An average movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Ben Sombogaart, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though Sombogaart is probably one of the most successful Dutch film directors at work nowadays, half of the movies he has directed were some family features which were all so lame, except maybe ‘Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek’ which was still nothing really amazing even if it won the Gouden Kalf of the Best Dutch movie of the year. Well, this movie was not an exception, I’m afraid. First of all, the first thing that bothered me was how cheap the whole thing looked. Indeed, even though it was made 10 years ago, it felt like it was made in the 80’s and the idea to add some war archive footage (obviously to save money) was rather pathetic and unconvincing. I understand that they probably had a micro-budget, especially compared to your average Hollywood production but, in this case, they should probably develop some other projects which don’t require a blockbuster budget. Concerning the story itself, I have to admit that I haven’t read the book which is, apparently, a huge classic among the Dutch youth, and I think it did have some potential. However, one again, I thought it was rather poorly handled here. For example, the introduction was weird and confusing. Who was this guy watching some TV? Where was the action taking place? Eventually, it turned out that it was some kind of fantasy land which still had all our modern gadgets but this mix was hard to sell and Sombogaart never managed to make it feel like a real place. Then, even though Mingus Dingelet and Abbey Hoes were both charismatic, their characters were barely developed. Above all, why on Earth would a 17 year old kid decide to become King and basically rule a nation? Eventually, that’s probably what bothered me the most, this condescending tone towards the viewers, especially children. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing turned out to be really weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

5/10