Totally cliché'd.From the first scenes we see scarcely clad girls running over the cat-ways drawn up for some inconceivable reason... warlords... spell-casters. Well, city of Galiad looks impressive, but it cannot make this hotchpotch the authentic Russian fantasy, as it was presented.I couldn't hold back the smile seeing our protagonist acquiring his party of comic relief characters... But than... 'Twin Gods'!!! It made me literally ROFL! From that point I've been in state of bliss and happily didn't die from boredom as final boss scene was drawing near.But the question still remains, What Was This?

Because the story is quite good, for a fantasy movie. But it's not only a fantasy movie, it's an action movie as well. Or let's say a fantasy-action movie if you will. I think I still rated it too good, but only because I still give the Russians credit for trying to break into a film market that is run by financially bigger "players". And because I liked the story.But as I said, the action does count too. And boy does it disappoint in this case! I don't even know if you can talk about badly edited or badly shot. But it seems to be a mix of both. Every time an action scene occurs on screen (in the script), you can feel how the movie changes ... to the worse. It's difficult to cope with that (for me it was nearly impossible), but there are always people who'll find something they'll like and maybe you're one of them ...

It's true, I started with low expectations. I also rated this higher because I don't see many Russian movies. But let's face it, it was better than Eragon, Narnia and Terabithia put together. With a lower budget, it is comparable to Lord of the Rings.Of course, the plot is not terribly original, but it's not a cheap copy of something else, either. Even from the start you know this is a heroic fantasy and the film fully delivers both in action and special effects and background story. It also suffers from the Russian book worm: a lot of characters, sometimes you don't know who is who, since they all look dirty and long haired. The men too :) The sound is not really professional, the music seems added on the film with no real consideration of what is going on.However, it was really enjoyable. If you take Conan, you add a bit of Lord of the Rings and a little of the Sergiu Nicolaescu movies, you get an American-Romanian Wolfhound :) The ending is a bit pathetic, but the lead character is truly well played. The other actors are mediocre at best. And no, the bat does not turn into an eagle, it's just bad CGI.

like in summary i'll say once again...read the book stupid f**ks!!!!! This is the one of the best fantasy books from M.Semionova,and at least a true diamond of Russian literature from this field.I know that for the average people is sometimes hard to read the book and then to watch the movie...but hear this,there is a big difference from someone who only knows for movie version and a true admirer of this stuff.I think most of people were expecting to much,at least.Pay more attention on acting and the atmosphere thru the movie...Hollywood is,for a long time now,without a good script,and i will always more appreciate an European movie...this is the best advice i can give it to you all..