In terms of cinematography, directing and overall production, this was quite impressive for being a Swedish creation (and I should know because I'm a Swede myself). Unfortunately I haven't read any of the books by Jan Guillou, but after seeing this I kind of wish I had now,… More
In terms of cinematography, directing and overall production, this was quite impressive for being a Swedish creation (and I should know because I'm a Swede myself). Unfortunately I haven't read any of the books by Jan Guillou, but after seeing this I kind of wish I had now, since the story of the knight templar Arn, turned out to be more intriguing than I had first anticipated.
The movie also depicts a piece of ancient swedish history, which became the most prominent selling point for me really, as it's an era I personally don't know that much about. It made for an interesting watch, and made up for the abundance of clichés found in the script. I was also very fond of the music score, as it reminded me a lot of the work by Howard Shore. Not as memorable perhaps, but ear candy nonetheless.
On the negative side, however, there were a lot of things that weighed down my final rating for this film. The first of which being the obvious lack of action. Most of the scenes were also annoyingly blabbery, which would have been fine if the dialogue was well-written, but since it was of very banal nature, I often found myself impatiently waiting for swords to be drawn and horses to be ridden into battle, rather than paying heed to anything the characters had to say.
As for the few action-scenes it had, well, they were pretty much over before they ever had the chance to become exciting, which is not all too surprising considering the director's lack of experience with big-budget productions. Still a decent and worthwhile film on the whole though, even if it's hardly something I'd wanna watch again.