Mario Dati (ThePiousPatriot) Less of a budget than LOTR, and less of a story as well, is why this movie is only worth 5 stars. Yet, I still enjoyed this one. Although the story is slightly lacking, its not bad, and it's different enough to not feel like you're watching the same genre film rehashed. The action sequences aren't bad either. Some of these movies have bad acting to blame as their downfall, but I felt the acting was somewhat fair compared to other movies with this budget. Not too much else to say about this one without spoiling the story, except that fans of this genre will enjoy this film. I sure did. P.S. The main character is beautiful, and can hold her own in a fight! 5 Stars

Sodindo Banana Awesome. As good as cheap gets, in my opinion.Admittedly, the rating is overwhelmingly due to the chick protagonist because 1) she's hot, 2) she's hot in a slightly exotic way, and 3) she puts on better fight choreography than just about anybody I've seen in *any* movie, low budget or not. Casting above & beyond the rest, really.As for the rest of the movie, at least serious effort was made to make it look good... in fact, much of it was just plain beautiful. Which kind of kills the rationalizations that people are making for some of the sub-par crap being wheeled out in the new Star Wars cash cow of a steamroller, for example (apparently $200,000,000 wasn't enough to iron out the kinks on some of their rushed effects).So yeah, the story is irrelevant and plenty of it looks *beyond* dopey, but you really couldn't ask for much more from such a comparatively minor project.

paladin-70605 I am writing this in 2015 and Arrowstorm Entertainment as well as Splendid Films (Mainstay Productions for this piece) are getting a reputation for being masters of good, low-budget films. One of their first films was this piece, SAGA: Curse of the Shadow, which is a story of a rebellious bounty hunter she-elf that finds herself, unwittingly at first, within the mix of a motley crew (paladin and orc) that ends up saving the world while looking past their differences and becoming the best of friends. Yes, it is low budget so the CG, by today's standards, is sub-par. But, if watchers can get out of their visual-dependent box and take in all that matters in terms of movies, then this movie certainly stacks up to be... dare I say, "excellent"? I never thought I would like B-movies until I saw the several from Splendid films and Arrowstorm Entertainment. SAGA: Curse of the Shadow has a strong storyline, solid character development, well-done environments/scenery, REALLY good soundtrack (and they mix the music well). The music by Panu Aaltio really adds a lot to this piece. I highly recommend this film if you are out to be entertained. That is what movies really are for, aren't they?

houseofjames Having watched pretty much every fantasy film ever made, Curse of the Shadow is surprisingly good. Although fairly low-budget, with no major actors to speak of, it makes up for this with extremely good photography, outstanding make-up effects and exciting action scenes. The effects are also quite good. Vivid CGI depicts dragons, wyverns and other fantastic beasts.Dialogue is a stilted at times and the simplistic story becomes overly complicated. The story could have used more fleshing out and less annoying dialogue scenes that just stand to pad out of the story. Danielle Chuchran is surely and one-note as the elven bounty hunter, while most of the film's genuine moments come from Richard McWilliams as the cleric warrior. American actors seem to be unable to take this type of fantasy seriously and end up looking like they are in a bad LARP adventure.All in all, this movie was reasonably entertaining. Well crafted and done with obvious affection for the genre. Check it out if you have a chance.