Just coming back from a double feature (In the Name of the King + The Golden Compass). All in all, ITNOTK felt just like an overlong TV feature. Some weird choices when it comes to editing (especially three locations at once in the final battle scenes, with a cut at about every ten seconds - so much for developing any kind of tension...). Image quality was uneven, especially when it came to "souped-up" scenery with the castles or the evil's lair, which seemed blurred or coarse compared to the close-ups of the characters. Some laughable ideas (using catapults in a forest? Suuuure...). Dialoge was really weird at times (at least in the German version), just short of holding up signs saying "LISTEN UP! THIS IS MEANT TO BE PROFOUND AND/OR MOVING!" (of course, being neither - just talking slowly and incoherently is most likely not character development...), while at other times it was ... like something straight from a certain group of New Zealand TV fantasy series of the nineties ;)
Impressive list of cast members, though their characters are all a bit flat. Like, "slide through beneath the door" flat. Not even cardboard. The combat scenes are fast-paced, almost all the time in close-up (aka "what's-going-on" mode), except for the final fight, which was along the lines of "who can spot the most MATRIX imitations". The evil wizard (Ray Liotta? who cares...) somehow lacks any qualities of being someone you love to hate, *spoiler?* combined with evil's usual incompetence when dealing with the almost defeated good guys. */spoiler* The good king (Burt Reynolds) seems more bored than bothered by the events throughout the whole film. Ron Perlman is seen without a ton of make-up. Camera knows of two color tints for the film: brown for all the outside scenes, and reddish brown for all the dungeon scenes. Sky is generally either blaring white or pitch black, image contrast is harsh, and on some occasions when the camera sweeps across the (rather nice) landscape, the results are blurry blotches. Some nice stunts and fight choreography (while the camera does it's best to hide that by shaking and moving), but that's about it.
All in all, slightly below-average fantasy fare. Feels like two hours of a role playing game cut-scene, and not in a really good way.
Impressive list of cast members, though their characters are all a bit flat. Like, "slide through beneath the door" flat. Not even cardboard. The combat scenes are fast-paced, almost all the time in close-up (aka "what's-going-on" mode), except for the final fight, which was along the lines of "who can spot the most MATRIX imitations". The evil wizard (Ray Liotta? who cares...) somehow lacks any qualities of being someone you love to hate, *spoiler?* combined with evil's usual incompetence when dealing with the almost defeated good guys. */spoiler* The good king (Burt Reynolds) seems more bored than bothered by the events throughout the whole film. Ron Perlman is seen without a ton of make-up. Camera knows of two color tints for the film: brown for all the outside scenes, and reddish brown for all the dungeon scenes. Sky is generally either blaring white or pitch black, image contrast is harsh, and on some occasions when the camera sweeps across the (rather nice) landscape, the results are blurry blotches. Some nice stunts and fight choreography (while the camera does it's best to hide that by shaking and moving), but that's about it.
All in all, slightly below-average fantasy fare. Feels like two hours of a role playing game cut-scene, and not in a really good way.