Adormidera (2013)

That was an excellent one.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Bad acting, clumsy directing and thin story. If you are alone in Antarctica and you have not seen any movie for months and are bored out of your skull, try it. Otherwise just give it a pass. Not worth it. It starts off badly - trying to invoke the cheap emotion of characters being battle weary. Then it moves on to situations that tries to milk this further but only succeeds in falsifying it more. The acting above all is bad - to go with the clumsy directing. I knew it was not going to be a great movie but was in the mood for a old time swords and blood movie. This was not it. This was just bad. One can climb into it further, pointing out the unbelievable clothing and that it presents fat nonathletic looking characters doing heroic physical deeds, but it will be repeating the first line. Avoid it.

The Good - This was a very ambitious project, so I admire the executive producers for taking the risk and investing in such a production. Any experienced filmmaker will tell you that the hardest part of this business is always related to funding. Which brings me to my next positive point, the setting. The visuals of this film are actually very good, the way each set is designed and the lighting used really enhance the feel of this medieval story, so well done to the set designer and the director of photography. And last but certainly not least I applaud the main actor (Andrei Claude) for his outstanding performance as Tristan of Leon. Quoting from a recent review on The Sunday Times "Claude has good screen presence and portrays well the noble hero that has seen his sense of idealism dissipating before his eyes by the callousness of the world around him." I should add that this is also a credit to the casting director who must have had a clear vision of what this character had to represent.The Bad - I don't like being negative but I have to be honest. The story wasn't well structured and many areas remain unexplained. Some of the acting was rather poor, and I found this a bit distracting.The Outcome - I still enjoyed watching this film and I recommend it. Yes it could have been much better, but so could World War Z (which cost $190,000,000) and millions of people watched it anyway.

Although visually I feel this movie does live up to its expectations the script does not seem to match up as well. The plot itself is fine, and towards the end it draws you in much more. The dialogue, the development of secondary characters and the transition between scenes could have been much better though.It was interesting to see how despite the weakness in the script and lack of direction the lead actor still plays out his role as Tristan very well, a character which seems to prevail throughout the entire movie. The stereotypical tall, dark and handsome hero possesses a powerful screen presence and delivers a very charismatic and enjoyable performance.The battle scene towards the end is also quite gripping, and the action gets even better in the one-on-one segments. Nothing too graphic, which justifies the PG rating, but it keeps you on edge until the the very end.

I support all Maltese productions, but this movie is by far the best one I have watched. I enjoy medieval history and I was impressed with how authentic everything looked.I did find the story a bit hard to follow in the beginning but it began making sense after the second half.Most of the acting is good and the different characters are well portrayed. Claude portrays a believable hero as Tristan of Leon and has a strong presence on screen. I also enjoyed watching the fighting scenes in the end, they seemed well choreographed and not overstated. The twist towards the end is completely unexpected and I really liked the ending.