It's not (The 13th Warrior), rather (Dozen of Warriors.. And Their Sidekick) !

Rating: 5/10 (14 January 2008)

The title's character (Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan) was nobody, but that naive inexperienced young man would be educated by a bunch of warriors whatever he needed to understand all about the real warrior's nature who makes his own luck, regarding that he was a runner from a battle at his country (actually it was the hunt of his lover's parents). Hence, we had a boy who was in his journey to be a man. So what were our problems with this very journey exactly?!
How in God's name Mr. (Ibn Fahdlan) did manage to learn the language of those warriors that easily, and only by observing them for a very short time?! It's not genius inasmuch as a miracle, or supernatural power. So instead of this kind of capacities, which even superman himself doesn't have, it was simple to make him know their language from the start!
The love story of (Ibn Fahdlan) during the journey was done so hastily, with no solid anything, to not be good or bad love story; it wasn't one in the first place! It was a meaningless thing, like they put it just to assure that (Ibn Fahdlan) was not gay or something. But I got really angry when I saw once some photos having (Banderas) and (Maria Bonnevie) in some unseen scenes. So the love story was there, but they got to delete it. Maybe there were problems between (Bonnevie) and the production company, or maybe they deleted them for some shortening.
(Omar Sharif)?!! On the poster in Egypt, we had his name right after (Banderas), with no more names. I don't know about the posters in other countries, but I must tell you: that was so provocative, since (Sharif) had such a tasteless role, with no special value. Ok, so he was here just as the guest star, however without any echo unless his popularity at the middle east, so the intelligence of using him, specifically his name, was for the commercial profits at certain nations. By the way, his character's name was (Melchisidek), as I dare anyone to remember it with the too short appearance!
The hot ultimate rally by strong zoom-ins, stirring soundtrack, and fervent performance for the climax's hard battle of a few good men against a huge army of hungry cannibals finally cracked like an empty balloon! It was the silliest joke, the dullest scene, and the coup de grace for any action to end it by these idiot snap shots. It looked like a 75% of an ad about a detergent which would clean all of those combatants afterwards plainly and quickly. In one word, this battle was a loser!
The movie was ruled by so tepid spirit all along, from the treatment of the story, to the lazy sequences of the lousy ending. And at last, you would feel that the real hero wasn't anyone but (Vladimir Kulich) as (Buliwyf), or (Beowulf)!, who was the proficient mentor, the one with the most powerful personality, and the one with the most effective scenes too. He was more respectable than (Banderas)'s character which I didn't notice well its transmutation into an actual hero, let alone the languid performance from (Banderas) as well. So, eventually, it could be named (Dozen of Warriors.. And Their Sidekick)!
Undoubtedly, 2 things here are perfect: the atmospheric enthusiastic music of (Jerry Goldsmith), and the fact that this movie is weak!
So, do you want to know what was the real calamity of this movie? I'll tell you; it's the abbreviation. The abbreviation of how the title character knew the warriors language, loved the girl, became a hero, won a big fight against cannibals. And I just can't decide who's to blame: director (John McTiernan), the 2 scriptwriters (William Wisher) & (Warren Lewis), (Michael Crichton) who redirected some scenes, as I read, or the production company which maybe edited this movie destructively?
At any rate, this is not "An Extraordinary Journey" as the deceiving tagline says. It's poor, laconic and cold another B movie.