A supermodel of a film.

Rating: Null/10 (9 July 2004)

When people talk about the infantilisation of the cinema audience this is the sort of thing they're talking about. They've spent a lot of time and money on it, and some (though not all) of the effects are good, but as a drama it's a failure. This is not art, and it never could be. Art tells us about the experience of life; this does nothing of the sort. The goodies are good and the baddies are bad (and ugly); these are not complex, conflicted characters, but comic book cut outs. It's an Athena poster come to life. Much of the acting is awful. The dialogue is embarrassing. The comic relief scenes are worse even than those in Shakespeare. The story ends half an hour before the film which, except when the battle scenes are underway, is agonisingly slow and ponderous. A supermodel of a film: flashily dressed and good looking but not much upstairs.