alheithinn-vinlander

This is an excellent, fast paced thriller by Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street), who for 85 minutes leaves aside the supernatural and presents us with something even more terrifying - the evil of human beings. We are far more likely to encounter the benign evil of Jackson Rippner than Freddy Kruger, and Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins) does an excellent job of presenting a sociable, friendly, even charismatic killer. The performances by Murphy and by Rachel McAdams (Claire, from The Wedding Crashers)are brilliant. Most of the film takes place on a very intimate level, between two people, their eyes, their faces. It is action on a small scale, not the broad sweep of the canvas, and it is no less compelling for these limitations. The cinematography is nothing special, though of course one can do only so much with a camera in the confines of a passenger jet, but the dialog is excellent, the story taut. There are no distractions, no subplots confuse the issue which is at its heart a battle between the main characters. By keeping his focus and avoiding distractions, Wes Craven is able to take what is a very minimal plot and turning it into an exciting, fast-paced action thriller.

Visually a stunning film, Heaven and Earth lacks the character development of the later Last Samurai, and in the lead, perhaps suffers from the lack of Ken Watanabe's presence as well. The performances of the lead characters seemed wooden to me - almost stereotypes, staring, sometimes glaring at the camera as they deliver their dialog. Moments of introspection are rare and only once each are they allowed to show what might be considered a "softer side". What redeems the film is the story's pace, which is relentless, the cinematography, the narration - which ties the various segments together - and the outstanding battle scenes. One might wish for the lost minutes in the original Japanese version; perhaps they would provide what the film is missing. Even so, it was engaging and I had no difficulty keeping my attention on the film, and this fact was not due entirely to my need for the subtitles.

"Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King" is (excepting its rather odd American title) a surprisingly good film. I suppose they considered American audiences too unsophisticated to understand the allusion so they instead cleverly chose a title designed to make the viewer think he was seeing a "B" grade "Dungeons and Dragons" film. But look beyond the title and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Many stories cross paths here. This is a well known tale, primarily due to Wagner's interpretation but because of Tolkien's later Lord of the Rings (which it inspired) as well. It would be impossible to do justice to even one of the variant forms of the story in a two-hour film (and this one comes in at 132 minutes) but director Uli Edel has chosen his path through mythology and legend (not to say history) and stayed true to it. Obviously, as in any such retelling, the story is simplified and many murky corners unexplored, but the direction is deft, the dialogue well crafted, the acting good to excellent, the score complimentary without overwhelming the production and the cinematography and scenery beautiful. Benno Furmann turns in an excellent performance as Siegfried (one could see him as a future Conan to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Kristanna Loken, whom fans might better know from Terminator III or Bloodrayne, is simply perfect as Brunnhild (ON Brynhildr), whom Wagner's tale turned into a soprano-voiced Valkyrie. Both statuesque and lethal and possessed of an icy beauty, it is easy to forget Schwarzenegger's stone-visaged foe. The stave church architectural style used in Brunnhild's castle is a nice touch, as scholars have surmised that the stave churches represent the design of the heathen temples they replaced.

As a note, "Nibelung" is used variously in the Old Norse poem Atlakvida and in Snorri's Skáldskaparmál (as well as the historical Lex Burgundionum) to refer to a dynasty (and in another version a kingdom which Siegfried rules on the border of Norway). Wagner, in his "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (The Ring of the Nibelungs) has turned it into a name for dwarfs and it is so used here. I mention this to illustrate the fact that it would be impossible (as opposed to say, Beowulf) to stay true to the story, because there is no "story" but rather "stories". The Old Norse lays abound with characters and events and there is the German version and then Wagner besides (who had himself to pick his way through the poems). So the story of Siegfried and the ring and the gold, dragon, Brunnhild etc cannot be retold, only interpreted, and in this Volker Engel and Uli Edel have done a very passable job.