"Awful" doesn't begin to describe it...

Rating: 1/10 (29 June 2007)

This movie could well be one of the worst films ever made. I only wish I could give it the negative-ten stars it richly deserves. Indeed, I only continued to watch it (after the first graphic and brutal murder) to see the depths to which film making of this type can sink.
How deep can it sink then? Very deep...deeper in fact than you can possibly imagine. This movie has not the slightest speck of originality, wit, or even meaning in it. From beginning to end, it is no more than a sadistic gore-fest masquerading as an art film. As for its vaunted production values, I find myself astounded that anyone would find them remarkable. Design? It's all been done before in any one of dozens of modern fantasy movies. (Here I must admit, however, that I am puzzled that modern movie goers still find that sort of thing interesting. Special effects have now reached a level of sophistication beyond which there can be little technical improvement. As a result, no bizarre fantasy, no matter how gloriously depicted, will ever enchant the intelligent viewer--unless the images can engender something more than a "gee, whiz" responsethat is, unless the images mean something.) Creating images with meaning is what good film making has always been all about. But the images in this film mean nothing. The story is bankrupt, too, with characterizations that are laughably cartoonish, and implied values that are hopelessly vague, jejune, or even outright contradictory.
However, even worse than the movie itself, perhaps, is the moronic praise that this piece of tripe has garnered in what (I am now realizing) is a depressingly demented world of film criticism.
Alas, further words fail me. But there are a good number of well-written reviews on this site that take the time to painstakingly spell out some of the many shortcomings of the film. So, if you despise this movie as much as I do, I heartily recommend perusing those reviews as an antidote to the pain and outrage you are feeling at, A) having wasted your time on this stuff, and B) having shaken your head to the point of a headache at the critical praise that has been heaped on it.