Adormidera

If one had to be realistic about the expectations of a historical movie made on a low budget, this one certainly deserves some credit. Although in my opinion it falls short in terms of story line and direction, the attention to detail doesn't go unnoticed.

Nevertheless, I found the story rather enjoyable, and particularly in the second half of the movie it became more engaging. Although a large part of the supporting cast seems to be made up of first time actors (judging by their IMDb credits) the remarkable performance by the lead actor, as well as his charm undoubtedly contribute to the movie's visual entertainment. The sword-fighting was also good, especially towards the end.

Overall, this movie is not a blockbuster but worth watching.

The basis of the story is fine. You have a group of five soldiers who reunite after a long battle and decide to travel back to their town together. What's lacking at this point already is the back-story. We don't know who was in battle or even the reason they were fighting, all we know is that they are now returning home.

It's very clear even just through his mannerism during his first appearance on screen that Tristan is an army commander and thus he will be also leading his men back. A flawless and very enjoyable character interpretation by the young Maltese actor which in my opinion "saves" the movie, because although there is a lack of structure in the story itself, interestingly Tristan's character becomes the main subject where his inner conflicts begin to emerge when he comes face-to-face with a lord who prompts a memory of a very unpleasant past.

Maybe this movie doesn't quite meet everyone's expectations, however I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. It's a simple story but yet I found it quite captivating. It's evident in some scenes that the budget wasn't in the millions, whilst in others it looked just like a Hollywood epic. The costumes looked great, most of the sets looked very authentic, the music is lovely and I enjoyed the action sequences. Very interesting to see tenor Joseph Calleja in a featured role, which I felt was played out well. The star of this show however, was rightfully the leading actor who hails from Malta, Andrei Claude. He delivers a very strong performance and a powerful screen presence.

There have been movies with limited budget which are pleasantly enjoyable, unfortunately Adormidera is not one of them. It has issues on the most fundamental aspects such as script, camera work and even sound mixing till the point that it's hard to invest on the movie at all. This resembles more of some friends making video in Renaissance fair than actual feature length movie.

Story follows five soldiers who survive the war. They are in their way home when they meet with several dubious characters who involve them in a power struggle. There is lack of clarity on the war mentioned, the main character uses heavy monologues, but ultimately doesn't explain much. The monologues are not only needlessly long and aplenty, they also create synchronization errors for most of the sound effects.

The sound is oddly out of tune from its visual. Some of the lines feel bizarre, but the worst is the sound effect of the surroundings. There are far too many times when the footstep, motion or even background noise feel simply muted or in much lower volume. Sadly, graphic doesn't fare much better with shaky and jittery cam.

Some of the scenes are shot very closely to the characters' faces, right zoomed in their foreheads or jaws. This starts off annoying and it becomes just silly as important sequences show only half face of the characters. The contrast between light and darkness is poor, creating indiscernible scenes as the story goes into nighttime. Also, the persistent problem of rumbling camera exists, but the movie takes it further as it accidentally shoots random objects or background.

Acting is subpar, most of the characters are overly zealous or simply uncomfortable. Maybe the lead role Andrei Claude is decent here, but as random extras interact with high pitch tone or wooden expression it's hard to take the plot seriously. Story is a vague endeavor, using war torn theme and damsel-in-distress female. It doesn't culminate well as the climatic fights are merely random brawls.

If the movie had some sort of solid production, it could have been a decent past time, but as it stands with multitude of basic flaws, Adormidera is nearly unbearable.

My quick rating - 3,9/10. I realize this is a Maltese film made on a shoestring budget BUT that doesn't mean I can set aside a poor story, really bad acting, cut scenes that appeared like they were editing out commercials, etc. I felt like the whole time I was watching it was more a group of adults got together, bought a damn nice couple of cameras and set out to make a movie, which is fine. Problem being what they churned out was just so poorly done (minus some nice scenery wherever these people live). I want to rate it higher, I really do, but even the points I am giving are down to a sheer decent ending after a whole lot of boring nonsense. I would be doing harm to you if I didn't point out the fighting in this movie is atrocious. Anyway, if you did become brave and see "The Night Crew" after reading my review, then you know the end of this movie as well (so not a spoiler, but more an eluded to spoiler). Either way, 1 minute out of 90 doesn't make up for the rest of the wasted time. Take a pass unless it is on cable for free (which you would assume it was made for anyway by how the movie looks and feels) Oh, if you feel the need to find this, it is also called Seventh Sword : Avenging the Throne.