Westender

The scenery is beautiful, and many times you'll be thinking to yourself, "Where is this place??" In particular, there is a scene with a waterfall that just cries to be walked to and explored.

So far as an actual film, it would have been better served as a series of postcards, as you get breathtaking vistas with only little snippets of storyline on the back to figure out what is going on. And while the acting is pretty atrocious, it is both good and bad to note that the dialog is thin and minutes pass without any words being spoken. A little voice also appears in your head after about 20 minutes whispering in your ear, "Come on, something has to happen to move the story forward". But it never comes, and you're just watching, plodding along waiting desperately for the next ill conceived plot device taking set in overwhelming scenery shots.

If you're looking for anything remotely interesting, stay away.

Having quite an extensive collection of medieval and quasi-medieval movies, i was awed that a movie this good has escaped my attention. No, it is not a great movie but, it is what it is, a really, really good fantasy movie. The costumes were above average, compared to most of the drek that Hollywood has put out. (some of which were purported to be historical epics.) I was very impressed with the armor. The chainmail was real, as opposed to the "chainmail-ish fabric" that is so popular with most big budget movies. HEY Hollywood: if you have a "big budget", spend less on stars and their egos and more on costuming and voice coaching for actors that think just because they are Huge mega-stars that they can speak the way they do normally. This is fine if you are playing yourself, guys but, at least try to help me suspend disbelief.

I would say that if you enjoy fantasy/medieval movies, and do not care whether or not it has a "big name star" in it, you will enjoy this movie.

If we are to judge this movie by Hollywood blockbuster standards, then it deserves it's average 5/10 stars rating that it has here on IMDb. This is not a great movie, but I have paid to see many out of Hollywood that are worse.

That said I am mightily impressed with the quality of result that was achieved with virtually no budget. This was largely shot with volunteer work, on a shoe string budget most of us could come up with by begging from parents and friends. This movie stands as an example to all of us that we really could make movies ourselves if we really put our minds to it.

Westender is, if nothing else, a showcase for some of the nicer scenery of the state of Oregon. As an Oregonian I can appreciate that. We've got some nice rain forests and some breathtaking deserts. It's a nice state to visit, but for God's sake don't come here to make a movie. Seriously, we're the kiss of death for just about any movie that is filmed here. I wish I could be more supportive of my state and say otherwise, but the evidence is piled too high so I've got to be honest about it. Movies made in Oregon, even in part, face some serious problems. Westender is a good example of that. It has some great location shots and the director has a talent for framing a pretty scene, but the film just cannot manage to rise above feeling like an end-of-term film school project. The story is pretty straight forward: a downtrodden warrior named Asbrey thoughtlessly gambles away a ring that belonged to a lost love. When he comes to his senses he pursues the man who won it and in the process gets caught up chasing a band of slavers. Simple enough, except that the protagonist is also prone to hallucinations, bizarre dreams, and fits of madness. Don't get the idea that this is an action movie, by any means, but it's more a journey through the protagonist's soul. And since the story is told from his perspective it is all too easily led astray, wandering off on tangents that hint at his past and his motivations, but never tells you enough to make much sense. Supporting characters occasionally show up, hoping to help ground Asbrey and help to provide some means by which he could be better understood, but they are all to easily discarded. And so without any anchor, Asbrey spends way too much time wandering about in a stupor, taking the audience on a journey that makes sense in the end but is too long and too dull in the process.

I watched this last night with my family. While I appreciated the fact that most of the acting was pretty good, the setting was beautiful and the cinematography was nice, I did not enjoy watching a movie with half of the movie being a silent film watching a down-n-out knight wander about the desert. A lot of the scenes could have been considerably shorter, and on one of the sideways shots, when they rotated it up to right-side-up, they didn't get it all the way. :D It needed a prequel and a sequel to really explain the storyline, the story just was really lacking.

I liked Glim, but the kind of cut him out in the middle of the movie with no real explanation.

This movie was not up to par, get a new screenwriter, and it would be considerable better.

The swordplay choreography, costumes, and weapons I thought were very good, except for the fact that all the girls were practically losing their shirts. :D