El Dorado

Small Indiana Jones. With each piece of clock in perfect place. Charming hero, beautiful girl friend and dusty companion. South America as arena. Subject - mythical city of gold. So, a nice puzzle. Bad guy - part of a conspiracy. Corrupt army general. Wonderful images. And running, gun fires, old machines for protect artifacts, dusty story and victory of good guys. A tale with well known lines. But not boring. For the meeting of elements from a way to rebirth adventures in a gray world. For the errors , many childish of script. For the large eyes front of spectacular fight scenes. For the ambiguous line between good and bad. And for Luke Goss in the role of without soul brute, for a Shane West as a kind of James Dean the explorer.El Dorado is perfect excuse for this action movie.

I am a total sucker for adventure movies. I have watched all the best of them; Indiana Jones; Romancing the Stone; National Treasure; The Da Vinci Code; King Solomon's Mines; Jewel of the Nile. And now I have watched one of the poorest attempts at replicating them: El Dorado.

As it say's in my headline summary "El Dorado" is based on a very poor script where the "archaeology" plays an extremely small role. Because of that it seems that the director has decided on filling the very obvious plot holes with endless and pointless chases, shoot outs and ever changing hostage and blackmail situations. The problem is that no matter what happens and how many twists are used to try to confuse or shock the viewer we always know what is going to happen long before it does and all of the smoke, screens and mirrors never really cover up the fact, that there really isn't much of a story to engage in.

These shortcomings are furthermore enhanced by the very poor acting displayed by the majority of the actors. Some of the minor supporting actors are actually quite good, but they just can't carry the weight of the rest of the cast and the very poor script.

Add to that the lacking of either skill or vision (possibly both) in the special effects/CGI section of the production crew. The CGI portions of the movie (especially the ending) are so bad, that most people would expect more from the graphics of a 10 year old, cheap PC game.

On top of all these shortcomings comes the ending of the movie which I will not reveal. I just want to say that it is bad. Very bad. In fact so bad and so badly thought through, that you can't help but wonder how (in actual history) the Incans could have possibly lost to the Spanish when they had such great powers on their side.

It seems to me that the best part of the movie is actually the stunts and chases which are rather imaginative and well performed, so if you like that, you might like the movie - it's actually the reason why I gave the movie 3 instead of just 1 star...

So just to sum it up, El Dorado is a very bad movie, based on a very bad script, with rather bad actors, containing very bad effects and CGI and with a very bad and unfulfilling ending.

A-Team and Airwolf are much better than this though!

Adventure Movieslike Indiana Jones work, because you never know whats coming next with the situations the characters find themselves in - there are many plot twists interlaced with 'fish out of water' characters who react with emotional range to their various situations - for example being trapped against a dead end wall in a temple with the Nazis/Baddies after them, Jones and his companions would show panic and terror before accidentally grabbing the right spot on a nearby sculpture which reveals a hidden door, perhaps by the woman trying to hit him for getting him into this mess! In Indiana Jones characters are highly antagonistic to each other, providing not only humour but dramatic opportunities and interest for the viewer. You become involved in the characters and the basic pantomime 'good and evil baddies and myth' story works.

NOT THIS MOVIE THOUGH!

This has none of the above - cardboard cutout characters are stuck in place with a total lack of reactions and humorous situations. The plot flies from basic pantomime 'good and evil baddies and myth' A to B, the goodies chased by the baddies without any emotional interest for the viewer.

A scene typifies the whole film - the characters are trapped against a dead end wall with the baddies after them, Jack, the female lead and his geek sidekick are seemingly trapped and dead. But of course they are not. Jack simply hits the right spot so the wall raises and then comes down and hides them. There is no explanation how he knows to do this. But you knew that is exactly what would happen, being used to it from watching the simple plot and scriptwriting. It's rather boring.

There are no real problems for the hero, Jack in the script - unlike Jones (played as a character with human faults) he is played as a alpha male real man who can simply do anything. The squeaky geek sidekick will of course never get any serious attention of the woman while a realman like Jack is around. Jack is played as a deadpan character with few emotions who can always push the right lever or button. The woman is strong willed but always falls in place next to Jack. All this is set in stone from the start. There is little in the way of antagonism or any dynamic between the characters while the baddies are after them, and for all these reasons a total lack of interest from the viewer. Add in a few explosions and helicopters like in the A-Team/Airwolf episodes and there you have it. 3/10.

if you do not ignore than "El Dorado" is part of a precise genre, the film is more than decent. the recipes is used in right manner, the ingredients are the classic ones, the charm of Shane West is enough for a sort of Indiana Jones with great virtues or sins,Luke Goss did a not bad job and the adventure is pretty nice. the adventure, the massacred myth and the fight for treasure. nothing surprising. like each film with so precise target, it is easy to say than the disappointment is yours fault. because the acting or the special effects or the story are reasonable and it is bizarre to expect more. so, new version of a sort of story so well known. sure, in better versions.

As Audio Engineer, the sound team should be fired! Episode one was watchable. I could only stand the first few minutes of Episode two, the audio was so terrible I couldn't bear it.

The scenery in Peru is beautiful! The several elements of CGI were so obvious - sad. I didn't have a problem with the acting for the most part, and the story was fun although I really wanted the bad guy dead from the very beginning.

But all of the acting and wonderful scenery becomes moot if you can stand to listen to it. I gave it 3 stars primarily for the scenery.