Genres

Visitors Review

J. Crompton 2012-05-24 16:07:25

Not a bad effort....

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

ma-cortes 2012-05-24 00:25:15

Television adaptation upon known Germany legend with impressive and spectaculars scenes

The picture is based on Germanic mythology,¨Der Niebelungen¨, andnarrates about the legend of hero named Siegfred(Benno Furmann) whomeets the location where is stashed the Niebelungen treasure that'sprotected by a dwarf and a giant dragon.Siegfred slain and kills thedragon and he bathes in its blood(exception a body part where falls aleaf). He'll become invulnerable vanquishing every enemies afternumerous battles and confronting many dangers,misfortunes and risks. Hemarries a princess of Burgundios named Kriemhild(Alicia Witt)by meansof a potion and the Queen of Island Brunnhild(Kristinna Loken)willexecute her vengeance, fulfillment a prophecy of rampage,ravage anddestruction.Besides Hagen(Julian Sands)will try to take the Niebelungengold.This mythological ,dark, epic, brooding film is plenty of archetypalpersonages and were jingoist tributes ,in fact the Niebelungen heroeswere even loved by the same Hitler. The movie is adapted on Germaniclegends even Richard Wagner made Operas about these deeds as ¨ Gold ofRhin,Cavalcade of Walkirias and Ring of Niebelungen¨. Besides inspiredto J.R.R. Tolkien and his ¨Lord Of the Rings¨. It has recentlydiscovered a treasure near of Haelsinburg(Sweden)that's called ¨theAtila gold¨ and can be the legendary Niebelungen treasure. There areother versions as the 1967 movie featured by Terence Hill, Karin Door,Herbert Lom and directed by Harald Reilm which is considered averageand of course the classic silent adaptation directed by Fritz Lang thatis the best deemed . This modern rendition for television isspectacular and colorful and its narration is quite well . The flickwill appeal to epic history buffs and hero legend fans. Rating : goodand well worth seeing.

2012-05-22 05:16:03

An enjoyable, but heart-rending, tragedy!

This review is from: Dark Kingdom - The Dragon King (DVD) This is a thoroughly enjoyable film with good-to-excellent acting, a classic story, exciting action sequences, authentic costumes and props etc. Even the scene where Furmann forges his "dragon slaying" sword contains a great deal of authentic sword-making techniques of that period.Benno Furmann does a good job as Siegfried, the beautiful Kristanna Loken made a magnificent Brunhild (!!!), and of course Max Von Sydow gave his usual excellent, professional performance - a true artist of his craft.The story is indeed moving even if you see what's coming a mile away. I literally cringed each time Siegfried made a momentous decision! Ah, the price of pride and arrogance! I found myself yelling at the television, "No, stupid! Don't do that!"All in all, I was pleased with this movie and enjoyed it immensely. But, remember, this is a tragedy. There is not a happy ending!

Marai Youngblood 2012-05-21 22:36:35

-_- what a let down

It wasn't just awesome, but I can't believe how it ended, it was quitedisappointing. Also I really expected something a bit longer. It wasonly 4 hours, and it feels like there is something missing from it. Allin all, it was a good movie/mini-series or whatever (here in the US itsa mini-series), but there's just something not quite right. That and Isort of expected it to be a happier ending, I mean both of them dying?I realize it was based off a legend/myth, but sometimes mythology is adrag. The least Brunnhild could have done is try and save him, younever know, sometimes it's not too late. Well. It was, technically. Andthe whole time I was watching this, I kept getting a huge Shakespearethrow-back feeling. Like it was an older version of Romeo & Juliet.Which is fine, R&J is the shizz.That and it was just so much like the whole LOTR thing. But I mean,JRRT is the coolest man ever, so I could understand the"lets-make-this-just-like-its-descendant" thing. I enjoyed watching it,it's just the end that seriously got me, and I was just amazed at howawesome this thing could be, just to blow it at the end. Of course thatwhole "I am Siegfried" out of nowhere thing could have gotten altered abit. You don't forget who you are for twelve years and suddenlyremember all of a sudden. I guess that's what the flashbacks were for,but those were a tad annoying too. -_-That being said, Iceland is GREEN and Greenland is ICY. So like I said,I enjoyed it until the end.

2012-05-21 09:39:07

Baaaaad Movie

This movie was pretty bad, the only reason I bought it was because Robert Pattinson was in it, for about 5 minutes. After he was on screen, I thankfully turned the video off!

chelnak 2012-05-20 23:07:07

What would happen if you take Xena and Hercules, Beowulf, Othello, and Romeo& Juliet?

