There are no better screen images in cinema

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2003)

I'm not really tempted to spend any time talking about the plot, the acting or the general film making because what you see on the screen around and during the battles is truly amazing. It really is in a completely different class to any images I've seen in a movie.
One scene sticks in my mind. A mad king, on fire, jumps off the top of his palace atop a city tower and the camera pans back to view the battlefield below which he descends into. I have no clue as to how this was even conceived.
The city that the battle takes place around is in itself better than any of the creations thus far in the trilogy, and those were all stunning. When the invading army uses a huge catapult to throw rocks at the walls, you want to go for your mobile and phone a World Heritage representative to have the war stopped immediately. Only when the effects descend to normal levels do you remember that you are just watching a film.
I am not trying to undermine the film by focusing on on what is, after all, some form of CGI, but we are talking about persistent images that go some way beyond anything seen in a film so far. The work here is not by a few hard working technical guys working with an art brief. This is visual landmark.