Son's Will

This movie is the first of its kind of these kinds of movies in Serbia. It has a great pace; the background lore is given in moderation; the characters are believable and you easily love the and cheer for the heroes, and hate and boo the villains, without anyone coming off as comical; character motivations are there, and every reaction makes sense from an internal logic standpoint.

The movie tells a classic hero's journey tale: a farm guy leaves his home behind to embark on a quest to save the ones he love, gets the girl, fights the bad guy minions to have an epic showdown with the main bad guy at the end, and returning to the starting places, having changed in the process.

The movie blends Serbian culture, style, and folklore elements with modern and more "Western" style, resulting in a very unique blend. It might be wrongully called "Serbian Mad Max" or "Serbian Fallout", but the comparison is only superficial: a post-apocalyptic setting. This is where the similarities end. It's a thing of its own, with its own identity, and a possibility of a wider story with future installments.

If this is the first of these kinds of modern epics to come, then it is a bright future for sure!

The movie may end up being more important than good.

While it is a bit unfair to hold the Serbian production to those same standards we expect from more advanced environments, its still the same scale we have to use for both.

The movie is not good in the most strict sense. Had it beed pumped out of Hollywood it would probably earn anywhere between 4,5 and 5,5. There are too many plotholes, characters are being introduced randomly with no depth or logic within the context, and acting is often subpar.

However, depending on the reception of the audience, it could mark the beginning of the fantasy genre proper in Serbian production. The whole endeavor took some serious cojones to even begin filming, with limited language reach and national audience not properly prepared or built for the genre. In those terms, everyone must respect what has been done here.

Had it been a bit shorter, I would have thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it in the theater.

Lets hope it kickstarts the new wave of fantasy pieces in this part of the world.

If you're thinking of watching this movie, it's a world you've already seen somewhere before, Into the Badlands (TV series), Mad Max 2 (1981), The 100 (TV series)... Old folk tales from Serbia, introduced into the post-apocalyptic future, give a special experience.

The scenery and costumes are irresistibly reminiscent of the aforementioned series, so the viewer will get the hang of it very quickly, but the problem remains the misunderstanding of the narrator with the instrument, which is characteristic of Serbian folk songs from the 16th and 18th centuries, so if you are not close to Serbian culture, this would be an obstacle in understanding the plot of the film.

In general, it is a big step forward in the Serbian film industry. It can always be better and there will always be critics with bad reviews. Considering that this is the first film made with this kind of theme in Serbia, we have to be more tolerant.

For the past couple of years, we've been served mostly similar (read: the same) genres from Serbian cinematography-crime dramas, war stories, or rural comedies. This show, however, brings something fresh to the table. It introduces a new narrative approach and a more nuanced storytelling style that's definitely worth your time. My advice is to watch the full 8-episode series, as it broadens the scope of the story, develops characters more deeply, and fills in important details that really bring the plot together. A refreshing change and a must-watch for post-apocaliptic, Sci-Fi genre fans (myself!)!

A post-apocalyptic epic coming to the world from Serbia no less! A lot of motifs from the old Serbian heroic poetry, re-imagined in a new world that came out of nuclear war.

The main problem with the movie is that it isn't a movie at all. In Serbian cinematography they have this practice of creating a mini-series and also cutting it down into a movie for release in the cinemas. The Son's Will series is 8 episodes, 40 minutes long each. They had to cut it into 150 minutes movie that now simultaneously feels both too long and too short, as too much is crammed in with not enough exposure to explain all.

The scenes are very competently made and acted. A big issue is that the movie is very Americanized, not in the spirit of Serbian cinematography, so some dialogs and actions feel very cringey for domestic viewers, while I don't know how much it will appeal to international audience that has no idea what "gusle" is.