenagers reach their full power as casters, and choose between the dark and the light sides of casting.  Lena would rather not be a dark caster like her mother Seraphina, but fate seems to have marked her to be such.  Ethan would like to be Lena's husband, but has the full opposition of everyone in Lena's family.  Amma would like to help Lena and Ethan to their best possible outcome.

Resolution:  Well, watch the film.  The resolution was brilliant in my opinion, but what do you think?

One line summary: Well done coming of age fantasy.

Statistics:

  a. Cinematography: 8/10 I thought the lighting and camera work were fine, and the limited use of CGI was good.  It was not world destruction style CGI; rather, just enough to support the story.

  b. Sound: 8/10

  c. Acting: 9/10 The veteran actors were excellent and the younger ones did well enough.

  d. Screenplay: 8/10 I've seen this film compared to Twilight, which is odd.  This film has good acting and a witty script.  I do not remember laughing while plowing through Twilight, but this one is much better.  I anticipated some of the outcome, but not all, and the route to get there was a fun ride.

  e. Final rating: eight of ten

20150527: Comedy Review--Tank Girl

Tank Girl

1. Fundamentals.
1. Title: Tank Girl
2. IMDb: Users rated this 5.2/10 (22,760 votes)
3. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 based on 674,429 ratings.
4. Rotten Tomatoes:
   38% of critics liked it of 37 critical reviews posted
   64% of viewers liked it, based on 49,400 ratings.
   Critics Consensus: While unconventional, Tank Girl isn't particularly clever or engaging, and none of the script's copious one-liners have any real zing.


5. Status: Released
6. Release date: 1995-03-31
7. Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
8. Tagline: In 2033, justice rides a tank and wears lip gloss.


9. Budget:  25,000,000 USD
10. Revenue: 6,600,000 USD
11. Runtime: 98 minutes.
12. Genres: Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Science Fiction


13. Directed by: Rachel Talalay; written by Tedi Sarafian


14. Starring: Lori Petty as Rebecca (Tank Girl), Ice-T as T-Saint, Naomi Watts as Jet Girl, Malcolm McDowell as Kesslee, Iggy Pop as Rat Face, Don Harvey as Sgt. Small, Jeff Kober as Booga, Reg E. Cathey as Deetee, Scott Coffey as Donner, Ann Cusack as Sub Girl


15. TMDb overview: Based on the British cult comic-strip, our tank-riding anti-heroine fights a mega-corporation, which controls the world's water supply.


2. Setup and Plot


1. Set in post apocalyptic Earth, circa 2033, well after a moderate sized comet impacted the planet.  It has not rained for 11 years, the film says.  This is a politics-of-scarcity environment, with the most rare commodity being water, the next being public and private security.  The law of the jungle has replaced rule of law.


2. The protagonist is Tank Girl, who survives by finding water by whatever means and by helping guard the compound where she lives.  The compound is breached early on.  Her boyfriend is killed, and her tween female friend Sam is abducted to be sent to a house of prostitution.  Tank Girl is enslaved.


3. Tank Girl breaks free, of course, and acquires friends Jet Girl and Sub Girl during the film.  Her main goals are survival, which includes obtaining water, and taking on Water and Power, which is a monopoly that no one likes, and are the folks who enslaved her.


4. So, do {Tank, Jet, Sub} Girls find allies to make a dent against Water and Power?  Do they finally end the sub-plot of Sam being in danger?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: You will likely either love or despise this one.
2. Three stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 The intro, credits, and long (hardly bearable) intertitles were done with comic strip style art with minimal animation.  Woof.  Ugly.  The live action parts, by and large, were done beautifully.


2. Sound: 6/10 The music is loud and not all that relevant to anything.  Good luck with that.  The dialog was comprehensible with some sort of normal volume setting, but then the intrusive music was so loud I would have to adjust the volume down.  Then the dialog was not audible.  So I turned on subtitles in Netflix.  Sigh.  The musical production of Cole Porter's 'Let's Fall in Love' was just horrible.


3. Acting: 6/10 I liked Malcolm McDowell in his role.  I usually like Naomi Watts no matter what, but not this time.  Lori Petty was, as always, Lori Petty.  That was just great for this role.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 The attempts at humour are many and are easily recognizable, just not funny.  I might have given this film full marks if had just been funny.  The film's plot, such as it was, was done archipelago style.  That is, an island scene here, followed by those terrible intertitles and overly loud music, then another island.  The whole sort of lurches toward coherence, and sort of makes it.

