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MC48'S REVIEW | BLACKSMITH'S REVIEW MC48 Reviews... Gates of Tartarus The film is clearly an epic fantasy in the "Lord of the Rings" vein, and the plot is, indeed, very Tolkien-esque. Easily the best part of the script, the story is grand, epic, and full of heroism and keeps the audience's attention throughout the whole script. However, while the plot and the fantasy world are good ones, the execution of the script leaves a bit to be desired. First of all, most of the scenes (especially in the first act) were very mechanical. It was extremely obvious that they were there so that the characters could move from point A to B, or to convey plot point X. While I'm aware that this is what scenes are for, their obviousness and very mechanical nature often takes the audience away from the story (which is, the best part of the film). Instead of being immersed in the fantastic movie world, the audience finds themselves mulling over the last plot point and calculating what it leads to. It's like reading a CliffNote summary instead of the novel. This cold and mechanical feeling gave the impression of a lack of spirit, and prevented much emotional attachment to any of the characters. Referring back to my previous analogy, it's extremely hard to pity, say, Holden Caulfield when all you've read is the "Catcher in the Rye" CliffNotes. It's really a shame because the characterization in the film is pretty good. Heroes were heroic, villains were villainous, and each of the major characters were well defined. Their motivations were conveyed, their personalities were clear, their histories were touched upon. While I would've preferred more character growth (as there was barely any), the characterization in the film is still one of the better ones I've seen in the HtG theaters. The only other qualm is that the villains should've been expanded on, instead of them simply being evil. Other than that, the film's a very solid entry into the HtG theaters. While, as I mentioned before, a deeper villain and a more spirited tone is needed, the story of the film, and it's well-thought out fantasy world elevates "Gates of Tartarus" to a solid 65/100 BlackSmith Reviews GATES OF TARTARUS Jag, the producer/writer behind Film-Mogul’s “DragonSabre”, once again enters the realm of fantasy with the epic “Gates of Tartarus”. Backed by a stellar A-list cast and “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, the film boasts numerous special effects and lavish set pieces, following a muddled, but highly imaginative storyline. The film begins with a bang, where an evil henchman (Nathan Jones) to a diabolical goddess (Miranda Otto) goes after a spear and a series of spears that not only increase her power, but could destroy her as well. In a nearby kingdom a group of warriors ( played by Heath Ledger, Tom Cruise and Jason Statham, among others) decide to obtain the rest of the spheres try and imprison her permanently behind the fabled Gates of Tartarus. They end up getting the princess longing for adventure (Keira Knightley) and a drifter in the wrong place at the wrong time (Paul Bettany). The group battles hordes of nasty critters as they try to complete their quest before their world is destroyed. Fantasy movies are some of the hardest to pull off. They don’t follow conventional rules and the world must be literally built from the ground up. Before “Lord of the Rings” was released to great success, fantasy movies were nowhere to be found in theaters. Writer Jag has shown complete devotion to the genre and his enthusiasm carries over into his work. There are some truly fun scenes that evoke good memories of the great battles in “Lord of the Rings” and with Peter Jackson’s visual style, I could these scenes really coming to life. However “Gates of Tartarus”, like most fantasy films offers nothing fresh or original in terms of plot. I’m dying to see someone spin the genre into something no one has seen before, taking the genre in a completely different direction. Fantasy movies seem to always involve an evil God-like villain, and a group of odd assorted characters to go on a quest to find something to stop the bad guy. The only reason “LOTR” got away with this was because it was one of the first books to introduce this type of storyline in the fantasy genre. Now, anything that comes out after it feels stale and a retread of those books and movies. Which is probably why there aren’t a lot of fantasy movies being released. Until someone figures out a way to transport the fantasy genre out of “LOTR” and “Dungeons and Dragons” plotlines, it will suffer and wilt away. Not to say “Gates of Tartarus” doesn’t have its share of exciting moments. It does, but I always had “LOTR” lingering in the back of my mind. Another trap of the fantasy genre is the dialogue in these stories. The manner of speaking is very old school English and the scenes get weighed down heavily with long expositional paragraphs about where the character came from and their biography up to that point. With their being quite a few characters, there are scenes that seem to go on forever while biographies are being told that not only go on too long, but aren’t particularly interesting. There are some humorous relationships ( I liked the student/teacher relationship between Rhigan and Kalamac) and the strong presence of Tom Cruise made the character of Harken seem more alive, but the budding romance of Aldaron and Princess Aurora was uninspired and at times, distracting and just plain silly. The idea of a princess leaving for adventure and then being allowed to fight was a bit of stretch and one that wasn’t set up well enough for suspension of disbelief. The plot for the most part moved along, although there was a long section with no action of any kind that dragged the movie down for a bit. But once the group goes after the spheres, the movie goes into high gear and delivers some good sword and sorcery action. So for die hard fans of the genre, this film gave their money’s worth. But the casual viewer may be a little lost through the journey, but still enjoy the cool visuals. “Gates of Tartarus” is a vast improvement over “Dragonsabre” and Jag is building himself a nice body of work in the fantasy department. I would be curious to see what other genres he may tackle and what he might do with a different kind of story. But for an afternoon matinee, “Gates of Tartarus” successfully takes us away from the real world for a while and provides some nice eye candy. 60/100 |
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