Nothing more than a screen saver with a minor plot

Rating: 3/10 (26 November 2006)

I so wanted to like this movie. The previews were very eye catching, and the premise was also very good. A thousand year epic. Unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations. It's more like 15 minutes from a Spanards point of view, and another 40 or so from 'current day'. The rest is all fluff with no filler.
I came across as not much more than a screen saver with a very small plot. The entire movie had maybe 30 to 40 minutes of actual character discourse. The rest was pretty scenery.
Don't get me wrong. Hugh had a great performance here, although with so little to work with it was difficult to get emotionally involved in any of the characters. The film simply tries to be a bit TOO artsy, without the meat of the story to back it up. It's somewhat disjointed and wispy. I would guess that a better editing job might have helped, but not enough to bring this one out of it's own daydream.
The film starts up by just dropping you into a scene, completely lost. At first I thought this might be intentional except for the fact that the character himself (hugh) is not the slightest bit confused as to where he is. It doesn't do much to help with that fact, even after 10 minutes. I kept waiting for some sort of narrative, hint of a time line, starting place, stopping place, etc. They took far to long to appear. Once you finally start to get your bearings, it simply drops the story for another 10 minutes of very pretty scenery. This sequence is repeated throughout the entire film. It is a shame, because the movie has great potential, both with the current day story line, and the Spanish conquistador storyline. The acting that we do get to see if quite good, but with litterly no story behind it, it simply isn't enough. Many on here may claims some lofty hidden meaning in the film, or strive to give it acclaim for being a new vision in movie making. I simply think they are still a bit dazzled by the effects/visuals, which I must agree are quite nice.
Even the ending is rather abrupt and unfulfilling. Someone must have jiggled the mouse ;)