Brotherhood of the Wolf
This film just seemed bloated to me, though admittedly I was watching the Director's Cut, and sometimes that is a chance for the Director to indulge in all the scenes that were cut out of the theatrical cut for damned good reasons. I mean, the film is titled Brotherhood of the Wolf, and then the existence of such a brotherhood is treated as some sort of shock 2/3 of the way in? It has a few other obvious plot reveals, I mean there is no way that the guy who brags about how he uses a unique bullet to mark his kills would be revealed by his bullet later in the movie, is there?
And the romantic elements seem to be introduced just as an excuse for some witty banter or else to provide a convenient furthering of a plot point rather than any particular viability, which makes it easy for them to be ignored for large sections of the movie. On the whole the film just tries to be too epic, with too many elaborate false ends that add very little. The cinematography captures its self-import in the battle scenes where slow motion is used nearly to the point of satire...battle scenes that feel right out of Prince of Persia (whose film adaptation will probably incorporate a lot of these techniques) with its repetitive, nameless hordes. It was all big and grandiose, but did not add up to anything for me.