What would happen if you take Xena and Hercules (the series versions),Beowulf, Othello, and Romeo& Juliet? Well you might end up withsomething like Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King. This statement might bean over simplification of the Germanic myth and the Nordic Saga, butthat's how it felt, especially for someone like me, who had no clue ofwhat the "Ring of the Nibelungs" was.The Sci-fi channel premiere this mini-series the way it does for mostof its 'minis ': in two parts. I am assuming that the writers had to'crop' most of the good stuff out of the story, because they suredidn't put it into the first hour, in fact, I couldn't help but wanderwhy I wasted my time watching the first hour when the compilation atthe beginning of the second half was more than enough to let me enjoythe 'show'. Couldn't they just put it all in a two hour Movie insteadof a two-part mini-series and use the extra money on better Specialeffects? Benno Fürmann's acting is terrible, in fact, his line delivery is asexiting as a cheap Japanese movie translation. He is exactly what aleading man shouldn't be. On the other hand Kristanna Loken isrefreshing, not only does she look great on the screen, but she alsomakes up for the rest of the cast, whose characters seemed as dry andunattractive as the special effects themselves. Even though I don't expect to be seeing a full series coming out ofthis mini-series, it is worth watching if there is nothing else on TV.

2012-05-20 02:59:32

good old fashioned movie

I watched this late at night and was pleasantly suprised that I actually enjoyed it. Nice movie if you are into the type of material presented.

2012-05-19 13:33:37

unforgettable

This review is from: Dark Kingdom - The Dragon King (DVD) It is a beautiful story about courage and love. I loved this movie you do not find one like this often.Dark Kingdom-The Dragon King.I purchased this movie at Amazon.com like many others and I am always satisfied. Thank you Amazon.

IrishCJH@aol.com 2012-05-18 07:45:14

This film was disappointing.

I love this type of movie. I find anything period interesting. But thismovie did not live up to its promise.The story was great. How could the movie makers go wrong with a triedand true legend? But the acting was horrendous. Max von Sydow waswonderful. Kristanna Loken played her part well and with the deepfeeling one would expect from Brunhilde. The rest of the cast neverrose above mediocre and Benno Furmann was awful. Hard for a movie toimpress when the lead is so unimpressive.The costumes were often gaudy. Perhaps this was an operatic effect???But overall, they left much to be desired.An additional flaw was the directing. Too often the extras in the filmignored the main action, which was often in the town square. I wouldhave thought the sets could have been better unless, of course, most ofthe money was spent on the aforementioned gaudy costumes.All in all, much as I like this genre, I could not recommend this movieto anyone.

2012-05-17 15:33:06

Just Not Much There

This review is from: Dark Kingdom - The Dragon King (DVD) I was really looking forward to this movie, it has Kristina Loken and Alicia Witt who are 2 actresses I like. Unfortunately this was typical Sci-Fi Channel product, week story and not much to keep my interest up. I did make it to the end of the movie but from about 45 minutes into it I was saying "just kill everybody and get it over with"...... It may be worth renting but definately one watching was more than enough. If you're looking for a dragon movie, there is one scene with the dragon, he's kool, but only for about 5 minutes

kjack2 2012-05-10 03:34:38

Not at all like the legend

As a big J.R.R. Tolkien-fan I loved the books and would say that PeterJackson did a good job there. For me, there's only one legend as big asTolkiens LoTR and so I really looked forward to this film. The Legendabout Siegfried, Brunhild and Kriemhild is an evergreen is one of thefew sagas almost every German *should* know. I first read it in primaryschool and I loved it since then. But this film is nothing like thesaga: The facts are all wrong, almost all love-stories andrelationships are kind of mixed together, to get even bigger emotionsand backstories: Niebelungs were never out of mist, although their namesuggests it. Alberich was an honorable Niebelung, Siegfried even gavehim the order to care for his gold. In fact the smith kinda evil.Siegfried never lost his partens and was always son of a king,Kriemhild never needed magic to get Siegfried and so on and so on...And who the heck decided that Benno Fürmann is Siegfried? Hagen is theonly character they didn't change. This is not the legend I know byheart since I was little and that's a shame. If Peter Jackson wouldhave changed the book so much no fan would have liked the movie.

2012-05-09 11:21:37

Not as good as Mysts of Avolon, but still pretty good

This review is from: Dark Kingdom - The Dragon King (DVD) I watched this mainly because it looked a lot like The Mysts of Avalon, one of my favorite movies. It's got a lot of similarities: mainly the pagon way of life threatened to come to an end. In a nut-shell this is a tragic love story with some action thrown in. If you like Shakespear, you'll probably love this piece. I warn you, though, don't watch if you're wanting warm fuzzies.

