Great visuals, if nothing else.

Rating: 6/10 (17 May 2004)

I went into this movie knowing nothing about it other than what I had seen in the TV trailers. It looked great, and, feeling I have to give credit where credit is due, I must say that it did not disappoint in that regard. The visuals and effects in this movie are, hands down, a 10 out of 10.
It's a shame it has so little going for it otherwise.
The plot, what little there is, takes forever to get going, and, once it does, sputters and dies shortly thereafter. From there on, it's your typical rescue-the-princess and kill-the-monsters romp that would be better suited to a late 80's video game than a blockbuster movie.
The characters themselves aren't much better. David Wenham's Carl gets some good lines and comes across as likable, but the rest of the cast don't have much going for them, although I think that, perhaps given a script with a little more meat in it, the players could have sunk their teeth into the roles better.
Another minus to the closing pyre scene, easily one of the cheesiest movie moments I can recall and really had no place in a movie such as this.
So if you're the type that feels CGI and a bare-chested Hugh Jackman are the ingredients of a good movie, see it and you'll go home happy. But if you prefer fare such as plot development and three-dimensional characters, you would, in all honesty, be better off watching an episode of That 70's Show.
Overall, a 6 out of 10.