You know, I honestly didn't expect much from this. As far as I knew when I first heard of this film, I thought everyone involved was purely out to make a fan project riffing on classic sword and sorcery movies of the 1980s. Now I finally got to see it, and... OK, yes, this is not a Hollywood blockbuster, but this is certainly not an amateur production either. Let's tackle the bad parts first. First, the soundtrack was just too intense in very strange places. Rousing battle music is great when there is actually a battle, but not when the characters are just walking down a dungeon corridor. Decaf, man. It would have been so much more effective to just switch to ambient soundtrack of dripping water at times. Contrasting moods make each of them stand out more. Second, there's... that wig, man. The main character spots long, obviously fake hair that was distracting. I mean, I guess we weren't supposed to take it seriously, but the rest of the make up and costuming is so good that buying a fright wig off of a Spirit Halloween discount rack just doesn't seem right. OK, that's an exaggeration, but it could have been better. Lastly, there were some parts where the acting or special effects were so cheesy it was crazy. But then, thinking about the classic films in this genre, like Hawk the Slayer and The Sword and the Sorcerer, those had over-the-top ham-fisted villains and oh so bad special effects This film got bad, yes, but never as bad as the original films routinely got away with. A lot can be forgiven if the film delivers on the more important parts. Which leads us to the good things: The monsters are varied, the dungeon traps are suitably trippy, the magic is flashy, the main cast seems straight out of the classic fantasy adventure, and the women characters are both attractive and well-written. This won't win any Oscars, but it's a lot of fun. And that's what you want out of a movie like this. I know I watched the whole thing with a smile on my face.
