Flawed, but entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (10 May 2004)

If you want to hate this film, it gives you plenty of ammo. The pacing is abysmal, it's full of pointless sub-plots that don't go anywhere, including a horde of evil monsters whose sole purpose is to explode pointlessly (err, make that three hordes in fact), so many 'deus ex machina's it's surprising they didn't all fall over each other, dreadful dialog, and everyone's favourite annoyance: gratuitous use of CGI.
So my advice would be: DON'T WATCH IT. That is, unless you just want to sit back, switch off artistic judgement, suspend all belief, and just enjoy the show for what it is: a cheesy action flick with a few novel ideas. See it with friends; laugh at how stupid it is; laugh at the cartoon laws of physics; laugh too at the witty one-liners, occasional comic timing, and joke references to other stories.
It's a shame that with better script-writing and direction, this could have been an excellent film. It certainly had some of the right ingredients.