Minotaur

I watched this movie expecting to be disappointed and bored to tears, but I was actually quite entertained.

The writers use the legendary Minotaur to create a new mythology around the beast for this film. The monster is created by a people who worship the bull and wished to have a living god. Interestingly, they chose to make the Minotaur white, no doubt to give props to the original myth.

The plot is fairly predictable, but with enough surprises and suspenseful moments to keep it interesting. The characters stay true to being primitive, ancient people. They are simple and their reactions are less than logical, but many horror movies have been built on bad reactions to scary things. The characters lack depth, but I don't think it's inappropriate considering the nature of the film.

The Minotaur itself is well put together. The effects are simple, but not bad. As I was watching I wasn't thinking about how poorly done the effects were or how much better they could've been. In other words, the effects didn't detract from the film without being devoid of effects--a rare thing in movies of this caliber.

The movie begins with an overview of the mythology for the film and sets up the plot very quickly. The rest of the movie takes place in the labyrinth and the palace above it where we encounter bizarre hedonists in a brother/sister prince and princess combo.

The movie is not terrible, nor spectacular. All in all, it was a treat for me to see someone use the Minotaur in a film.

I'm a real fun of mythology from wherever part of the world, Grece, Italy, Norway, etc, whatever kind of movie of this genre I see and I play PC-games too, such as Age of mythology or Titans. When "Minotaur" started, the woman's words at the beginning made me feel eager for a interesting movie, but minute by minute, that excitement was going down. I waited for something better, the effects didn't like me too much, especially when the beast was running, the plot was weak. I think that this kind of movie should have a good argument, may be from the real myth, and good special effects for being a nice film where you, furthermore you enjoy the movie, learn about Mythology. Really a so so movie.

Minotaur was not a brilliant movie. And in all honesty, I wasn't expecting it to be, in fact considering SyFY'S reputation I was expecting much worse. There are problems, but to my surprise Minotaur was one of SyFy's more tolerable movies. The film surprisingly looks great, unlike other SyFy movies you can actually see and somewhat understand what's going on, the photography is not too slipshod, a decent job is done to make the setting believable and the scenery is really quite stunning. The music is another improvement, not forgettable or sluggish but often well-orchestrated with a couple of rousing moments. The main female character is also beautiful and doesn't fall into the trap of being too vapid, and while I think Tom Hardy knew the script was bad and overdid it sometimes there is an element of charisma about it that has been sorely lacking in other fantasy/adventure SyFy movies. The minotaur is rather unconvincing, with the quality coming across as choppy computer-game-ish, but I have seen far worse effects before. Besides the minotaur is quite menacing, again another improvement on other SyFy monsters. Minotaur also has a lot of faults, starting with the insipid dialogue and clichéd and personality-less(generally) characters and ending with a rather predictable and at times ridiculous story that takes time to get going in some of the cave/labyrinth sequences and Tony Todd(who was so brilliant in Candyman) overacting embarrassingly, like Danny Glover in Age of the Dragons and (I know this next example isn't SyFy but still) Jeremy Irons in Dungeons & Dragons he chews the scenery to pieces. Overall, not a brilliant movie and has a lot wrong with it but tolerable, compared to other things that SyFy have done. 5/10 Bethany Cox

A loose retelling of the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

With so many terrible bad films having been made over the last 15 years or so it's actually worth revisiting director Jonathan English offering. Not just because Tom Hardy has since become a star but it's one of the few Minotaur films out there, which is a shame given it's such a great myth.

It could be pacer and less would have been scarier for the monster design. The sets, costume and score are impressive and the cast features the likes of Tony Todd, (Hammer Horror legend) Ingrid Pitt and Blade Runner's Rutger Hauer.

It is average monster movie but it's certainly worth a look.

I lived on Crete for two years so I am familiar with the story of the Minotaur and the Labyrynth. They took that story and made some monster flick about how one dude (Tom Hardy from Layer Cake) found out his girlfriend was still alive in the maze and he set out to save her and the village. I do have to say I was most impressed with th Temple and the blood-drinking leader. I was even more impressed with Queen Raphaella - Michelle Van Der Water.

Was it a complete waste? No, the special effects were good, the monster was ghastly, and the action was what you would expect from a sci-fi film. Again, worth a look for Michelle Van Der Water.