Kohtalon kirja

I think this movie was fairly good when you think that this was as far as I know graduate work for some filmography students from Tampere polytechnic. For that I would give this movie grade 9. But as for commercial release on other hand I must place this below mediocre movie for apparently not so professional end product. But they show lots of potential for future though.

Plot in summary:

Priest finds The Book of Destiny(Kohtalon Kirja) and ends up to adventure in time to save whole universe. This movie mixes many types of movie genres in rather interesting way. Maybe we will see version made with big money some day ;-)

If you're a masokist, do watch the movie. Other than that I would never suggest to anyone that they should watch this movie.

Bad acting, even worse story line. I was amazed how mad it really was.

A couple of months ago my friends were talking about the new Finnish fantasy film Kohtalon Kirja. I have to say that I did not expect much from the movie, but I also didn't expect anything this bad.

There is absolutely nothing good to say about the film. The acting is terrible. Even the famous Finnish veteran actors sounded like amateurs. Visual look of the film is beyond description and the soundtrack had some worst heavy metal music I have ever heard.

But the real reason I hate the film so much is the action. It was obvious that many of the actors had no training in any martial art. Even the most basic training would have made a big difference. All the moves in the fight scenes were slow and painfully clumsy.

This film isn't even funny as a bad trash movie. It is just bad. Avoid it like a plaque.

Okay, so it isn't the Epic Finnish Movie Spectacle of 2003. It isn't Art with capital A.

But who cares.

Judging all measurements, this movie should be a turkey. The whole idea is so patently ludicruous that This Movie Just Can't Be Good. Shameless mixing of genres, unexperienced moviemakers, and, good heavens, Tony Halme.

But surprise surpise - for some reason, this thing was watchable. *Very* watchable. Sure, it looks a bit cheesy here and there, might have needed some extra care at some times and places... but overall, the lasting impression I got was that This Isn't A Gigabuck Hollywood Movie But It Sure Looks Like One.

But then again, I like movies that knowingly play with cliches of the genre, or genres in this case. Running jokes rule. And obviously the makers have had fun, which has to count for something...

People seem to severely dislike the special effects - and I think this is unjustified, it's just amazing that they did it *this* good with *that* sort of money.

And the plot wasn't *that* bad. Honestly.

Cult classic material. Definitely.

As a movie: *** As a parody of Hollywood: *****

Book Of Fate doesn't compete in the Major League, but it is nevertheless a Champion in it's own right. You'll have to put yourself in the right context: this is not a Hollywood production, not even a b-class movie with still decent budget. This is a very low-budget movie - we are talking about probably some few thousand dollars at most, no more. In fact the movie is a thesis for the two directors. Still they managed to get some of the finest Finnish professional actors in, and even the soundtrack is filled with internationally famous Finnish rock and heavy metal bands (like Nightwish with over 1.5 million records sold). These acts alone are noteworthy.

The main idea of the movie are the struggles of an "eternal champion", and the idea is not very far from the themes of author Michael Moorcock. Also, it takes courage to select five totally different genres (horror, western, war, action thriller and SF) and combine them in an episode movie.

This movie seems to divide opinions very much - and that's understandable. If you are a kind of person who is interested only in the technical details and finesse over the contents, you will be disappointed. But if you are able to see behind the financial and technical limits, you may appreciate the over-the-top pastiches of these genres, and the enthusiasm behind. Sure, the CGI-effects may be a little cranky - but so were the CGI-images of the excellent series Babylon 5. In my opinion, the only true limitations are in the people's imagination, not in the technical limitations.

As far as I'm concerned, the results were highly satisfactory - I had no expectations of this movie, but I found myself entertained. And that's what this movie is all about.