Espen : Le Gardien de la prophétie

I started watching this film assuming I'd move on to something else but was drawn in by the beautiful and unusual scenery (I'm not familiar with the landscape of Norway). The storyline wasn't especially original but contained enough elements of the "modern fantasy film" and a traditional fairy tale to be interesting. Modern elements included anachronistic dialogue and injections of somewhat juvenile humor. The traditional fairy tale elements included episodic encounters with supernatural beings and a series of seemingly useless items picked up by the main character that later come in handy. (There was one item I'd totally forgotten about until came into play at the end of the film in an important way.) I also liked how the brothers ended up working together to accomplish their mission and learned to see their seeming incompetent brother in a different light. The film isn't perfect of course. Some of the dialogue seemed a bit clunky (but I was watching a dubbed version....I have a feeling the dialogue worked better in Norwegian.) The special effects are not bad (though not as slick as some American films) and don't distract. Overall, enjoyable.

This is a very old fashioned fairy tale that has been banned for at least half a century, and probably an entire century, by the powers of Hollywood.

The censors didn't get to this one. It doesn't have the Hollywood formula of the usual hatefulness. This was written with love and wit.

It's very reminiscent of the better parts of Anderson and Grimm, without the Grimm racism.

It's very funny, and very entertaining, and thus hated by the Beavis and Butthead crowd that so often come here in this present age. Perhaps the day will come when that sort of hatefulness will be a minority instead of popular opinion.

This is how to make a film for the "non control freaks".

Don't know why there are some really awful reviews or attacks on people who liked it. It's definitely not Lord of the Rings but you know that going in. It's a good little story that's well worth watching. I could see us watching it again sometime. It's clean fantasy for the family.

I love fantasy as a genre but I rarely watch it. This was a very wholesome movie. The plot is very basic and there aren't really any unexpected elements, but if you're looking for a solid fantasy film to pass the time, I'd recommend this.

I've gone to the movies with my kids countless times to see children and family movies... fortunately this time it was something else. Our movie experience was great this time, the scenes are beautiful, the movie is funny at times and a little scary at times... bust most importantly, it kept us entertained from start to the end, and that is a very rare thing when this family goes to the movies :) I get easily bored at almost all children/family movies and unfortunately, so do the kids, as more or less all movies have a "downtime" that make them restless and sometimes even wanting to go home. Askeladden kept us at the edge of our seats the whole time, which is a very... very rare thing... well done! :)