A mysterious beast terrorises provincial France. The king sends Grégoire de Fronsac, a knight and the royal naturalist, to track and hopefully destroy the beast. Fronsac is accompanied on his quest by his compatriot Mani, an Iroquois shaman who for reasons it will never explain is a kung fu and karate expert (Mani is played by Mark Dacascos, who of course has not one drop of Native American blood. Sigh.).
Fronsac is knowledgeable enough to be sure he is not chasing an ordinary, but even he is not prepared for what he will actually find ...
Brotherhood of the Wolf is beautifully shot, and has a number of fine action set pieces, and for the first hour I was thoroughly enjoying it. Alas, it turns out to be a horribly self indulgent movie that stretches to two and a half hours, which is (a) way too long, and (b) a symptom of it attempting to be about three different movies all at the same time, and doing none of them well. I was actively angry with the film for much of the last half hour.
Also, it is encumbered by a painfully unconvincing romance sub-plot. Please take note, movie makers: it is not enough for two people to be pretty and to occasionally share a screen to make me believe they are soulmates. Show me a meaningful connection between them! And no, having a third character tell the female half: "Sure, he has been sleeping with me, but he has been dreaming of you." doesn't cut it.
No comments:
Post a Comment