A Knight's War

I love this type of movie,so I'm possibly it's target audience...I simply cannot agree with the 1 star reviews,they seem hostile for the sake of being hostile. Its not up there with the likes of Excalibur,but like another review suggested,more like a slightly lower budget Solomon Kane. Wish there was more action,but the story flows pretty well, decent special effects for the low budget. Acting was solid nothing oscar worthy but it gets the job done...Now,makes me want an actual sequel or reboot to Solomon Kane....and again those 1 star reviews are beyond ridiculous,it's nowhere near that bad, straight in the bin with them.

I almost didn't watch this film due to the reviews. Yet, my love for fantasy swayed my decision. I'm so glad my curiosity took over. This film is dark and moody atmospherically. For a small budget; the costume/set design/special effects were all done well. Could the actual story be more developed? Yes. That being said. By the end of this flick everything comes full circle. I personally felt the acting was fine. If you are only into big names on the screen and a 20 million dollar budget. This probably isn't for you. For me personally, this movie did everything it was supposed to. I was throughly entertained.

I generally like these types of shows. I'm a huge fantasy nerd. There are clearly stylistic and thematic nods here to the lord of the rings and Guillermo del Toro that I thought were interesting, but kind of detracted from the story.

The biggest issue with this movie was the script and the dialog. The narrative seemed unfocused and sometimes like maybe there were multiple versions patched together. The pacing was sometimes good (more-so at the beginning), but often not. A good editor could have helped in the end as well.

The mood, sets, costumes, lighting, and visual effects were all pretty good considering that (I'm guessing) this show's budget was pretty minimal. The acting, while not great, is passable but I think could have been much better with a better script and dialog and perhaps directing.

Overall, passable but not great. I don't think it deserves 1 star, but I think the 6 I gave it were generous.

I'll keep this simple (like my mental state...) This starts off well with a great look and atmosphere, and even a clever touch of humour here and there.

But, sadly, after about 20 minutes or so it begins to lose its focus, and its hold on the audience. To me, the forward momentum just kind of stops as the scenes around this time are just very SLOW, drawn out torture in a sense. That does not a good movie make and for me personally is just a very lazy default to an unnecessarily lowest denominator.

That is too bad, really, because I think there was a fairly decent, if not terribly original idea here, but someone definitely dropped the ball in my lowly and wretched opinion. The look and mood though I feel could have been very effective, if there were a decent story to go along with it.

To be fair, I am not a huge fan of these kinds of Sword & Sorcery films (with the exception of course of the excellent 'BEASTMASTER', 'CONAN', 'KRULL', and perhaps a few others) but, especially with such a strong, dark beginning, it is a shame that whomever was behind the actual storytelling to me just simply didn't seem that terribly interested.

I gave it a VERY generous '5' because of the nice look of it and the good look and atmosphere, but if you are looking for an entertaining and compelling story, I'm afraid this isn't it...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~MY PARTICULAR WAY OF RATING:

5 - Flawed, but with some entertainment value.

6. A decently passable story maybe worth a watch.

7. A solid film, well made, effective, and entertaining.

And, obviously, you can probably figure out what above and below these would mean... : )

(Maybe, this statement below which was my original Title was why my first review was declined, IDK... Let me try added it down here)

Yes, a lot of these '10' reviews are clearly plants. But, the '1' star ones are not justified either...

The atmosphere of this movie reminds me of Hercules The Legendary Journeys meets Dark Souls. And as someone who's a fan of both I think that's awesome!

I'm not sure who pissed in the cheerios of the people hating on this movie giving it 1-Star. I'm sure they're a joy to have at party's. "ugh, can you believe Rachel's choice of music, it's atrocious." Give me a break, at least this film is trying to break away from the mainstream conveyer belt b.s.. I would rather spend my money renting this than $350M Captain Falcon Lame New World slodge.

If you like fantasy, particularly Dark Fantasy, this is enjoyable so long as you're aware that you're going into a lower budget indie movie doing the best it can with what it has.

My likes for this film:

• The witches performance and costume design were phenomenal. Terrifying yet elegant. Makes you want to stare and run at the same time. Truly Souls Bossworthy.

• I did like the plot a lot. It was simple and while a little formulaic at times I appreciated this particular mixture of narrative elements. And the twists were clever even if familiar. If you see them coming, good for you. Have a cookie.

• I think Bhodie and Avalon had good chemistry. They complimented each other well and worked best when they performed as a team.

• I thought the fight scenes were mostly well done.

• Bhodie had some good one-liners.

My Dislikes:

• Obviously this move is on a budget but a little more world building and a bit more character introduction. Felt information was missing at times and took a while to get familiar enough with Bhodie to finally root for him.

• Pacing was okay but it felt kind of like a Two Act movie. I think it may have benefited from a beefier middle act. Which if I'm left wanting more of the movie, I guess that's a good impression.

So overall it was worth my time and my money. I'm happy to support ann ambitious indie film that breaks away from the mainstream. If you're a Medieval Fantasy fan and set your expectations realistically it's enjoyable.