Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

r-c-s Rating a movie cannot simply ignore the budget and the production values. This is a TV product (mini-series, whatever )with B or C-lead actors and it is EXTREMELY GOOD for what it is, compared to billionaire Hollywood productions with (supposedly) AAA+ actors paid millions each. Photography is the best thing I suppose; Uli Edel does another very good job. For what it is, it ought to get 10/10. Lead actor Furmann gives me the feeling of a young Liam Neeson ( I wouldn't be surprised if that resemblance had impressed casting directors ); Julian Sands seems a re-edition of the Nottinghan sheriff from Robin Hood (the scar,the slimy demeanor etc ); the first scenes (the castle under siege, the medieval armors etc ) seem right out of Excalibur and a great liberty for times when a Roman Emperor was supposed to still be in power. Samuel West as king Gunther is unconvincing...his face doesn't fit the character...completely miscast. Loken is one of the most credible, along with Witt. A great TV product worth rubbing elbows with AAA+ productions like Lord of the Rings. Great courage in filming and adaptation of the real legend, instead of fantasy junk books 'inspired' by the same (originality is dead, eh?). I just dream of what would Edel have come up with with a LOTR budget... Von Sydow does a nice cameo part and he's among the best of the bunch. Overall, I recommend it.

fearfulofspiders This two-part made-for-TV film claims to be the inspiration for Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, when in fact, Tolkien has proclaimed many times that the only similarity between the two is that both have a ring. Just to get to that before heading further on. Tolkien's inspirations came from all over the place, and for this trash to claim it is the main source (though not declaring itself the main, only implying) is entirely dribble.Now, Dark Kingdom is a very lackluster production, though it's easy to watch, and it makes for something good to watch when nothing else is on. I recommend watching it on TV, but if it gets to you that much that you HAVE to have it, then buy the DVD -- but be warned, the cut for the DVD is shorter than the one televised; much of the scenes that actually made this film deeper is now edited to seem more rushed, a h-u-g-e mistake on whomever the choice came from.As for the acting, Dark Kingdom is full of bad accents and monotone deliveries. From the poor job by Benno Furmann as the main hero to the ever-crying performance of Alicia Witt. Everyone else tries and tries, but all it eventually adds up to is... dull and lack of enthusiasm. Kristana Loken is okay, but she has too deep a voice to play some parts -- though she may be a barbaric queen in this film, she needs to work on her tone.The music is really overbearing at points. It takes our focus off of events so many times, that it doesn't add to the mood, but just distracts. The themes work here and there, even if it gets redundant and with little, if any, evolution in sound or composition.The ending is pathetic in terms of faithful to the source material. The story has actually been cut in half... all the deaths of everyone is fit into about 6-minutes of yelling and sword fighting. The further mishaps that occur in the writings is basically thrown out the window, so that the budget could fit in with a four-hour slot. Then why bother making it? Also, Benno Furmann's portrayal of Siegfried as he is killed by Hagan is so laughable, my sides were splitting -- which I'm hoping is the opposite affect they were going for with their audience.Overall, there's a lot that works and doesn't work in Dark Kingdom. While the film has some nice visual effects, the story as a whole is too rushed and trimmed to provide any satisfaction as to what this truly could've achieved in terms of being better. This is really a film worth watching when nothing else is on or as background noise, so I'd only recommend it to you under those conditions.

ntsci I tuned into this film about half was through and kept thinking, man this seems rather familiar... Then realize egad they've filmed the Rings -- the Goddammring cycle (Götterdämmerung or the Twilight of the gods. WOW. Its not great (heck its a TV movie) but they do a good job of depicting a great epic... boiling 20 + hours of opera or countless Nordic saga down into a 2 or 3 hour TV movie -- pretty impressive. I've recently seen the beginning and it confirmed my opinion. A decent attempt to bring an ancient legend to the screen. Its much truer to the original than say the recent movie version of Tristram und Isolda.There are many different versions of each of these Sagas. Wagner picked out those elements that form a coherent narrative about the end of the ancient Norse world -- the twilight of the gods. The most fascinating aspect of the original story from these various Norse sagas (The Twilight of the gods) is that one sees a pagan (pre-christian) population who is aware of the impending death of their religion and culture (through conversion to Christianity) and this is tied in with misbehaviour of their own gods themselves. It is a legend of the end of their pagan world. Volton's selfish quest to regain the ring of power for himself through his grandson (Seigfried) ultimately brings about the end of the ancient culture.My only real complaint is that they don't follow the cycle of the ring... which started out in the river guarded by the Rhine maidens, was stolen by Alberich, then stolen by the gods (Voton), reluctantly given to the Frost giants (Falsalt and Fafnir) for building Valhalla, seized by his brother Fafnir (who killed his brother) who turned himself into a dragon to protect his treasure, taken almost accidentally by Seigfried (who fought the dragon to learn about fear because he was too stupid to know what fear was -- hes a bit of a moron in the opera), Hagan then kills Seigfried and seizes the ring, then the river rises and it is at last reclaimed by the Rhinemaidens. Without the cycle, some of the story elements don't make sense. The most powerful parts of the opera cycle is (1) Alberich's vow to swear off love in order to seize the gold, and (2) his curse when the gold (in particular the ring) is taken away. The story needs his vow to swear off love, to make sense of his curse. I didn't expect it to depict the entire cycle (20 hours is a bit much for a movie), but instead of using the old ghosts to give the back story, they could have use the mermaids (as is done in Wagners Götterdämmerung). I don't understand why they made the beautifully seductive Rhinemaidens into old male ghosts and depicted the Nibelung as the rightful guardians of the cursed gold (rather than thieves). And anyway, why is the gold cursed? Other than that I found it very entertaining. Two thumbs up!

FromBookstoFilm Since I was a child and being partially of Northern European descent p and being a descendant of a few ancestors who were into mythology and lite occult practices (astrology,numerology,fortune telling,Druidism-Wiccan)I have always loved almost anything mythological. I really appreciated this version of the Nibelungied. This combines the mythological treatments of both the Scandinavian and Germanic versions of the myth. The story is incomplete.Kriemhilde (aka Chriemhild)is somewhat based on the historical Princess Ildico who was forced to marry Attila the Hun who in reality hated Attila for killing her family and may have poisoned him on the dreaded wedding night.In the mythological version she marries Etzel, King of the Huns (based on Attila the Hun)so she could have vengeance against her brothers and other relatives for the murder of her beloved husband Siegfried (aka Sigurd). In this version of the story Brunhilde (aka Brynhild) takes vengeance on Hagen and his men alone. What this version did get right was the love potion Kriemhilde used on Siegfried to love her and forget about his one true love Brunhilde (Brynhild)The Queen (In some of the myths she is no Queen but a Valkyrie a Norse equivalent to a Greco-Roman Amazon and the daughter of the God Wotan (Odin) and the Earth Goddess Erda (Nertha).The second thing correct is the shapeshifting of Siegfied to appear as Gunther (Gunter).The suicide of Brunhilde on Siegfried's death. I recommend this miniseries for anyone who is interested in Germano-Norse mythology and classical literature.