Another example of why video games don't convert well to movies....

Rating: 4/10 (2 October 2010)

It's been a while since I wrote a review on IMDb, but I felt compelled to write this one because this is a very poor effort of a movie that seems to somehow have gained more recognition than it deserves.
I will first state that this was watched once the movie had come out on DVD, I wasn't compelled enough to want to see this in the cinema but thought it might make a good night in rental. That ideas was wrong.
I could only watch this in 15 minutes sections, after which time I would become so disgusted with either the story, acting, or directing that I would be sure there was something better to do - and every time it turned out there was. I ended up watching this movie over a 2 day period, I had to take that many breaks from it because it was so bad.
The story itself is too complex but still very cliché, it's hard to keep up with who's double crossing who, what the whole myth of the dagger is, which person is from which tribe and who's good and who's bad. I think the script writers think constantly keeping things changing and people guessing is entertaining and creative. It's not, it's annoying. The story is supposed to guide us as viewers and take us along for the ride, not keep trying to throw us off. Of course a good thriller has you double guessing or following a red herring, but the good ones lead you down one path and then revealing the other true path the end (think Sixth Sense or Shutter Island).
The acting is wooden and poor. Ben Stiller isn't menacing, Gemma Arterton isn't engaging, and Jake Gyllenhal isn't funny or heroic. You really don't care for any of them, particularly Gemma Arterton, who just grates by constantly flipping from a damsel in distress to mythical queen spouting hokum' pokem' nonsense. The only saving grace was Alfred Molina, at least he was watchable.
The action scenes are not well choreographed or directed, it's hard to really tell what's going on or get a sense of the action as the editing is so quick and swift you don't really get a chance to see any of the sword play, it's lots of quick cuts of close-up of swords hitting swords and then running and jumping away. There's no grandeur to them at all, and the elements taken from the video games (i.e. running along walls and back flipping everywhere) turn these scenes from the ridiculous to the absurd.
What is this movie supposed to be? It's not an actioner, it's not a comedy, it's not an epic, it's not a romance movie, it's just a very bad attempt at trying to be all of these. Thank God I got this on DVD, at least I could turn it off. If I'd have seen thins in the cinema it may well have been the very first movie which I actually walked out of.