Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Unlike some of the other reviewers and critics here, I LIKED THIS MOVIE!It was a good fantasy action film and had a decent story line. By the way, ALL heroic and fantasy stories have been told again and again throughout history. Read Joseph Campbell's and others' works on the mythology of mankind and human archetypes that appear again and again throughout all cultures from the Mahabharata, to the Norse legends like Beowulf, to the Lord of the Rings, to Star Wars, to Asian sword movies to many classic American Westerns. The same themes play out, so it always seems rather shallow of reviewers to pan a production for using a classic plot line. This movie had good character interplay (partly thanks to an excellent cast!), it had good action, and in general IT WAS A GOOD AND VERY ENJOYABLE MOVIE. Could it have been better? Probably, but that was not the actors' faults, and I found the parts of the main characters, Gregory, Tom, Alice, Mam Ward, and Mother Malkin, all well delivered and with more depth than they were given credit for. Could there have been more character development? Certainly, if you wanted a 3 or 4 hour movie. Movies by their very nature have to pack a lot into a limited amount of time.There were a number of twists in the story I liked, and some details it took multiple viewings to notice, e.g. Alice wandering at the edge of the crowd when Gregory and Tom first arrive at the walled city, and the guy with shaved head and heavy earrings outside the tavern as Gregory enters shortly after their arrival, then he cropped up later to confirm seeing the Spook (Gregory) enter the tavern when Tom announced he was Master Gregory's apprentice as he rescued Alice from the mob. Some scenes just flit by quickly and without enough emphasis to make an impression, then they are subtly referenced later. Watching the "making of" features, I realized a great deal of thought went into this by the creative and production staff. I was truly sorry it was not received better or more of a financial success.Special effects and cinematography were very good, as was costuming and attention to technical details in clothing, weapons, and even buildings. My only gripe in these details might be that a number of time periods and cultural intersections seem to have been conflated to create crowds and city populations, even technologies, that I seriously doubt ever coexisted. However, as this was a fantasy, these peripheral characters added some interesting complexity to the crowd scenes.Reading some of the backstory on Wikipedia, I agree with others here that I am amazed (and delighted) this movie made it to the screen in as good a form as it did. With changes in cast, support, and having to work through the special effects house bankruptcy, I would say they did a heroic job turning out a very good movie. I was not even aware of the cinematic release, and I stumbled across a poor copy on YouTube. This prompted me to go buy the DVD, and I am glad I did. Not only was it much better quality and not cropped at the edges like the YT version, but it had some nice bonus features I also enjoyed watching, e.g. the "making of" in several facets was best, giving some insight into the creative process, the Legend and Lore of the Seventh Son (not great but passable), and a few entries in the Visual Effects Gallery. If there is a BluRay with even more features, I might pick it up, too. I know I would have paid twice the modest price the DVD cost, which was less than half the price of a movie theater ticket these days.Whenever I read critics picking apart this or other good or just plain enjoyable movies, I am reminded of a definition of "critic" I once read: "A critic is a person who, having no talent of their own, feels eminently qualified to pass judgment on the talent of others." Take that as you may.

This could have been an amazing movie - if they had focused on the relationships between the different characters. Instead, the special effects overwhelm this film. This ultimately becomes not a story, but an exercise in special effects. Without some sort of emotional core the film falls flat.Jeff Bridges character is also the other major problem with this film. Bridges is a supremely talented and reliable actor - not any of that is evident in this film. He hams his way through every scene. He is more mannered and artificial than Vincent Price at his worst. Scene which should have been powerful and heroic are merely laughable when Bridges is in them.

Right off the bat you know this will not be a great film when American-accented actors jar your ears in a period piece set in European medieval times. American Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges both try to carry off an accent, so why didn't the other top-billed stars, Ben Barnes and Alicia Vikander? What makes this all the more bizarre is that Ben Barnes is British, as is Olivia Williams who also affected an American accent! Something I learned from the bonus material on the DVD. What weird thinking drove that decision? From there it continued downhill. I found myself shaking my head repeatedly. Other reviews pointed out the film's triteness, disjointedness, poor editing, terrible music scoring, and miscasting. Makes one appreciate the true artistry and skill it takes to make a good fantasy film such as Lord of the Rings. You can tell that the star-power actors had high hopes for this film. What a sad waste of money, time, and labor. Don't watch this film.

I liked this movie, but not enough to write a review. But the bad criticism did not let me any chance, I had to step in. Most of the critics sound a bit salty, because their beloved book has not been portrayed correctly. Well, I did not read the books, so I can judge a bit more objectively I think. While I expected nothing, I was pleasantly surprised. Here are the reasons why this movie is different: The antagonists actually have reasons to be bad - There is not only black and white, good and evil in this story, there are a lot of grey areas as well - Actors are really good, Juliane Moore is amazing - production values are good, not top notch, but good - in most movies you know after minute 5 how the movie is going to end, not so much in this movieDon't take me wrong, this is nowhere near amazing, but it is entertaining, has some interesting aspects and good production values. The only thing that seems to make this movie bad is when you have read the books before. If you have not, try it.