A little too fantastic to be believable

Rating: 6/10 (19 October 2007)

This movie kind of reminds me of the lower-budgeted Greek and Roman lesser epics of the 1960s -- still watchable as long as your expectations are not too high. I'm sure much of this film's budget probably went to its A-list cast, which i have to admit was the main reason for my going to see it. That said, the best performance came from young Thomas Sangster as the boy emperor Romulus. He more than holds his own against his veteran co-stars, and he delivered all his lines perfectly. As for delicious Aishwarya Rai, she looks good and fights well enough to justify being given the part of the woman warrior. Rather disappointing were Colin Firth, who looked like he was having second thoughts about taking the role, and Sir Ben Kingsley, who gives his philosopher-sorcerer an Indian accent as if he was another Gandhi. And the great Harry Van Gorkum is masked throughout the movie so you don't even get to see him until the very end. Story-wise, while the first half of the movie is almost a snooze, at least the last half-hour picks up and it ends quite satisfactorily.