20150522: Adventure Review--Tales of an Ancient Empire

Abelar: Tales of an Ancient Empire

1. Fundamentals.
1. Original Title: Tales of an Ancient Empire
2. IMDb: Users rated this 3.1/10 (1,276 votes)
3. Rotten Tomatoes:
   critics rating not found number of reviews too low
   4% of users liked it from 169 recorded ratings
   Critics Consensus: none formed yet


4. Status: Rumored
5. Release date: 2010-07-31
6. Production Companies: New Tales
7. Tagline: No tagline found.


8. Budget:  1 million USD (source: IMDb)
9. Revenue: Revenue figures not available at review time.
10. Runtime: 89 minutes.
11. Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller


12. Directed by: Albert Pyun.  Written by: Cynthia Curnan.


13. Starring: Whitney Able as Xia, Kevin Sorbo as Aedan, Ralf Möller as General Hafez, Jennifer Siebel Newsom as Queen Ma'at, Michael Paré as Oda, Melissa Ordway as Princess Tanis, Matthew Willig as Giant Iberian, Sarah Ann Schultz as Malia, Lee Horsley as Talon, Scott Paulin as Tou-Bou Bardo, Olivier Gruner as Corsair Duguay, Sasha Mitchell as Rodrigo, Norbert Weisser as Xuxia, Victoria Maurette as Kara, Janelle Marra as Rajan, Inbar Lavi as Alana, Cazzy Golomb as Hekate.  Christopher Lambert as x?


14. TMDb overview: A princess is on a quest to unite the five greatest warriors to save her kingdom from a demon sorceress.


2. Setup and Plot


1. We start with a good 10 minutes of overview and backstory by Hekate, granddaughter of Ma'at, Queen of Abelar.  The granddaughter was portrayed as having some sort of speech impediment, or else the actress was just very badly miked.  I needed the closed captions.  This segment was largely done in sepia cartoons.  Artsy cartoons, perhaps, but still.  In any case, Ma'at's mother hired mercenaries to put down Sorcerer Xuxia and his vampire daughter Xia, before Xuxia opens a portal to the netherworld.  Duguay, Rodrigo, and Oda manage just that, but Oda introduces complications instead of completely finishing the job.


2. Twenty years later, Princess Tanis becomes the centre of the light side, and Xia, the risen Vampire Queen, the leader of the dark side.  The real core character, though, is warrior mercenary Oda, who slew the sorcerer Xuxia, reduced Xia to dust for 20 years, and fathered Princess Tanis, the mercenary Aedon, imperial assassin Rajan, and their sister Malia.  Rajan had daughter Alana, whom she trained as an assassin.  Besides those four, Oda fathered Kara by Xia, who gave birth before Oda, ah, dusted her off.


3. At the final command of Ma'at, Tanis finds her siblings.  The group goes off to find their wayward and fertile father, then put down Xia and keep the door to the netherworld closed.


4. What could possibly go wrong?


3. Conclusions
1. If the sowing wild oats aspect had been better written, the film would have been helped.  I thought it was quite humorous, but I suspect most will not appreciate the father-issue dialog.


2. One line summary: Swords and sorcery, wretched visuals, and a poor script.


3. One of ten; two black holes for cinematography and acting.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 0/10 I hate sepia.  I hate similar filtration setups that essentially crush any visual richness and natural tones.  The CGI varied between bad and very bad.  The fake vampire teeth were obviously fake and caused the Xia character to have muddled speech.


2. Sound: 5/10 I could discern words of most of the actors, but I relied watching on Netflix with captions turned on to get the dialog.  The vampire fouling of speech was prevalent.  The music in the credits was good, but was out of context with a period piece such as this.


3. Acting: 5/10 The cast includes actors whose work I enjoyed in the past: Michael Pare, Lee Horsley, Olivier Gruner, Sasha Mitchell, Christopher Lambert, and Kevin Sorbo.  Gruner, Mitchell, and Horsley were OK in very short parts.  Michael Pare looked like he was at a first read-through Monday morning after a disastrous weekend, rather than in final take.  I was on the look-out for Mr Lambert, but I failed to see him.  Kevin Sorbo, at least, convinced me he knew he was on camera, and was delivering his lines while understanding the character's motivations.  I'm not saying this was Oscar level work, merely that he was present in the professional sense.  Mr Willig was good, but his part was also short.----The women characters were central to the film, much more important than the male characters.   The actresses, though, were either inexperienced or just off.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Sigh.  This was another under capitalised project.  It shows.  The number of dead-end plot threads was too high.  Also, too much time was devoted to dreary conversations, then Hekate would narrate what should have been long action sequences in a matter of a few seconds.