Wonderful character development!

Truly Dreadful Film

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

"there be dragons" is an okay movie except for what you bring to it might help. my concern is for the disregard the manufacturers of DVDs have for viewers. for more time than i counted the 'background' soundtrack drowned out the dialogue. i was forced to use subtitles to be able to follow the story line. it didn't help that the soundtrack isn't worth listening to and the movie seemed dependent on that soundtrack to convince viewers of the import of the movie. it didn't, the script didn't, though the actors did their best. why do the artists who make their living in this industry allow for the shoddy thoughtless manufacturing of DVDs that people may see for decades !?

Spanish/US co-production developing dramatic deeds during Spanish Civil War and the historic figure about Jose Maria Escriba De Balaguer . Enjoyable biographic movie well written and played , being compellingly directed by Roland Joffé . Arising out of the terror of the Spanish Civil War, a candidate for canonization is investigated by a reporter (Dougray Scott) who aware his own estranged father (Wes Bentley) had a deep, dark and devastating connection to the saint's (Charlie Cox) life .This interesting film is full of compelling drama with love , passion and subsequent betrayal , touching scenes , historical events and good feeling . It is a simple , dramatic and intelligent portrait of a time when the Spanish people live taking on among them . This is an agreeable account of the survival of the human spirit against difficulties ; an epic portrayal of Faith, Forgiveness and Redemption . The movie is plenty of graphic , striking and memorable moments about timeless power of forgiveness and dictating a strong emotional response from the spectator , though some moments is unrealistic . Interesting and thought-provoking movie with evident excitement that can sometimes be undercut by inadequacies in the screenplay , being written and adapted by the same Roland Joffé . This moving picture results to be a breathtaking spectacle about dramatic consequences of Spanish civil war , including strong emotions , brooding dialog and a heartbreaking final . ¨There be dragons¨ or ¨Encontrarás Dragones¨ results to be other of the innumerable stories to deal with dramatic deeds regarding the Civil War background , a familiar theme about the global horrors of a fratricide war , impossible to forget to Spanish cinema . However the story needs a vibration more real than the one offered in this slow-moving and sometimes dull film . But anyway, its is compensated with the great performances from main cast as Charlie Cox as Josemaría Escrivá , Wes Bentley as Manolo Torres as Dougray Scott as Roberto Torres as Rodrigo Santoro as Oriol , Olga Kurylenko as Ildiko and sensational support cast , mostly Spanish , such as Unax Ugalde , Ana Torrent and Jordi Molla , interpreters who provided a considerable boost to the result . Furthermore , a spotless pictorial cinematography by Gabriel Beristain and a willingness , almost perfect of the elements of each shot , every sequence, every space .The film develops an intrigue by means of flashbacks and dealing with Jose Maria Escriba De Balaguer's life . The events were the following : during the Spanish Civil War , Escrivá was hidden in a psychiatric sanatorium and fled from Madrid, which was under republican control, via Andorra and France, to the city of Burgos, held by the nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco. After the war ended in 1939 with Franco's victory, Escrivá was able to resume his studies in Madrid and complete a doctorate in law. His principal work was the foundation, government and expansion of Opus Dei.The motion picture was well directed by the British Roland Joffé , being realized in academic style and general coldness , filmed in his usual formal and stylistic scholarship , without leaving a trace the thought-provoking issues , in terms of dramatic and narrative excitement . He is a good filmmaker mainly of epic subjects . After a long career filming for television , he made his movie debut in a big way with ¨The killing fields¨ winner of three Oscar and dealing with madness and atrocities committed by humans , Joffe's usual theme. ¨The mission¨, one of his greatest hits , had Palme d'or at Cannes , a graphic monument to Portuguese oppression in South-America , but Joffe has not quite held his place at the top level . He subsequently directed ¨Fat Man and Little Boy¨ referring to two atomic bombs dropped by America on Japan . Joffe's meagre output for the cinema makes it all the more surprising that he has turned out three splendid films and several others near-disasters such as ¨The scarlet letter¨, ¨Captivity¨, and ¨You and me¨. Rating ¨Encontraras Dragones¨ : Better than average , worthwhile watching .

The whole film is centered on the figure of the founder of Opus Dei, Josemaría Escrivá. Escrivá, who was made ​​a saint by Pope John Paul II, in the film is a stereotyped figure, depicted without defects or excesses, always merciful, sympathetic, forgiving, charitable, in a word, unbelievable: in reality Escrivá supported Franco and Pinochet, and Bishop Vladimir Felzmann affirmed that he heard Escrivá to say indulgent sentences about Hitler. This is only a total propaganda movie for Opus Dei, disguised as a drama. Certainly, the director is a great professional, and the film in itself, I mean as a product, is well done. But the uncritical script is so absolutely, heavily, blindly hagiographic that at the end I was completely disgusted.

I had reason to spend several hours with and paying close attention to the views of the filmmaker, just before the film premiered in Spain; and I found both him and his thinking, truly, fascinating! I found it equally fascinating that a man who had, once, moved audiences with The Killing Fields and The Mission, should believe that this overly plain, almost amateur feel-to-it film - which I had seen, the week before - could ever be expected to transmit to post-Avatar 3D audiences, far less caught up than Roland Joffé in the importance and purpose of redemption in modern-day society.I, for one, agree that learning to forgive is essential and that without it, we can never find our humanity. Also, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with 'amateur': the word implies love and vocation, and I'm good with that. 'Overly plain', however, did all-too-frequently smack of 'low-budget, tinny dialogs' and 'shallow performances' - with, to some extent, the exception of Derek Jacobi.I simply think that people turn to movie theaters for an experience they could never get from multimedia and home cinema; and movie theaters agree to deliver such an experience. And, though some of the action scenes were not entirely uninteresting (and we're, honestly, not asking for Terminators and Jurassics), to make - for general release - an entertaining and viable movie about the value of 'redemption' would appear to be as commercially unlikely as would making a movie about generosity or about humility. Such 'virtues' will either seep through the plot and hit viewers - and, hopefully, stay with them long - after they have left the theater or they won't! Yet, to play such virtues so close to the plot is - I feel - sadly counterproductive, from both a storytelling and a film-viewing point of view.Mr. Joffé is sure to have enjoyed the experience, engulfed - as he will have been, throughout the film-making process - by this ubiquitous purpose, impregnating so many of his thoughts and actions. It's a shame he didn't give a little more importance to his side of this mutual selfishness pact we call 'film-going': that way, many thousands more might have enjoyed the experience, too.