I have never seen a movie with such an overuse of voice-off. At least 10 times (and I am not exaggerating) there is some guy mumbling about "Krabat doing this, Krabat doing that..." Sometimes stuff that could have been easily displayed in some scenery, for example "Krabat is hardworking, others are lazy...this guy right here, he is very strict" Fine shut up already and just show it. A Narrating voice from the off should be used sparely and mostly to give interesting information or meaningful insight. As a part of narration, a stylistic element, not as a substitute of narration, which I call lazy and bad filmmaking.
Speaking about that, the fighting scenes were filmed and cut so poorly that it was a pain to watch. I thought they are disappointing at best, especially for a film that wants to be epic. It takes more than a shaky cam to create a good fighting scenery.
And thats the next thing: the film tries hard to be epic, but fails hard in achieving it. The story is not that bad, nor are the actors, but I think Krabat would have been much better if produced as a TV series. The source material would have been perfect.
Some young men who are ordinary apprentice lads are getting trained to become powerful wizards. This training should be interesting, you may think, but yawn all we see are some guys with wooden staffs. There is no exciting arc for the characters, Krabat and the others don't seem to change very much, even since they are wizards.
And what is there motive? Why is Krabat even there? Because he followed a raven? I know he shook the hand of the sorcerer and now he is bound to him, but why does the sorcerer train all this young lads? For what purpose? What is his plan... is it for fun or does he want to achieve something? So many questions, so less answers.
At some point I didn't care anymore, I am sure there is an answer somewhere, but it is not illustrated very well in this film.
Overall a waste of good actors and a potentially great TV series.
3/10
Speaking about that, the fighting scenes were filmed and cut so poorly that it was a pain to watch. I thought they are disappointing at best, especially for a film that wants to be epic. It takes more than a shaky cam to create a good fighting scenery.
And thats the next thing: the film tries hard to be epic, but fails hard in achieving it. The story is not that bad, nor are the actors, but I think Krabat would have been much better if produced as a TV series. The source material would have been perfect.
Some young men who are ordinary apprentice lads are getting trained to become powerful wizards. This training should be interesting, you may think, but yawn all we see are some guys with wooden staffs. There is no exciting arc for the characters, Krabat and the others don't seem to change very much, even since they are wizards.
And what is there motive? Why is Krabat even there? Because he followed a raven? I know he shook the hand of the sorcerer and now he is bound to him, but why does the sorcerer train all this young lads? For what purpose? What is his plan... is it for fun or does he want to achieve something? So many questions, so less answers.
At some point I didn't care anymore, I am sure there is an answer somewhere, but it is not illustrated very well in this film.
Overall a waste of good actors and a potentially great TV series.
3/10