First attempt by Turkish Cinema to produce a blockbuster

Rating: 5/10 (19 February 2012)

OK, I must admit I did not have high expectations going into this movie since in general Turkish Cinema has been made cheaply with little regard to authenticity. My expectations were not totally unfounded. We are looking at a historical movie with very little congruence with factual history. ***Spoiler*** Not sure if Mohammad mentioned that Constantinopolis will be conquered some day by a "Blessed One". *** Why make that the opening scene, something that happened 800 or so years before the actual event. Throughout the movie seeing these religious tones make it look more like a Islamic Propaganda...Soldiers praying in the battlefield by thousands at the same time !...Yeah right ! I have to admit the director tried hard to make the battle scenes impressive albeit a bit too long and not realistic. On the acting side the actors were very amateurish, especially the one who played the Emperor Constantine. The "required" love story a la "Troy" did not look very convincing and was very badly placed. Byzantine folks speaking perfect modern Turkish really makes the whole movie looks amateurish. They could at least have them speak Greek or something with subtitles ! Most special effects looked very amateurish and obvious. Costumes were good but I question the authenticity. The fight between the hero and his nemesis just took too long and looked more like a training fight. There are other historical facts about the "Siege" that was just glossed over such as the chain across the Golden Horn and the moving of ships across land to reach the unprotected side of the city. In history books this is mentioned as the most important decision by Mehmet II that changed the outcome of the war. Special effects showing the ships being moved across land looked very fake. Why didn't they show those ships pounding the other side of the Constantinople which resulted in the falling of the city? I am not even going into the plot holes as there are always deviations from actual events and omissions in historical movies. As a conclusion it was a good attempt by Turkish Cinema to be in the Hollywood League. They should however try to make a film without being influenced by the political climate of the country. Who knows, it is very likely the government helped the production even though it's not mentioned in the rolling credits....