The 13th Warrior Review
As you should know, this summer has been less than memorable. With a total of 4 decent films, it's not a surprise that these big budget failures keep appearing. With that said, you can pretty much predict what my opinion on "The 13th Warrior" will be.
The film is based on the Michael Crichton"Eaters Of the Dead", in which Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan is banished from his country for looking at a wife of a king. After tarveling for many months, he comes across a gang of NorseMen, who are forced to pick 13 men to protect a town from mythical monsters who travel in the fog. So, they start picking men, and are left without 1, thus Ahmed is choosen. So far it sounds interesting right? Not when all of this takes place in 15 minutes. After that, they basically run around killing. That alone shows how much a script is needed for a film, because once your story is introduced, you have the rest of the film to start developing it. Obviously that's not the case here.
Even if you are going into the film expecting an action packed adventure, you will be disappointed. Since all the action takes place in fog, it is constantly hard to see a scene clearly due to those circumstances, and to poor camera work. Can't the camera men sit still? I'd like to actually watch a film in focus, but again, they failed to deliver that as well.
The film moves on and on until the point, where you can care less about anything but the popcorn you're eating. With corny dialogue, that the characters laugh at for some odd reason, a script that goes nowhere, dull action sequences, a predictable ending, and worst of all weak characters, there's basically nothing to like here, except for maybe the set designs. That's the only thing that honestly caught my interest.
When I heard that John Mctiernan, the director, wanted his name kept out of the project, that made me wonder why? Well now I know. Crichton's greed forced Mctiernan to edit his finished product, which led to a big arguement. What's there to argue about anyway? The film couldn't be saved, no matter how much they spent or casted.
Seeing films like The Haunting and Big Daddy making money, I wouldn't be surprised to see "The 13th Warrior" become a hit. Please do me a favor and save your money at all costs, or else you will be lost in the fog, like the film itself.
* 1/2 stars out of ****
Nick Lyons http://jump.to/moviepage www.chud.com
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