It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This was one of the dullest movies I have seen in some time. I'm in my late 40s, and watched it with my son-in-law (early 20s) and son (17). The scenery was beautiful, but the story was a bust. We watched about an hour of it and turned it off. I spent more time on my iphone during the hour that we watched it than I spent actually watching the movie. I gave it a 3 because I enjoyed the scenery and cinematography; otherwise I would have given it a 1. I'm sure there are people who are really into the "art" of it all who will find my review appalling but we're all entitled to our own opinions, right? I couldn't figure out if this was supposed to be a "chick flick" where the focus was on the mother, or if it was supposed to be a movie for guys, with the focus on battle and adventure. In my opinion, it didn't succeed in either.

The anticipation of seeing Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis AND Keifer Sutherland all in the one movie had me salivating! However while I wouldn't say I was exactly disappointed with the movie I did feel that so much more could have been explored. I was left with some things unanswered. Why did Sarahs Dad go away? Why did Sarah pop on a wedding dress (this after apparently everything had been destroyed)?prepare to marry Doyle, on his deathbed, then have an intimate time with Wiremu? I felt that some aspects of the movie simply did not add up and I was unconvinced by the acting talents of Samantha Morton,she was neither tough chick or helpless femme and I couldn't embrace her character at all.I guess for me thats just an important aspect of any movie. As a female I want to identify with the female, especially if she is the lead character. On the positive side the Maori fight scenes were raw, real and raunchy (well Temuera had a great time!)but again I was not totally convinced. Look, it was a good movie, easy to watch,and entertaining in its own way. Be warned though if you are looking for a tight storyline,deep sincere acting and mind blowing thrills this is not for you. Having lived in NZ for 12 years I also had some frustration that I didn't see more of the great country. The scenery, while beautiful was also limited,same lake scene over and over, although maybe Vincent Ward was hoping to steer away from the breathtaking scenes a la'Lord of The Rings',if this was the case then Vincent succeeded. With the line up offered maybe I just expected too much. At the end of the day it was not a bad movie it just lacked that something special.

River Queen's sound recordist should have been fired, in this day and age there is no excuse for poor recording on the set. Mumbling voices was the end result, and the cinematography was average to fair at best. The story had potential and I feel sorry for the overseas actors who must have known they were on a turkey shoot while they were filming. Its obvious that the movie was suffering from el cheapo budget syndrome, and the scene where Temuera is procreating inside the house while a battle rages outside is just too stupid for words. I noticed a few shortcuts taken on the Maori protocol side of things, but this was probably due to movie length time restraints etc. All in all I wasn't impressed with this movie, the Whanganui river has many beautiful spots but this movie gives us a cold, drab and claustrophobic image, with none of the beauty. The movie needed more sunshine and better camera angles, less on screen confusion, better sound recording, and more thought needed to be put into what the movie goers would be seeing on the big screen. Hats off to all involved though for completing what must have been a very difficult shoo. I have the utmost appreciation for anyone who can make a feature film, sadly I did not enjoy this one.

For weeks I had been looking forward to seeing this movie only to find myself hugely disappointed after wards. In my opinion, the only good thing 'River Queen' had going for it was the amazing scenery used as backgrounds. The story line was all over the place, Samantha's character Sarah was very difficult to understand and what on earth were all the many close ups of her face for? It brought absolutely nothing to the story-if there was one at all!A better actor for the part of Boy could also have been selected, to me it sounded like he read his lines straight of the script while shooting his scenes.Overall, a real shame as it could have been such a good movie.