Out of all the films starring Sean Connery in his senior years, this is by far the worst one. A big shame, especially since most of his senior age films are actually excellent, and all are definitely good viewing and recommendable.
Before viewing this film, I checked out the IMDb User ratings, Main details, and Plot summary. The plot seemed contrived and artificial, but typical of this genre -- if the film is well done it could still be enjoyable.
Turns out it wasn't. The impression I got when seeing the movie was, the director must have been inexperienced and young, and the producers must have had some quarrels along the way. Connery being out of this young director's league didn't help at all: Connery just plays Connery, without even touching the character he's playing.
The film relies heavily on Computer Generated Imagery, but even there the result is erratic at best. For example, there's a scene with a hit submarine. While the sea and the submarine look like a billion dollar rendering farm, the smoke coming out of it looks like the guy-next-door's first shot at 3D-effects For Dummies.
One should of course park his brain in the coat hanger before viewing this sort of "light comedy with 'supernatural' heroes". The line between where you can distort 'reality' and where you can't, is often a line drawn in water. But some things just belong to one or the other. The director not seeing this difference makes the viewer squirm -- brain in the hanger or not.
For example, a nuclear submarine in the 1800's is a Plot Device, and therefore OK, even if everybody knows it's plain impossible. On the other hand, driving a 300 yard, 10-story submarine in the canals of Venice, is stretching the viewer's patience. Equally, there's a shot from the pier of a house which the submarine is passing in the canal, and at a speed of 30mph this colossus makes waves only 6 inches high.
I'll refrain from other blatant examples, in order to avoid a Spoiler status for this review.
There are major fighting scenes every ten minutes of the film. While often gratuitous, or prolonged, the violence itself is more "bloodless" than even Harry Potter. So this is OK viewing for your pre-teens. What disturbs grown up viewers is that the balance between plot and fighting scenes falls increasingly off balance along the film. The last half-hour is mostly fighting, with little plot included -- except for the story quirks that end up coming faster and faster, presumably to keep the viewer from guessing ahead.
Hollywood seems to have a habit of gathering the least talented, most ignorant morons, and giving them vast sums of money -- if the genre is Light Comedy, and even worse, if it is Fantasy+SciFi+Comedy. Combine this with a Celebrity Crew, and you have all the makings of a flop. (Which I hear the film actually was.)
Before viewing this film, I checked out the IMDb User ratings, Main details, and Plot summary. The plot seemed contrived and artificial, but typical of this genre -- if the film is well done it could still be enjoyable.
Turns out it wasn't. The impression I got when seeing the movie was, the director must have been inexperienced and young, and the producers must have had some quarrels along the way. Connery being out of this young director's league didn't help at all: Connery just plays Connery, without even touching the character he's playing.
The film relies heavily on Computer Generated Imagery, but even there the result is erratic at best. For example, there's a scene with a hit submarine. While the sea and the submarine look like a billion dollar rendering farm, the smoke coming out of it looks like the guy-next-door's first shot at 3D-effects For Dummies.
One should of course park his brain in the coat hanger before viewing this sort of "light comedy with 'supernatural' heroes". The line between where you can distort 'reality' and where you can't, is often a line drawn in water. But some things just belong to one or the other. The director not seeing this difference makes the viewer squirm -- brain in the hanger or not.
For example, a nuclear submarine in the 1800's is a Plot Device, and therefore OK, even if everybody knows it's plain impossible. On the other hand, driving a 300 yard, 10-story submarine in the canals of Venice, is stretching the viewer's patience. Equally, there's a shot from the pier of a house which the submarine is passing in the canal, and at a speed of 30mph this colossus makes waves only 6 inches high.
I'll refrain from other blatant examples, in order to avoid a Spoiler status for this review.
There are major fighting scenes every ten minutes of the film. While often gratuitous, or prolonged, the violence itself is more "bloodless" than even Harry Potter. So this is OK viewing for your pre-teens. What disturbs grown up viewers is that the balance between plot and fighting scenes falls increasingly off balance along the film. The last half-hour is mostly fighting, with little plot included -- except for the story quirks that end up coming faster and faster, presumably to keep the viewer from guessing ahead.
Hollywood seems to have a habit of gathering the least talented, most ignorant morons, and giving them vast sums of money -- if the genre is Light Comedy, and even worse, if it is Fantasy+SciFi+Comedy. Combine this with a Celebrity Crew, and you have all the makings of a flop. (Which I hear the film actually was.)
