jackasstrange My goodness. How the producers of this film could dare to slap our faces so hardly. Seriously. Apart from the fact that it can be single-handed the most painfully watching experience that i've ever had, there is nothing to remember about this film. Quite the opposite, actually. Or not. It's badness transcended the levels of the acceptable to any human stand through, so it maybe had hurt my brain and left in it forever a scar that will always remember me how was hard and painfully to watch this abomination.The plot is awful,awful,awful. It has no signs of any connection between the events which pops out at every two minutes in the film.The plot also don't has a premise, and even less a definite direction. It don't has any objectives. Pointless, in other words. The story makes no sense, the character development is non-existent.. Yeah. This, is in a short resume, a film totally slow and with almost two hours of pointless scenes which leads to nothing. And again, non- sense. I can't think in anything worse than a boring and nonsense film.A good thing about this film would be the cinematography. It's great, really very good, it inspiration in baroque paintings is evident. But even the cinematography is a bit messed. The lightning sometimes don't correspond to the ambient. Being said, this film is so atrocious that nothing can't save it,anyways.Do yourself a favor and avoid this film, unless if you want to appreciate the good cinematography of the film. If that is the case, just watch a few scenes.2.6/10

ArchStanton1862 This movie is a deeply disappointing one because it feels like it could have been great and yet it barely achieves mediocre. The acting is great, lead by Viggo Mortenson as the title character. Apparently his accent is off and he sounds strange to Spanish speakers, but since I don't know any Spanish it didn't affect me one way or the other. The cinematography is superb, reminding me of nothing so much as the Spanish renaissance paintings that it seems to be imitating. Occasionally this leads to overly staged scenes, such as the surrender of Breda where everyone poses as they did in Velasquez's famous painting, but more often it achieves a rare level of beauty. The story, or what little I can make of it, is solid if dense. Essentially, the movie gets everything perfect except one thing. The script.I understand that they were adapting a series of novels but did they have to combine them all into one film? Couldn't they have spread them out some? Even if they never finished the series they could have gotten a few solid pictures out of doing that. As it is the film is a jumbled mess. You never get to understand any of the characters as they simply react to things in ways that don't make sense. Why did Inigo decide to kill his lover's uncle? Why did Alatriste change his mind about marrying his? They don't explain either of these things, and those questions are just the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps someone who read the books will know these answers but you shouldn't have to read the books to understand the movie. Characters come and go without any reasons or motivations. Alatriste meets someone who he seems to get along with, and then later he seems to truly hate him for no reason. Incidentally, there are too many characters to keep track of. Especially since everyone looks alike in those beards.The other major problem with the writing is in the way events are connected. Scenes follow each other rapidly that have no connection with each other. Again, this all comes from trying to include too much. They jump from Flanders to Madrid, then back to Flanders, then Madrid (But ten years later), then somewhere on the coast, and finally back in Flanders again. At the end of the movie the two main characters are civilians in Madrid and then it suddenly cuts to them in military uniforms with a subtitle reading "Battle of Rocroi, 1643." No explanation is given either to how they got there or why that battle mattered at all. In fact, there is never any context given throughout the film. You get the impression through dialog that Spain's empire is failing but you never understand why or how. Again, Spanish students might know all of this like the back of their hand but nobody who hasn't studied this period will understand any of it. In short, this movie is near perfect except for an absolutely rotten script that ruins everything.

kewos I've read every single book of Arturo Perez Reverte's novel and when I noticed there all them will resume in just one movie I was afraid of the results. To those who haven't read imagine Peter Jackson would have made just one move instead of the trilogy. The result is obviously wouldn't have been the same.Apart this I wanted to watch it cause so far is been the most expensive movie ever made in Spanish history (around 32$ millions) and wanted to see what we are capable of. It seems we have to improve a lot. Actors are great, the portrayal of Madrid in the 16th century is amazing (for a Spanish movie). Although I missed more open shots or panoramic which could show us Madrid more detailed Madrid. As the 5 novels are concentrated in 120 min sometimes is difficult to follow the plot or it lost strengh. Casting is OK but I think it could have been better with less well known Spanish actors as some of them have just 5 lines and I start to understand were all that budget went to.In conclusion it's a watchable but obviously is not a piece of art. As a first attempt for the Spanish industry to make an epic and a worldwide known movie is a so-so beguining. Hopefully it will improve next time. It will keep you entertained but don't expect high heroic deeds. 6/10

dbborroughs Viggo Mortensen stars as the veteran soldier and brawler in this Spanish language adaptation of the novels by Arturo Pérez-Revete. As the film opens Alatriste has been asked by a dying friend to raise his son when he returns from the war. Back in Madrid Alatriste begins to care for young Íñigo Balboa while trying to earn a buck as a hired sword. Quickly things are set in motion as Íñigo spies the girl who will haunt his life and the good captain gets involved with some intrigue that will play out over the next decades.I like what I've read of the first book and my enjoyment of that made me go out and pick up an import DVD of the film. What I had seen prior to actually watching the entire film made me think that this was film that got the look and feel of the novel right. Now that I've seen the entire film I can honestly say that the film looks and feels exactly as I had pictured it my mind. We are in Spain and Flanders and everywhere else in the seventeenth century. This is a gorgeous film to look at.The performances are dead on and everyone seems to inhabit the their roles. Viggo is excellent as Alatriste and I can think of no one who could do it better. He's a wonder to watch in both the dramatic scenes as well as the numerous sword fights and action sequences (which are excellent) The problem is that the script doesn't work. I mean it really doesn't work. Pulling material from several novels there is no plot as such. Things happen, people come and go; and then we're on to the next episode. I kept waiting for things to tie themselves together and they never did. There is no sustained drama, its incidents in the life of Alatriste.The result is what should be emotional high points and hooks just sort of lay there..The romances of Alatriste and his actress paramour (wife of a good friend) appears in fits and starts. The other romance of Inigo and Angélica skips through the tale in such away that nothing is ever resolved and you have no idea what they see in each other.(certainly her early lines about keeping Alatriste alive to raise the boy for some grand plot comes to naught.) We skid through the life and times of the Captain to no clear purpose. It might have helped had the film had the same sort of narration that the novels do, the stories are told from Inigo's point of view, since it might have been used to bridge the many "What am I missing"moments.Who's idea was to do all of the books in one 140 minute movie? It was a major mistake and it makes the entire enterprise feel as though it was three days long. The movie doesn't end it just stops, which kind of makes sense since the movie is so bland and flat there is no way it could ever have a climax since it never builds to anything.(even if the sequences them selves-like the opening attack in and out of the water are mini masterpieces) A major disappointment. I can't recommend this. Its simply too dull to be much more than a sleep aide.4 out of 10 over all.(higher in parts)