An average movie

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but the title sounded pretty cool and it seemed to be a rather bad-ass medieval feature so I was rather curious about the damned thing. Eventually, I really liked how grim the whole thing was and most of the duration was about a siege which was pretty entertaining. There was also a Paul Giamatti in top form who produced a solid performance as the bad guy and, at this point, it is pretty obvious that he could play almost anything. Still, I have to admit it, the whole thing was not really amazing though. I mean, with some blood and grittiness and some historical background, they tried to cover up the fact that the plot was rather pedestrian. Furthermore, even though it looked really good, the directing was not really amazing (the shaky cam during the action scenes was really annoying) and the dialogs were pretty weak. Finally, this movie was yet another attempt to sell us James Purefoy as a leading man but, even though he does look the part, he definitely doesn’t have the charisma of a Russell Crowe or a Hugh Jackman. Still, in spite of its flaws, it remains a decent flick and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

6/10