The dialogue and acting only meet soap-opera standards. This must have aired on TV during times when mainly teens and pre-teens were watching. While it is not a terrible film, the over-done special effects and trite style is certainly not for those expecting quality. Peter Fonda must have been paid a good amount for him to stoop to this low level, or maybe he did it with young viewers in mind.While the costumes and editing are commendable, I am perplexed how Fonda was nominated for a Golden Globe for his acting. If you are sick in bed, or a dreamy young person then this film may be for you - otherwise do not waste your time.

Holy Cow! Don't watch this unless you collect creative travesties.Superficially, this is a stew of the same persiflage usually served up on family TV: kindly voodoo projected as Luke Skywalker's Force; a protective father who goes through painful doubt; innocent pubescence; racial justice; magical help for the North during the Civil War (no lie); leavened with all sorts of minor platitudes. Probably, this is no worse than thousands of slapdash dramas. What makes this interesting, almost hypnotizing, is how it rests on the rough skeleton of Shakespeare's play. It blindly tramples, it innocently debases arguably the best play of arguably the greatest writer in English.Gosh, I cannot even describe the arbitrary transmutations used to fit this simple diorama: Arial a slave, Frederick a Union officer, Prosper a planter who learned voodoo from his slaves... it all hardly matters. One interesting thing: The Tempest was the first great work of literature about the American experience. Almost 400 years later, it still has some of the most profound and complex visions of dealing with non-Europeans, slaves and the forces of nature in the New World. All of that rich content is waiting to be leveraged, dummied down if need be. All is ignored here.It is as if the Hardy Boys were named Tom and Huck and the plot was about petty racial dramas in painting a fence. Wonderous.And Peter Fonda? This was right after the interesting Ulee's Gold, where he actually acted. No sign of that here.

I had just finished struggling through the Shakespeare play, and found the core idea of the whole thing fascinating. Shipwrecks, magic, hallucinations, a beautiful girl, the evil protaganist. When I saw the ad for a tv movie, I knew I was going to like it and I did.Katherine Heigl is one of my favorite actresses (Miranda) and she carried the role off just right. The special effects were convincing enough to not interfere with the enjoyment of the movie. My favorite part is Ariel morphing as he returns tot he ground. Plus it helped that Ariel was gorgeous.Nice work...just glad it was a tv movie or it would have gotten mauled by the critics.

Never having read or seen the Bard's original work, I can't begin to compare this work to his story. So I won't. Instead I will just say that this was a very entertaining story with some very nice special effects (and some that looked a little lower in budget, but still decent enough to enjoy). I thought all the primary actors did a fine job performing. The style of magic seemed more black than white and is almost certain to offend anyone easily upset about that sort of thing, but I thought it was well done.