SYNOPSICS
Dark Relic (2010) is a English movie. Lorenzo Sena has directed this movie. James Frain,Clemency Burton-Hill,Tom Basden,Alyy Khan are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2010. Dark Relic (2010) is considered one of the best Fantasy,Horror movie in India and around the world.
The Holy Land, 1099AD. The end of the first Crusade. When the conflict began, Christian knight Sir Gregory lead over a hundred men, but now less than ten remain. They include his squire Paul, a friar named George, and the arrogant Sir Robert. George and Sir Gregory discover a holy relic - a fragment of the True Cross and embark on a journey to Rome, to present the relic to the Pope. En route the ship they charter runs aground, their crew dead. Continuing their journey overland, the knights come across three Turkish warriors (two swordsmen and a female archer) and two pilgrims (a woman named Rebecca and an unnamed man) being attacked by bandits. The knights rush to their aid, and after a brief fight all the bandits are killed. They insist on accompanying Sir Gregory and his men on their journey, and the pilgrims also join the group. That night, the male pilgrim and one of the knights both go missing. Many other unfortunate things begin to occur to the group and Sir Gregory realizes ...
Dark Relic (2010) Reviews
Dull relic
Probably looked good on paper. A legend about the crucifix surviving until medieval times, some knights on a quest to find and secure it, and some demonic plagues besetting the knights. Lots of action, story, and special effects about supernatural power; right? Wrong. A rag-tag group of people are thrown together on this Indy Jones type relic hunt that argue about everything, from spirituality to the best brand of toothpaste. Argue, argue, argue. It gets annoying real fast, and one can only hope they have a sword battle that shuts them all up permanently. The premise held potential, but is hopelessly obscured behind this foolishness. You could watch one of those cable TV political argument shows and get the same thing.
What a waste of time and talent (some spoilers)
When I saw James Frain (from the Tudors series), I thought this might rise above most SyFy dreck. In some ways it does since the special effects aren't always terrible and some of the acting is almost good. The story is very weak, at times incoherent and it's likely to offend some. Continuity errors abound and reaction shots are laughable at times. Spoilers: one of the worst effects is the CGI wolves that attack the party in the woods. I'm pretty sure you could animate a better wolf at home with free software than this. The demon is generally nearly as realistic as he was in the video game Diablo II but it's size seems to vary a great deal depending on the shot. The premise is very odd in that the Holy Cross, a religious relic that has traditionally been thought to be beneficial is somehow tainted and causes the demon(s) to follow and attack the party carrying it from the Crusades, sometimes preceding them somehow to possess monks etc. The fact it's immune to a crucifix but susceptible to a talisman the Muslim warrior (Alyy Khan) carries seems a tad offensive. The Cross is evil, the Muslim talisman is holy - what message are they trying to send? In typical fashion, after the non-whites have saved the "hero" many times they're struck down in a very ignominious way and for no real reason other than to leave the stage clear for the hero. Just to show they can't be consistent, the tainted relic of the Cross is then shoved down the demon's throat to destroy him which thoroughly muddles things in time for a very abrupt ending. Even for free this is worthless unless you like to make fun of bad movies with your friends. Some talented actors were wasted here.
A religious debate group in halloween costumes
I give this flick a two because of the good idea. Finding a part of the real cross and being attacked by demons, could have been a good story. But ... At the first pictures of the movie you see crusaders after the war in clean cloth, with clean faces and fingernails. Well thats the point where you have to realize that it will be something like a lame Scifi channel production. But it gets worse. The discussions are what makes this movie really unrealistic. From the beginning of the movie everybody permanently tells the crusaders that the crusade maybe was a bad idea and it may not have been a holy war. When this the first time happens i got a smile on my face because i thought: All right heretic, that were your last words and now the slaughtering starts. But the crusaders in this movie are real open minded. They are open to discuss everything. Its allowed to call the crusade a bad idea all the time, its allowed to tell them that muslims and christians are basically the same religion and it is also allowed to tell them that Jesus was not the son of god. They are fine with all of that. The Muslim warrior which joins them later is also open for all this questions. The crusaders and the Muslim warrior do not have any problems with each other because ... the war is over. Oh, by the way. Now and then some bad made CGI creatures appear and disturb their discussion. I did not watch the movie to the end. If i want to see a hypocritical debate about religion which includes some ugly creatures, then i just will watch the next TV debate about this subject. So what is this all about? It seems like someone wanted to make a movie about religious tolerance between muslims, cristians and atheists based on the example of a happy group of crusaders and Muslim warriors. Well, good for him. But next time he should show this to his left wing lesbian vegetarian discussion group in private and do not publish it and steal 1,5 hours of the live time of fantasy movie fans.
Awful, and not even in a fun way.
I couldn't sit through it. Special effects looked like my Nintendo 64, which is unacceptable for a 2010 movie. They were seriously laughable, like what you would see in a movie half way through post-production. The writing was predictable and unrealistic (supernatural beings aside), the dialogue was forced and awkward, the acting was mostly mediocre, and the photography looked amateurish. I chose it because I assumed the fact that James Frain was in it meant that the movie was at least well done. I enjoyed his acting in The Tudors and The Cape, but obviously he just jumped at not being cast as the bad guy for once. Terrible. Don't watch it. I meant to give it half a star, but unfortunately that's not an option.
Criss cross
I cannot believe I sat through this whole thing, but that's how bored I was before -- mercifully -- having to head off to work Sunday afternoon. Tepid tale about a group of knights carrying home a piece of the one true cross at the end of one of the Crusades. Unfortunately, this piece of wood attracts a demon, which in turn unleashes various plagues on them, including assaults by dead birds, wolves and bats -- or maybe they were locusts. It was hard to tell. Most of the time, the soldiers and others they meet along the way just stand around and talk. And talk. And then stand around some more. The demon is on screen for a few seconds in the middle and then for a couple of minutes at the end, but clearly this is where the majority of the movie's budget went. The film is just another in the endless stream of bad Sci-Fi Channel CGI creature features. The acting is not as bad as the dialog, thank God, but we do have to suffer listening to accents that range from veddy British to straight outta Brooklyn. What a waste. The occasional sword fights are clumsily staged, and the final battle with the demon is even worse. A brief sequence involving possessed monks in a monastery looks like it was pieced together from outtakes from Sam Raimi's ARMY OF DARKNESS. I am giving this dreadful flick a 2 instead of a 1 for the two very hot-looking babes who accompany the ragtag band of soldiers. It doesn't say here, but clearly this was shot in either Canada or Romania. Same difference. Boring scenery, bad mix of accents. By the way, instead of watching this, catch the Hollywood oldie-but-moldy, THE MAGIC SWORD (aka ST. GEORGE AND THE SEVEN CURSES). It has a similar plot and is a heckuva lot more entertaining and fun.