The Emperor's New Clothes

Rating: 1/10 (20 January 2008)

I heard about the reviews for this movie and my husband and I set out for a good movie afternoon. The opening scene is a beautifully shot red rocky landscape with green hills and a stark blue sky, the soundtrack is not a soundtrack but a screeching sound reminiscent of fingernails on a blackboard. I nearly left then and should have. No plot, no female characters, Daniel's son is a wooden puppet who barely speaks and at times I held my hands over my ears to block out the horrible, excruciatingly loud, obnoxious soundtrack. It was so loud, much of the time you could not understand the actors. Now what's the point in that? I wondered why we came, then figured it out.
In a dark theater somewhere, filled with film critics this film was first shown. The most influential one of all sighed and said "this is sooo good!" He was referring to the popcorn, of course, but all the rest began repeating his comment, whispering it around the theater. The soundtrack should've been the song from "The Emperor's New Clothes" ! I'm so glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed how bad this movie really is.
I often rate a movie based on how much I cared about the main character. The main character in this film had no character. He was not worth watching for almost 3 excruciating hours. I guess I only stayed that long in the hope that something interesting would happen. I was so bored I nearly fell asleep except for the obnoxious noise that was substituted for a soundtrack. Don't waste your time or your money on this one.