141 A.D. Mission in Dacia

I give ten stars because of the main idea of the story. The symptoms of the disease are the same, the psychosis and the frenzy of looking for an antidote-Panacea as well. The same in the unfortunate year 141 AD, the year of the film's action, the same today, when everyone is talking about the Coronavirus crisis.

I've watched this film yesterday, at Cinema Glendale, within the IPIFF festival. I've enjoyed the film a lot, especially its modern aesthetics and visual style as well as its story. In terms of visual style there are realistic elements related to the historical context but also some fantasy elements, like a Dacian plant with almost magical properties and a bright comet, but the realism and the fantastic are so well blended together that you can't tell which is which. What I also liked was the story, which had some Hero's Journey elements within the narrative structure. The film is very realistic in its approach and takes its time to thrill the audience and keep them on the edge of their seats, at least that's what it did with me. One last thing I have to mention is that the production value was so rich: from authentic costumes to buildings, structures, items, weapons, the way the Dacians and Romans fight, everything was so well researched and put together that at some points it felt like a documentary rather than a thriller. A wonderful historical thriller that's a must watch. Great film, great cast, great team!

Apart from horrible names and horrible actors. This movie is great to watch with friends and destroy every detail on a fundamental level.

Bad names for stuff like "The death star" or "Snake mountains" sound like they are taken from a DnD campaign.

Good costumes but they are from a separate company so it doesn't count. They must've run out of money to cover up the actor's tattoos with these.

Great landscapes bad movie bad bad movie bad fight scenes bad acting bad music for scenes

for some reason you are able to survive a snake bite by eating plant. Characters are shallow nothing gets you attached to them. Found myself rooting for the death of Centurion.

The english subtitles are just horrible and have no excuse.

But this movie is great for memes. Would've made a GREAT comedy movie.

The plot is bad Minerva is basically the goddess of arts and crafts so that is beyond stupid, Bonus points for colored statues The blood looks like chocolate Dumping dead bodies on the side of the road instead of properly disposing of them.

Too short. Inconclusive

Overall 4/10. Good to get drunk to and watch with friends.

Something different than the usual bloody battle and unrealistic jumpy warriors. Some nice cinematography, with nice Romanian landscapes, very good costumes and the basic idea was offering. I like movies with more visual aproaches and not to be overspoken and explicited. Clearly a low-budget and amateur actors but for a low budget lI would say its fine. Sure a slow a pace for these days.

If only the "acting" wasn't biological waste inside a dumpster fire.

Costumes and props: 12/10!!! Completely on point. Covers a multitude of the deficiencies elsewhere. This aspect of the film does a wonderful job drawing the viewer into the setting. Far better than the vast majority of huge budget blockbusters. Truly impressive!

Natural beauty of filming locations: 10/10. Honestly, this film is worth watching for the beauty alone.

Effective use of natural beauty: 8/10.

Script/dialogue: 6/10. It's a simple film following a simple story. They did a good job in keeping things clear and focused. My Romanian is VERY basic (watched partially as language practice), but I'm pretty confident the awkwardness I discerned in much of the dialogue would be felt by native speakers too. It had that film school project feel to it. Both pedantic yet stilted simultaneously. However I'm also sure this was not helped by the . . .

"Acting": -20/10. Possibly the worst I've ever seen in a film. And I've seen dozens of VERY low-budget movies. "Acting" might say it better than any other words can. But I'll try to capture its essence by damning with a bit of faint praise - the only nice thing I can say about the acting. Two of the actors were convincing as human beings. The rest might as well have been played by 1980's TV robots

It's a real shame they didn't/couldn't get a decent cast together. Good acting and a moderate rewrite to the script could have elevated this so much. I believe those two changes would have been enough to get this work traction in the indie/foreign categories at festivals. And that could have led to Romania getting some positive attention both generally and as a production location.

(I don't mean to offend anyone involved in this film. They put together a wonderful work clearly inspired by passion. But I can't ignore the abysmal acting. A better way to show their commitment to the project would have been to recognize their limits and work as hard as necessary to find actors who could adequately fill the roles.)

One last note: there are significant periods of silence. I loved this aspect of the film because I feel that it helps draw the audience into the setting and helps set the mood. But if you can't stand "slow" movies, then this probably isn't for you