I was frankly not expecting much because my exposure to Ioan Gruffudd has been exclusively the dismal Fantastic Four movies. I was stunned to learn that he can actually act -- or could once, anyway -- and his performance completely carries this film. The rest of the cast, for the most part unfamiliar to me as an American viewer, do a fine job as well. I would make something of an exception for Dorian Healy, but I fault him less for his performance than the script for giving him so little to work with other than moustache-twirling villainy. That's a minor nitpick, though. The acting is solid across the board, with a great supporting performance by Robert Lindsay.
In general, the action moves along briskly, the characters are well-defined, and the overall production values are surprisingly high. There are a few weak special effects where the budget shows a bit, but for the most part this is a really well-mounted production. The sets and costumes are top-notch, and a lot of attention seems to have been paid to period detail. It would be easy to believe this was a big-screen theatrical production if not for the periodic commercial fade-outs (which, by the way, were uniformly ignored on the telecast I watched -- is it really that difficult, Ovation?) Oh, and for other American viewers, the reason Kennedy looks so familiar but you can't quite place him is because he buried his natural accent so successfully on Battlestar Galactica.
At any rate, I highly recommend this film and now look forward to seeing the others in the series. I can only marvel at whatever happened to Horatio Hornblower to turn him into such a lackluster Reed Richards. Perhaps a lifetime of attempting to spell "Ioan Gruffudd" has just worn him down.
