Epic, but not that good

Rating: 6/10 (10 September 2012)

That's epic, alright. Lots of extras, the subject itself is a turning point in history and so on. Now on to the actual movie... Too much black and white. The turks/muslims are good, the rest are evil, deceitfull, selfish, backstabbing SOBs. The sultan kisses a little girl in St. Sophia Cathedral... probably after his soldiers just hacked her father. And the little girl and his mother are smiling, grateful. So there is not too much historical accuracy there. Also, the film is speeding, as it tries to cover too much time frame in too little space. Characters are caricatured, the love story is caricatured, the father-son relation is caricatured. The actual story-arc would be better developed into a miniseries, not a 2 hours movie. Swordfight is good, stunts overall are not that good. Also some special effects are poorly executed, it;s a wonder how they did it into the final cut of the movie.