Freelancer490
I recently came across this movie and being a big sword and sorcery fan had to give it a look. Apparently it's based on comic which I wasn't aware of, but you don't need to have read it or even heard of it to take in the story. Overall while it was never going to win any awards, I thought it was fun, light hearted adventure. It had some good action scenes and some nice looking scenery. The violence is fairly tame, so you don't have to worry if you're squeamish. There are a couple plot holes, the most obvious is the "worm" that appears several times during the movie. Most notably at the end but didn't really add anything and could probably have been ditched altogether without affecting the story at all. The actors were never going to especially challenged, but the main hero is suitably heroic, the sidekicks are have their own moments of glory and provide some comedic relief and the Viking Princess was suitably feisty. The villains are fairly generic, but provide enough of a danger to make you wonder how things will pan out. I wasn't expecting much, but the movie kept my interest right the way through. This movie isn't going to change any lives, but if you're a sword and sorcery fan, it's a harmless way to fill in 90 minutes.
ma-cortes
The film begins in Holy Land , 1291 , during 3º crusade , and Acre siege , where occurs a battle between Richard Lionheart and Saladin . There happens an attack on a Muslim fortress , where are incarcerated Crispin (Lamana) and Goliath (Manuel Martínez) and Goliath , both of whom are freed by Capitan Trueno (Sergio Peris Mencheta). In the castle Trueno fights Sir Black (Gary Piquer) , his hoodlum (Ramon Langa) and meets his subsequent eternal dame , Sigrid of Thule (Natasha Yarovenko), an energetic Viking princess who takes part in many of the adventures of the trio . Trueno also meets an old prisoner , Juan de Ribera (Francisco Merino) , who gives him the holy grail . Later on , King Richard Lionheart (Luis Fernando Alvés) assigns him to return Spain with Sigrid and investigate strange events , including terrifying plagues and invasion by the Black Devils . In Spanish lands , Trueno , Crispin , Goliath along with the Arab Hassan (Asier Etxeandia) contend again their old enemy Sir Black supported by a nasty witch and other dark forces . At the end takes place a spectacular confrontation and surprising appearance by Morgano (Alejandro Jornet) and his flying balloon . This medieval adventure packs noisy action , thrills , sword-cross and gorgeous outdoors . This is a homage based on popular Spanish comic books dealing with a 12th-century knight-errant who wanders the world fighting injustice and is accompanied by his faithful companions Crispin and Goliath . Capitán Trueno and his friends travel the whole world enforcing justice and freedom against bullies and tyrants, never using more violence than necessary . His eternal dame is Sigrid of Thule, a beautiful blonde Viking princess of Thule , Norway , she is Ragnar's daughter , an overthrown king . However , this picture doesn't follow faithfully the original canon , including several fantastic elements , witchery , demons and many other things that don't appear on the classical comic books . Colorful and evocative cinematography filmed on location in Calzada De Calatrava, Ciudad Real, Lagunas de Ruidera, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, Buñol, Yátova, Xeraco ,Valencia, Chulilla and Ciudad de la Luz, Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana . Atmospheric as well as thrilling musical score by Luis Ivars . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Antonio Hernandez . Antonio is a good craftsman , writer , producer and occasionally actor . Antonio Hernández -whose first film, 1979's F.E.N., is one of those never praised enough hidden masterpieces of Spanish cinema- is expert on all kind of genres , such as comedy : ¨Apaga y Vamonos¨ , ¨Como Levantar 1000 Kilos¨ , ¨Menor de Males¨ , Historical¨: ¨Los Borgia¨ , and Thriller : ¨Oculto¨ , ¨Lisboa¨ , ¨The city of no limits¨ in which Antonio proves to be a very courageous auteur . And he also directs TV series such as ¨Tarancon¨ , ¨Sofia¨ and ¨Dias sin Luz¨ . El Capitán Trueno or "Captain Thunder" was the hero of a series of Spanish comic books, created in 1956 by the writer Víctor Mora and illustrated mainly by Miguel Ambrosio Zaragoza (Ambrós). The comics were published continuously between 1956 and 1968, eventually becoming the most popular Spanish hero comic of all times: at its height it sold more than 170,000 copies every week. The series was inspired by Hal Foster's Prince Valiant. The main cartoonists were the followings : Ambros , Fuentes Mann , Beaumont , Feliz Carrion , Jesus Blasco and Luis Bermejo . The series suffered some limited censorship during the dictatorship. Censors were concerned, for example, that Capitán Trueno and Sigrid were traveling around the world unburdened by matrimonial ties . Portions of the comic books have also been published in several Latin American countries, Italy , Greece, Portugal and France.
dbdumonteil
Based,like many French or American movies of today on a comic strip;I have never read it ,but the movie belongs to another era :the late fifties and the early sixties .All the cardboard characters we have seen a hundred times or more, are present: the dashing handsome prince ,the gorgeous (good) princess,the bad sadistic woman (a touch of racism here maybe) ,the poor people overburden with taxes (scenes taken by force from Robin Hood),the traitor,the would be comic relief provided by a giant named Goliath,always stuffing himself with food,his sidekick ,a midget;and to top it all, right in the middle of the crusades, help is on the way in the shape of a Muslim!Maybe words of wisdom for our troubled times ! The movie begins with historic pretensions ,but quickly opts for a poor man's heroic fantasy;there are as many plot holes as in Swiss cheese and,after this far-fetched tale, we can only be satisfied that the holy Grail is left in good hands.As the prince swears to his mentor he 'll always side with the underdog ,they might make a sequel.
rodricresp
Cheese everywhere. But not exactly a funny piece of cheese. The acting is flat out terrible. Peris-Mencheta as Capitán Trueno is awful, but compared to the actors portraying Crispín and Goliath... well, he takes the lead. Yeah, I know these two characters are intended to provide comic relief. They don't. The sexual tension between these two hero sidekicks is the only funny part in this. The plot is silly. C'mon, a giant worm shown all along the movie (both in Spain and Holy Land!) as a not very subtle red herring, only to appear as stupid deux ex machina impersonation at the end to kill the villain? The villains are actually cheesy fun, both the witch and the main antagonist, unlike the heroes who are just plain lame. The acting of the gorgeous Natasha Yarovenko as Sigrid goes downhill during the movie. I usually enjoy bad movies a lot, but the acting here kills it for me. Sure, I concede that there is some effort behind the movie. The cinematography is OK, the CGI are passable and the costume designs are pretty good. . This movie took a lot of time to be released, so I think they worked hard to get the budget needed for this stuff, but they seemed to forget the important details. You know... like acting?
