A super expensive sword and sandal epic

Rating: 4/10 (3 January 2012)

As I was watching this beautifully shot film unfold, I kept wondering how much it cost to make. $160 million!? Seriously? Where was it spent? Antonio Banderas was really hot when this came out, and Omar Sharif doesn't come cheap I'm sure, but really guys?
Bad investing decisions aside, the movie's not great. The epic scale of production turns out to be a waste of money as they forgot, in all their spendthrift extravagances, to craft a meaningful story. The characters do not make us believe in their quest, but it's not because of the acting: these European character actors are perfectly cast. There is no meat here, no character arches, no soul drama or connection between the players and the play. My guess is Michael Crichton (who wrote the book this was based off of) had an idea that was a cross between Lord of the Rings, Seven Samurai, and Lou Ferrigno's Hercules, and paid someone a ton of money to film it. As a vapid action epic it's got enough going on to maintain your interest, but just barely and the film is really saved by the last 30 minutes. Rating: 18/40