Just what I expected

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

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

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Watched this on TV was disappointed that it was split into three chunks of viewing which really spoilt the watching of it. That said it has all the elements of a fantasy tale without the nasty Hollywood glitz that was Lord of the Rings. Its a simple story rather akin to Romeo and Juliet I wonder if its this tale Shakespeare got his inspiration from? The main actor came across as a little dumb but the supporting cast more than made up for his wooden performance. Have to say the actress playing the queen of Iceland was something really special and will be wanting to see more of her acting works in the future. Sadly I think most people will try to compare this with Hollywood blockbusters like Lord of the rings etc and miss the storytelling not the whizz bang special effects that seem to be current fashion in tinsel town.

Rating a movie cannot simply ignore the budget and the production values. This is a TV product (mini-series, whatever )with B or C-lead actors and it is EXTREMELY GOOD for what it is, compared to billionaire Hollywood productions with (supposedly) AAA+ actors paid millions each. Photography is the best thing I suppose; Uli Edel does another very good job. For what it is, it ought to get 10/10. Lead actor Furmann gives me the feeling of a young Liam Neeson ( I wouldn't be surprised if that resemblance had impressed casting directors ); Julian Sands seems a re-edition of the Nottinghan sheriff from Robin Hood (the scar,the slimy demeanor etc ); the first scenes (the castle under siege, the medieval armors etc ) seem right out of Excalibur and a great liberty for times when a Roman Emperor was supposed to still be in power. Samuel West as king Gunther is unconvincing...his face doesn't fit the character...completely miscast. Loken is one of the most credible, along with Witt. A great TV product worth rubbing elbows with AAA+ productions like Lord of the Rings. Great courage in filming and adaptation of the real legend, instead of fantasy junk books 'inspired' by the same (originality is dead, eh?). I just dream of what would Edel have come up with with a LOTR budget... Von Sydow does a nice cameo part and he's among the best of the bunch. Overall, I recommend it.

I actually watched this movie in the last week of January 2008 and couldn't help falling for it. k. Loken has proved further her earlier performances were no fluke. I particularly liked the manner in which she stuck to her man. the dragon fight- impressive as well as realistic(actually I kind of forgot I was watching a movie and couldn't help kicking out in the course of watching it). I have to be honest with every one and my eight-star rating is good enough, at least. The fights were well executed, overall, it was quite entertaining. Actually non of my anti-adventure movie friends had any negative comments for this film. the locations chosen for this movie really, really fit in with the background of the story. in other words, the scenes somehow manage to appear quite real- I commend the film makers for that. you will have no regrets watching this movie, especially as a lover of adventure and of K.Loken's performances.

I tuned into this film about half was through and kept thinking, man this seems rather familiar... Then realize egad they've filmed the Rings -- the Goddammring cycle (Götterdämmerung or the Twilight of the gods. WOW. Its not great (heck its a TV movie) but they do a good job of depicting a great epic... boiling 20 + hours of opera or countless Nordic saga down into a 2 or 3 hour TV movie -- pretty impressive. I've recently seen the beginning and it confirmed my opinion. A decent attempt to bring an ancient legend to the screen. Its much truer to the original than say the recent movie version of Tristram und Isolda.There are many different versions of each of these Sagas. Wagner picked out those elements that form a coherent narrative about the end of the ancient Norse world -- the twilight of the gods. The most fascinating aspect of the original story from these various Norse sagas (The Twilight of the gods) is that one sees a pagan (pre-christian) population who is aware of the impending death of their religion and culture (through conversion to Christianity) and this is tied in with misbehaviour of their own gods themselves. It is a legend of the end of their pagan world. Volton's selfish quest to regain the ring of power for himself through his grandson (Seigfried) ultimately brings about the end of the ancient culture.My only real complaint is that they don't follow the cycle of the ring... which started out in the river guarded by the Rhine maidens, was stolen by Alberich, then stolen by the gods (Voton), reluctantly given to the Frost giants (Falsalt and Fafnir) for building Valhalla, seized by his brother Fafnir (who killed his brother) who turned himself into a dragon to protect his treasure, taken almost accidentally by Seigfried (who fought the dragon to learn about fear because he was too stupid to know what fear was -- hes a bit of a moron in the opera), Hagan then kills Seigfried and seizes the ring, then the river rises and it is at last reclaimed by the Rhinemaidens. Without the cycle, some of the story elements don't make sense. The most powerful parts of the opera cycle is (1) Alberich's vow to swear off love in order to seize the gold, and (2) his curse when the gold (in particular the ring) is taken away. The story needs his vow to swear off love, to make sense of his curse. I didn't expect it to depict the entire cycle (20 hours is a bit much for a movie), but instead of using the old ghosts to give the back story, they could have use the mermaids (as is done in Wagners Götterdämmerung). I don't understand why they made the beautifully seductive Rhinemaidens into old male ghosts and depicted the Nibelung as the rightful guardians of the cursed gold (rather than thieves). And anyway, why is the gold cursed? Other than that I found it very entertaining. Two thumbs up!