Let me start out by saying that (a) I like the SciFi channel, and fantasy and scifi in general (those reading my other reviews might conclude that I only like French and Japanese films, and that is not the case) and (b) I do not have any bias against TV movies.
What I do have a bias against is flimsy and witless hack job rearrangements of classics--including classic myth. There is a point of view that every possible genre of literature was invented by the Greeks and we have just been ringing changes ever since; so there in nothing wrong with re-imagining the classics--Jean Cocteau's films, "Clueless" on Jane Austen, John Gardner's "Grendell", Kurosawa's "Ran" and "Throne of Blood", much of Roger Corman's work,and numerous others.
But in this case, bad dialogue, bad acting (this film makes, say, "Conan the Barbarian" look like the Royal Shakespeare Company) and a plot that, charitably, has little to do with the original and everything to do with being a framework for skimpy clothing and a bucket or two of gore, matched with an excessive enthusiasm for point of view camera work, all combine to make this a heap of (as a good friend of mine says) stinking poo.
Go watch either Conan movie, or "Red Sonia", or "Hellboy" or a Hammer film. Don't waste your time and effort on this. Guys--recognize a stinker when you see one.
What I do have a bias against is flimsy and witless hack job rearrangements of classics--including classic myth. There is a point of view that every possible genre of literature was invented by the Greeks and we have just been ringing changes ever since; so there in nothing wrong with re-imagining the classics--Jean Cocteau's films, "Clueless" on Jane Austen, John Gardner's "Grendell", Kurosawa's "Ran" and "Throne of Blood", much of Roger Corman's work,and numerous others.
But in this case, bad dialogue, bad acting (this film makes, say, "Conan the Barbarian" look like the Royal Shakespeare Company) and a plot that, charitably, has little to do with the original and everything to do with being a framework for skimpy clothing and a bucket or two of gore, matched with an excessive enthusiasm for point of view camera work, all combine to make this a heap of (as a good friend of mine says) stinking poo.
Go watch either Conan movie, or "Red Sonia", or "Hellboy" or a Hammer film. Don't waste your time and effort on this. Guys--recognize a stinker when you see one.