Catharina_Sweden At first, I thought I was not going to like this movie. I am an old fan of the Siegfried Saga, as it is found in the Icelandic Edda, the German Hero Tales, and last but not least in Richard Wagner's wonderful opera. Being Scandinavian, I have lived with this story in some way all my life! Therefore, I do not like too many deviations from the basic story (although of course the before-mentioned original versions of it are not entirely similar either).And the makers of this movie "Curse of the Ring", have made a lot of changes. As everybody knows, Siegfried was brought up by a dwarf called Mimer, a quite unpleasant creature driven by his own egoistic motives. While "Eric" (a cover name not known in any of the original sources either) is brought up by a very good and kind human. The "twin kings" have never been heard of anywhere else, and not the meteorite either. And so on.When I began watching this movie, I did not like the main actors either. Benno Fürmann has too dark hair, and he does not have the perfect Nordic looks one associates with Siegfried. In fact, at first (I had never seen him in any production before this) I even thought he looked a little "pixie-like". A little funny - not at all godlike and superhuman. Not at all like Uwe Beyer in the 1966 movie, who could have been the real Siegfried come to life... And Kristanna Loken is really not right at all, for the ancient and wise Valkyrie in an (up till then) forever young body. She is too ordinary - there is no soul or wisdom there at all. She should instead be playing the role of a pretty girl in some high school-movie, set in present times.But as I was watching, the movie grew on me. The movie is full of splendour and magic, beautiful photo, poetic dialogue and good special effects. As a fantasy movie, and as a costume drama, if one does not care about comparing it with the original Siegfried stories, it is wonderful! And as for the Siegfried story, in the end they somehow got the "Geist" of it right after all! I even grew to like Siegfried/Fürmann, because even if he was not like the Siegfried of the dreams and myths, he was very likable and lovable and admirable in his own right, somehow... And when the movie ended, I would not have wanted any other actor, however blond or handsome or muscular, in it! :-)

shardofmany 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.

fearfulofspiders This two-part made-for-TV film claims to be the inspiration for Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, when in fact, Tolkien has proclaimed many times that the only similarity between the two is that both have a ring. Just to get to that before heading further on. Tolkien's inspirations came from all over the place, and for this trash to claim it is the main source (though not declaring itself the main, only implying) is entirely dribble.Now, Dark Kingdom is a very lackluster production, though it's easy to watch, and it makes for something good to watch when nothing else is on. I recommend watching it on TV, but if it gets to you that much that you HAVE to have it, then buy the DVD -- but be warned, the cut for the DVD is shorter than the one televised; much of the scenes that actually made this film deeper is now edited to seem more rushed, a h-u-g-e mistake on whomever the choice came from.As for the acting, Dark Kingdom is full of bad accents and monotone deliveries. From the poor job by Benno Furmann as the main hero to the ever-crying performance of Alicia Witt. Everyone else tries and tries, but all it eventually adds up to is... dull and lack of enthusiasm. Kristana Loken is okay, but she has too deep a voice to play some parts -- though she may be a barbaric queen in this film, she needs to work on her tone.The music is really overbearing at points. It takes our focus off of events so many times, that it doesn't add to the mood, but just distracts. The themes work here and there, even if it gets redundant and with little, if any, evolution in sound or composition.The ending is pathetic in terms of faithful to the source material. The story has actually been cut in half... all the deaths of everyone is fit into about 6-minutes of yelling and sword fighting. The further mishaps that occur in the writings is basically thrown out the window, so that the budget could fit in with a four-hour slot. Then why bother making it? Also, Benno Furmann's portrayal of Siegfried as he is killed by Hagan is so laughable, my sides were splitting -- which I'm hoping is the opposite affect they were going for with their audience.Overall, there's a lot that works and doesn't work in Dark Kingdom. While the film has some nice visual effects, the story as a whole is too rushed and trimmed to provide any satisfaction as to what this truly could've achieved in terms of being better. This is really a film worth watching when nothing else is on or as background noise, so I'd only recommend it to you under those conditions.

TdSmth5 I was absolutely mesmerized by this movie- despite the unnecessarily distracting hair cut given to the male lead that makes him look just too girly. In any case, I was not familiar with the works that inspired this movie but was completely captivated by the story of love, the fulfillment of anticipation, and deceit. I would have like to have seen more of the conflict between the old Norse religion and the new Christianity since that seems to be the important background for the story and is mentioned in the final two lines of the movie. Kristanna Loken is always a pleasure to watch and I wish the movie would have focused a little bit more on her and the lives of Icelanders. I was expecting some below B level movie but the it's well realized. This is a great epic with a great story and good performances. I did not want it to end. I wish there were more movies about the pre-Christian European peoples.