Warlord

What in the hell did I just watch? I'm sat stunned by the sheer audacity that people are responsible for churning this plate of utter crap out. I've no idea of what actually went on because it makes no sense. Nothing really happens. It's just a complete waste of time and effort.

I love a good fantasy film but this is fantasy for the wrong reason. They've obviously fantasised that anyone would be slightly interested in watching such drivel.

The acting is terrible. The settings are done in some park woodland. The script and story are just all over the place. This is just so bad on all levels. Charges should be brought against all those involved in it.

The Good News: The cinematography and acting are decent. Too bad you don't see a fantasy movie for the acting.

The plot is boringly xenophobic and the usual anti-authority: The elves and humans don't get along, with the humans holding all of the cards and the elves being exiled to the woods. The sheriff is right from the Stock Evil collection: He's running roughshod over the local population while forcefully taking control of the bakeries and forcing others into the mines.

In other words, nothing you really haven't seen before. Adding to the fun is the usual over-the-top violence.

Then there's the ending, which isn't exactly your feel-good ending, which comes from nowhere. It's nice that the bad guys get punished, but only by making the chasm between elves and humans even deeper. It's the sole surprise in the movie.

All told, there is a surprise ending to the movie, but it's unlikely most people would last past the first twenty minutes. There's a lot of scenery chewing, but it doesn't really add to the movie and most of it has no payoff. You can miss this movie with little worry of missing anything important.

Before I go any further, it is worth mentioning that apparently this had a budget of only £300. If that is correct then for the budget, it's an ok film.

However, the story line is very slow and it jumps to much. From the off it is very confusing and doesn't grip you. The acting is very subpar and the visuals are not appealing.

Billy Boyd does a good job in his role and if I am honest, he was my only draw to giving Warlord a chance.

A very disappointing film that somehow won some awards and had several nominations. If the budget had been much higher then this could have been an outstanding film, sadly it isn't.

I have given this 5 out of 10 due to the low budget.

Warlord is one of those movies that really pulls you in and doesn't let go. The story feels fresh but familiar in the best way, and the world-building is seriously impressive. I especially liked the use of magic, not too much, but just enough.

The performances are strong across the board, and the visuals have this gritty, lived-in feel that makes everything more real.

The pacing is tight too - it always feels like something important is about to happen, and you're just glued to it. You can tell a lot of care went into every part of it, from the costumes to the music. Definitely worth checking out if you like smart, grounded fantasy.

If you're expecting some Spiderman action, this is obviously an indie and you can see they worked with what they had. Which they did really well.

Did they really think this was good enough to make more than one of? The ending of this movie is setting it up for a second, but who will green light that? The big twist was kind of assanign. For the budget this thing probably had I will say they did a decent job with the set. But the acting and the pacing where slow and tedious. I can't believe I made it through the whole thing. I guess I was thinking it would get better, or I liked some of the class war messaging, but then it spits on all that. Anything that was good abot it was lost by the end of this low budget robinhood with elves movie./