2012-05-09 17:17:27

Acceptable Adaptation

In an age where Hollywood feels it can slice and dice books to make a movie, especially with classical myths & legends, I thought Sci-Fi Channel did an exceptional job with this film.Tragedy, deceit, scripting (except for Siegfried's lines - when he was just Erik the Smith's son, I could understand his being a punk but when he discovered he was a King, that should have ended his immaturity) - legend and fantasy all rolled into one miniseries.Unlike the critics here pointing out minute details of inaccuracies and inconsistencies, I watch a movie for one thing: escapism. Can you escape in the movie? Yes. Easily so. It's not campy at all even when the prince's pals take on Erik in the town square and he bests them. It's not a long fight sequence and it doesn't distract from the film's overall feel.The fight scene with the dragon (an overgrown komodo-like dragon) was quite classic and without the typically Hercules/Xena crap of defeating it. Max Von Sidow did a superb job as Erik/Siegfried's father. He taught the lore of steel to his son, taught him to use weapons, to forge weapons, to learn the lore of the Gods, to respect the Gods, to be troth, and to stand up to the scrutiny of the christian "Our-God-is-better-than-your-gods" type of mentality.The dwarf and his magic made sense. In many native cultures, those born deformed were believed to have been touched by the Gods/Spirits and often ended up becoming Shamans, Magicians or Varlokkurs. And making Julian Sands character a son-of-a-dwarf (something he despised) was truly superb.The Seeress (Brunhilde's advisor) while somewhat historically accurate, didn't have historically accurate Runes staves. Iceland had 16 known Runes and these would have been carved on wood or possibly bone but not engraved in steel or metal. The way she held them and then cast them to read the omens from Odhinn was accurate.Also the use of the ravens for communication is accurate. This is an old Shamanic technique that has been found in many native cultures. I was quite surprised to find this mini-series using such things. Again, minor differences. SCA people usually note discrepncies in fighting techniques, weaponry and costuming. Historians look for slipping away from original story lines - this one from the Sagas.I disagree that Siegfried should have been cast as a big ape of a guy. That was done in "The Viking Sagas" and it didn't work as well. Few big actors have the training to pull off good roles as they focus more on toning muscles and physical prowess rather than delivering their lines convincingly enough. Erik was acceptable in my opinion. Brunhilde was also very strikingly beautiful with an air of coldness about her. She definitely had that aura of the Saga Brunhilde to me - fat or not. The girl IS beefy.If you haven't seen this film get it. I'm going to order a copy but also tape the one on Sci-Fi on VHS since I hear they've cut parts I like. The dragon head in the wagon was terrific! It's exactly what I'd do if I were in his boots so why cut it? Oh yes, the "special edition crapola" on the DVD. Yes let's CUT the movie to put on 'director's comments' or silly video games. Ugh.

2012-05-08 19:03:55

Good

I bought the movie for my son. He's always been into movies like this and I know that he has been wanting to have this one cause he has all the other ones. So I got it for his birthday and he just loves it. Thank you so much for making it possible to get.

2012-05-05 11:45:17

Siegfried, Fafnir and Brynhild!

I teach Ancient Literature to college prep 10th graders. The class is taught on a four year undergrad level. We read GILGAMESH, THE RAMAYANA, Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY, THE ILIAD, THE ODYSSEY and units on Egyptian and Germanic myths. Hamilton covers the Siegfried story in her book, but she does a terrible job of it. I've found some other sources, but as wonderful as the tale is, it can be confusing. This film is an excellent aid when teaching the Siegfried story. It is true to the tale to a great degree (it outclasses TROY and BEOWULF in this sense big time) and my students thoroughly enjoy it. It's fun and despite being a "TV Movie" it doesn't look cheesy. I only gave it four stars because it's set in the 5th century but Gunter lives in a stone castle. Also, Siegfried and Kreimhild are wedded by a Catholic priest. What is that about? The Niebelungenlied is about as far from Christianity as you can get. Let the Old Gods have their due! But, all in all I say BUY IT!

thornnnn 2012-05-05 03:56:14

what a great movie

I'd never heard of this legend before this movie. i spent a few hourssurfing the web trying to find out all i could about it as a result ofthis movie. WHAT A GREAT MOVIE! totally unexpected, a bit sad for mytastes.. but what an impact! hehe now i have to deal with the feelingof wanting more.. when there is no more.. argh! what a great movie! wowi wish this was a 20 hour miniseries. This is the best movie i haveseen in a long long time! thanks to the team for this one, thank you! Ididn't see any boring parts where i lose interest, it just grew andgrew on me. I thought this was much better than Lord of the Rings! Thebiggest mistake made here was not having a 100 million dollar budgetand a 20 hour duration for the miniseries. They did such a fantasticjob with what they did, I just wish they had done more.

