Le Voyage fantastique du capitaine Drake

I wasn't expecting much watching The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake, but got a little better than I expected. I hate most of the SyFy originals, but found this one of their more tolerable efforts. The costumes and locations are great, the editing is a cut above the choppy feel I've often seen, the music score is grandiose and often epic, much better than the sluggish and over-bearing scores of most SyFy movies, the sword-fighting is decent and not as clumsy as I thought it would and the performances from Adrian Paul and Wes Ramsey. The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake does have its flaws though as well, namely the artificial-looking effects, the stilted and rather trite dialogue, scenes that aimed to have a tongue-in-cheek vibe but came across as lacking verve like the Turkish chase, clichéd characters and some of the other actors mumble through their lines. The story was a good idea to go on and had moments where it was crisply-paced and exciting, but others where it was rather dull and predictable. In conclusion, uneven but compared to other SyFy efforts it is reasonably entertaining. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I just watched this movie, and it was great, especially thanks to the awesome Adrian Paul. He was FUNNY, in this role, which was so different than the serious Duncan MacLeod from his fantastic show, 'Highlander'. I was pleasantly shocked to see that he hasn't seemed to have aged a single day since Highlander. (He'll be 50 in May...he looks 35!) It was great to see him sword-fight the badguys, and just so cool to see him in the role of pirate. I hope that there's a second movie, as the ending was left open. You could really tell that Paul had fun filming this movie. The only oddity was that the girl playing his daughter looked much too old to possibly BE his daughter, because Paul looked so wonderfully young! LOL!

Let's keep in mind the venue. Sci Fi network is notorious for having poorly produced original monster movies. Which is why it should be complimented when one of their movies strives for something more. A fictitious take on an actual historical character's adventures is always a dangerous gamble. However, in the case of The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake, Rafael Jordon does an admirable job of weaving actual historic legend with an interesting treasure hunt sort of storyline.

At times the character's actions seem predictable, and some of the sailors/pirates are a bit cliché, but often the dialogue is witty and sarcastically humorous. The CGI is bad, (as always in these shows) but the film's locations are actually quite impressive considering it is all in Bulgaria. The score sounded very "big" for this genre. That is a good thing. It sounded like a real orchestra as well. That is rare for Sci Fi. The sound design and mix were great. Nothing stuck out as bad or wrong, which is usually the sign of a good soundtrack, again, for this genre. The sword fighting was very good and those sequences were cut together very well by the picture editor. This is saying a lot, considering the shooting ratio was probably 3:1. I know from previous movie reviews, that these shows are shot in under 20 days, edited for two months and the sound mix is done in 4 days. When you break it down, it's a miracle that the movie is made at all. Quite an accomplishment for all those involved.

One of the best scenes in the show, is the slow motion filmed, pistol and sword dual between Drake and Sandovate, in the snow at the north pole. Very well done considering all the limiting factors of time and budget.

Adrian Paul and Wes Ramsey deliver admirable (pun intended) performances given the nature of the material and the time they had to develop their character choices. And if this is Sofia Pernas' first role in a TV show or movie as her IMDb listing suggests, look out! She was excellent in this and we will see more of her I am sure.

As far as other reviews submitted by haters, it is unfair to compare Sci Fi network originals with larger budget films. Everyone who is involved with these projects knows exactly what they are making and why. These movies are entertaining if you watch with the correct "perspective". Letting them tick you off because they aren't as good as you had hoped is a bit silly.

Well, I don't make a habit of watching television, and I certainly don't necessarily expect "fine art" when I DO. I was really looking very much forward to this and then rather disappointingly, fell asleep after about ten or fifteen minutes. But the part that I saw was exactly the lighthearted, entertaining fantastical fare I was expecting. I already KNEW from the ads that it wasn't intended to be a non=fiction piece and that it featured lots of CGI and special effects.. this is precisely what I was hoping. As to those who nitpick about "poor acting" and what have you, I will look forward very much to seeing YOUR efforts on the big screen very soon. My only regrets are that I wasn't able to see the whole thing, that I can't find any more listings or showings of it, and that it doesn't appear to be available on DVD yet.

1) The accents were cringe-worthily bad. I wasn't sure if I was listening to Cornish, Irish, Spanish or Klingon. The lead actor, particularly, was perfectly capable of putting all four into his lines and randomly mixing them up.

2) Rarely will you see an American "period" film which does anything but recklessly re-write history, usually to the detriment of the country or people it targets (bitter that America doesn't have one?). This is among the worst for that crime, but take a look at the writer and director and you cannot, surely, be surprised.

3) Considering it was made in 2009, I was under the impression I was watching something from the 70s. Poor acting on a scale as bad as "Land Of The Giants", poor story and even worse editing.