Bad Blending of Two Irrencocilable Plots

Rating: 3/10 (6 February 2007)

I wonder what ghastly producers' meeting came up with this one: "Hey, let's cross 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Undine' with 'For Whom the Bell Tolls!'". I suppose for someone with the mentality of an eight year old, this will seem like a seamless costume fantasy flick, but for anyone with a scintilla of European history education, this comes across like a slick and manipulative money-driven film. ("Ya know, the kind that makes you think!") Made in order to nab both the tykes and their parents at the box office. At one moment, this is a fantasy-driven kids' movie. The next, it is a grown-up war flick. As a result of the ping-ponging between these two poorly realized plots, the viewer can never can a true feel and sympathy for either. I wasn't certain if the director was trying to bootleg a history lesson within a fantasy film, or whether the fantasy film was just a cover for a very tiring recycling of the same old Spanish Civil War plot that we've seen over and over again. Pure dreck!