As for the talent, I was thinking by the end of it, who isn't in this flik? Oh just Jason Stathman, Burt Reynolds, Ron Perlman, Leelee Sobieski, Brian J. White, Matthew Lillard, and Kristanna Loken to name a few. Oh yeah lest I forget John Rhys-Davies and Ray Liotta as some kick-ass wizards.
And as for effects, I loved it. The wizardly magicks are CGI but the effects do not obscure the actors. There is a logic to the spells and the magic overall that makes sense to fantasy literature fans as well as role-players, I hear we have couple of both sorts around here. The orks, called "crucks," or some such, are just made to be beaten, stabbed, and split apart, but not just cannon fodder for say an elf on skate-board and whirling dervish of ghosts in tow.
The battle scenes make the film for me. No grand epic full of CGI textures. No parts of armies seen in the terrain in which they'd be fighting. Sure it helps make 100 guys with a catering truck nearby look like a cast of thousands, but it also how most campaigns have been seen 90% of the time by those that experienced them. And you could just feel the heat, wood splinters, and later the mud of battle. But to keep spiffy, Burt Reynolds had a corps of ninja-guards! The sword fights work well, Brian J. White and Matthew Lillard had a very, very good sequence...
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Tags: FantasyFlix PerytonGamers