LivingDog 2012-05-04 02:26:12

10/10 story; 1/10 movie

There is one star in this movie - the production, which is decent B+,and one shining star - Max Von Sydow (he is so talented he is able tomove you even in this small part). Other than that this has the feel ofa "made for TV movie." I'm not sure what that means other than it justseems so badly made. (I keep thinking it's the film they use - orperhaps they shot this on video cameras??)Regardless, the production is strong but I do not like the acting,editing, or direction. The music played at the credits is also poor inmy opinion. The special effects were OK. How unfortunate because I cansee how this is a great heroic story of the Nordic people's mythologybut the movie did nothing but get in the way of it. 1/10-LDPS: I wrote that about 20 mins. ago. Since then I did a few things andthen wondered about who wrote this thing. I checked on the writers'credits and they all come from writing for cartoons/TV backgrounds!What a shame! Then again, who knows, maybe someone with writing talentfor movies will grab hold of this ... you never know! :)-LD

TangoFeroz 2012-05-03 13:16:04

Did you find the story some naive too?

I haven't read the real legend of Sigfried or the Nibelungs. I've justlistened the Wagner's Music. But I'm studying some German now and I'mbeginning to read "some" of Wagner Operas. I've just seen the movie andI was wondering how loyal is it, or how similar is it, to the WagnerOpera of the Nibelungs? Would appreciate very much if someone couldrelate the basic differences between the Wagner story and the movie'sone.Personally I saw the story a little child-like, even naive in manypoints. I didn't like very much Sigfried's acting (I don't like theactor at all, seemed not natural to me) but even Sigfried's role feltwrong, he seemed a little arrogant and stupid, even his dead wassomehow ridiculous. King's plot to kill him was absolutely stupidalso... no ones would believe the saxons theory... he was murdered inthe back, ohhh what a coincidence that the saxons just hit exactly hisonly weak spot. But besides this I had an overall feeling that thestory wasn't developed correctly, as if there were very importantmissing parts, character development, I felt sometimes as if I werelooking a resume or a simplified version for kids. I really like thiskind of movie, and I don't consider myself too picky, for example Ireally LOVED "The 13th warrior" despite its historical discrepancies.What I felt with this movie (Nibelungs) was like the Direction, may bethe script... ? I'm not really sure... something felt wrong here, Iwasn't able to really immerse inside the movie's world. It lackedemotion, deepness, courage, even betrayal seemed so empty...emotionless movie, I think that it was a waste of a great story, eventhe last scene, when the Queen suicides in the burning boat asideSiegfried, was somehow wasted, it hadn't the emotion charge that itcould have had, IMHO. But I haven't read the real story yet... anyopinions?

2012-04-30 06:48:02

what a waste

as a german, I apologize for this terrible adaption of the siegfried legend. ;-)i am glad many of you liked it - maybe in english it is just not so hard to endure. but in the german version, i can just stand up and applaud when siegfried finally gets killed. he is so ridiculous!!! "hey! nich wein'n - hey! don't cry!"there would have been so many better actors to impersonate siegfried. as long as its not till schweiger, everybody is better than benno fürmann. sorry! ;-)

2012-04-29 10:39:05

Entertaining, but that's about it

I rented this on a whim, mainly because I love Norse/Germanic mythology and have the Siegfried legend virtually memorized. I knew that this was a TV movie, and so I began watching it expecting it to be idiotic. I was proved wrong--it wasn't idiotic, but it wasn't that great either. It was enjoyable entertainment, and I can't say I was disappointed, but it was a one-time-only watch for me.Dark Kingdom freely mingles portions of Das Nibelungenlied (Middle High German, 12th or 13th century) with the Volsungsaga (Icelandic) and some other sources, Wagner in particular. My favorite of the Siegfried legends is the one in Das Nibelungenlied, and the middle 3/5 of this movie follows that pretty closely, condensing the timeline from at least a decade to the space of a week or so--what I call "Troy syndrome."The picture and sound quality are both good. The image is always clear and sharp. This isn't a cheap-looking film by any means.The acting is capable, but nothing special. Benno Fürmann's turn as Siegfried was okay, but his accent was distracting. I understand how difficult it is to act in a second language (I've done it, and it's hard), but he seemed to have a difficult time modulating his voice correctly. He did seem to enjoy the part, though, and gave his Siegfried wit and energy which were fun to watch. Finding out now that about 50 minutes was cut from the film is enlightening. I wouldn't mind seeing an uncut version of this someday--perhaps it'd make more sense. The other reviewers seem to think so, and I'm inclined to agree. Recommended as good rainy-day entertainment.