Wow! Such a good movie.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

A Masterpiece!

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

FORBIDDEN KINGDOM is another big-bucks Russian fantasy flick that descends into lengthy and repetitive action scenes featuring plenty of CGI augmentation but not a lot in the way of voice or character. The film feels more like a Hollywood flick along the lines of VAN HELSING or I, FRANKENSTEIN than anything more distinctive. It's supposedly an adaptation of a famous Gogol story but is about as far from that as you can get. The underrated Jason Flemyng plays a traveller who heads off to a Romanian forest to find himself battling a malignant demon. There's one decent set-piece involving a headless creature attacking our hero but otherwise it's all rather predictable and gets tiresome about twenty minutes in. Charles Dance has a small role and is always welcome, but there are one too many over-the-top Russian characters in support.

I have seen the original, most enjoyable , not dubbed but with sub-titles, as with a lot of English versions movies not as good as the originals. This is not bad just reminds me of movies like Van Helsing (2004) and other fantasy like movies for people who like these types of movies it's OK.

"Viy", a.k.a. "Forbidden Empire" is a fantasy film with a confused story about a British cartographer that flees from England (actually from his future father-in-law) expecting to raise a fortune in the East to marry his beloved girlfriend but finding a cursed place. The film has wonderful special effects but is hard to be followed since the pretentious screenplay is not well-written and is totally disconnected with many plot points. The 1967 film is a Russian classic horror movie and a little gem. However this unnecessary remake is a complete mess and difficult to understand which the target audience is. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "A Lenda" ("The Legend")

Viy comes from east slavic legends. Based on these legends Nikolai Gogol depicted Viy in his story back in 1835. There were several film adaptations, but the most notable is considered the one filmed in 1967 in USSR.I can't say that Viy 3D is an adaptation. It is a story which uses Viy legend just as background. And this is the first problem with the film. When you talk about Viy, you talk about fear. The legends are about that, Gogol's story is about that, 1967 film is about that. So how can a film, which places Viy in its title, and even mentions Gogol story, just throw away this spirit of something unknown and frightening, and instead suggest some stupid explanation for the story and challenge the existence of Viy.Another problem of the film is its ugly propaganda constructed from old clichés. Orthodox church is for enslaving people (wow, have you seen this 'new' idea before?), ukrainian сossacks are drunk and live in dirt, the English scholar is smart and can handle everything. In general you can see the contrast - bare and dirty Ukraine vs rich and beautiful England.OK, so maybe for someone who doesn't care about Viy concept and propaganda, is this film good?The story in film is very similar to Sleepy Hollow, but is worse. Plot doesn't offer something new, but fails to provide some solid story. It is a mess without any reasons. I can recall the most effects-loaded scene of cossacks transforming into devils and trying to frighten cartographer. Are there any reasons for this part of plot? No. Are there any consequences of this scene? No. The cartographer wakes up next morning and just continues his work. So you can just remove this scene from the film and you don't lose anything as far as plot is concerned. Same for many scenes.Effects are OK. You can enjoy some scenes.The film is not scary, there are some exciting moments, but the film never crosses the line of a real horror.Acting is decent, everyone did a good job.Conclusions: 1) If you like the story of Viy and want to see some adaptation - the film is not for you. 2) If you want some horror film - this film is not for you. 3) If you don't care much about a new story and would like to enjoy the effects and acting - you can have a good time.