Catharina_Sweden At first, I thought I was not going to like this movie. I am an old fan of the Siegfried Saga, as it is found in the Icelandic Edda, the German Hero Tales, and last but not least in Richard Wagner's wonderful opera. Being Scandinavian, I have lived with this story in some way all my life! Therefore, I do not like too many deviations from the basic story (although of course the before-mentioned original versions of it are not entirely similar either).And the makers of this movie "Curse of the Ring", have made a lot of changes. As everybody knows, Siegfried was brought up by a dwarf called Mimer, a quite unpleasant creature driven by his own egoistic motives. While "Eric" (a cover name not known in any of the original sources either) is brought up by a very good and kind human. The "twin kings" have never been heard of anywhere else, and not the meteorite either. And so on.When I began watching this movie, I did not like the main actors either. Benno Fürmann has too dark hair, and he does not have the perfect Nordic looks one associates with Siegfried. In fact, at first (I had never seen him in any production before this) I even thought he looked a little "pixie-like". A little funny - not at all godlike and superhuman. Not at all like Uwe Beyer in the 1966 movie, who could have been the real Siegfried come to life... And Kristanna Loken is really not right at all, for the ancient and wise Valkyrie in an (up till then) forever young body. She is too ordinary - there is no soul or wisdom there at all. She should instead be playing the role of a pretty girl in some high school-movie, set in present times.But as I was watching, the movie grew on me. The movie is full of splendour and magic, beautiful photo, poetic dialogue and good special effects. As a fantasy movie, and as a costume drama, if one does not care about comparing it with the original Siegfried stories, it is wonderful! And as for the Siegfried story, in the end they somehow got the "Geist" of it right after all! I even grew to like Siegfried/Fürmann, because even if he was not like the Siegfried of the dreams and myths, he was very likable and lovable and admirable in his own right, somehow... And when the movie ended, I would not have wanted any other actor, however blond or handsome or muscular, in it! :-)

Richard Archer I saw the 2 disc DVD at the store and bought it and I was not disappointed. Sure it's no LOTR (but what is? LOTR is in a class of its own) but it is superior to some other films of the genre. Like many film adaptations of literature it's easier to enjoy if you aren't familiar with the subject matter. When I first watched it I admit to only a passing knowledge of the legends of Siegfried, afterwards I read up on it so if nothing else it made me broaden my horizons.Yes, the screenplay bore precious resemblance to the original legends but there were some gems. Siegfried's challenge to the two Saxon kings is classic: "It takes more than a treasure to make a man worthy to fight a King" - "It takes more than crown to make a man BE a King".The acting was average for the most part although it was refreshing to see Max Von Sydow in a somewhat different role than normal. The Special Effects were okay for the most part and didn't look cheesy. Being a history buff it is always nice to see a reasonable effort to get some of the weapons and costumes period-correct to the point where it didn't jar sensibilities too much (it almost makes me cry to see things like late medieval dress and weapons in a 6th Century setting).Not without it's faults it is still an entertaining watch although it would really be something to see the story put in the hands of someone of Peter Jackson's caliber.

derin_halo best movie ever the movie really touched me. Never saw such awesome and beautiful movie especially about brunhilde that see had to watch her love marrying some other girl i liked there was a lot of science fiction in the movie a lot of action a big story and it was a beautiful love movie watch out here comes a spoiler!!!!!!!!!but i hated so much that siegfried had to die and siegfried couldn't remember brunhilde it broke my heart that they couldn't be together and alive so the ending actually f*cked up the movie for me i would of been so happy if that bad guy missed the spear and siegfried remembered he loves brunhilde:) sorry for the bad language

fearfulofspiders This two-part made-for-TV film claims to be the inspiration for Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, when in fact, Tolkien has proclaimed many times that the only similarity between the two is that both have a ring. Just to get to that before heading further on. Tolkien's inspirations came from all over the place, and for this trash to claim it is the main source (though not declaring itself the main, only implying) is entirely dribble.Now, Dark Kingdom is a very lackluster production, though it's easy to watch, and it makes for something good to watch when nothing else is on. I recommend watching it on TV, but if it gets to you that much that you HAVE to have it, then buy the DVD -- but be warned, the cut for the DVD is shorter than the one televised; much of the scenes that actually made this film deeper is now edited to seem more rushed, a h-u-g-e mistake on whomever the choice came from.As for the acting, Dark Kingdom is full of bad accents and monotone deliveries. From the poor job by Benno Furmann as the main hero to the ever-crying performance of Alicia Witt. Everyone else tries and tries, but all it eventually adds up to is... dull and lack of enthusiasm. Kristana Loken is okay, but she has too deep a voice to play some parts -- though she may be a barbaric queen in this film, she needs to work on her tone.The music is really overbearing at points. It takes our focus off of events so many times, that it doesn't add to the mood, but just distracts. The themes work here and there, even if it gets redundant and with little, if any, evolution in sound or composition.The ending is pathetic in terms of faithful to the source material. The story has actually been cut in half... all the deaths of everyone is fit into about 6-minutes of yelling and sword fighting. The further mishaps that occur in the writings is basically thrown out the window, so that the budget could fit in with a four-hour slot. Then why bother making it? Also, Benno Furmann's portrayal of Siegfried as he is killed by Hagan is so laughable, my sides were splitting -- which I'm hoping is the opposite affect they were going for with their audience.Overall, there's a lot that works and doesn't work in Dark Kingdom. While the film has some nice visual effects, the story as a whole is too rushed and trimmed to provide any satisfaction as to what this truly could've achieved in terms of being better. This is really a film worth watching when nothing else is on or as background noise, so I'd only recommend it to you under those conditions.