This movie was astoundingly bad. The acting in this movie was below zero at best, the action was terrible, and the overall storytelling was atrocious. This film almost made me stop watching movies for awhile. And it was 5 hours?! This movie held me for all of 30 seconds before wasting seconds of my life with drudgery and there was no turning back from there. It cannot be stressed enough the lack of validity in which this movie operates. I mean, the wife of a king telling another king what to do? That does not happen. And with the lack of any discerning acting talent, this movie proves that you have to leave the epics to those who can make them watchable.

Not only was Helmut Griem excellent as Wiederkund, but Lino Capolicchio excels as "little" Pope Leo III !When I originally saw this in 1994, I right-away saw in Capolicchio as "little Leo", our Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger...who is now of course our Pope Benedict XVI....Incredible, but that was my first impression!!!Dark Aeges, HAH! Seeing this will make you yearn to know more about Fr.Alcuin of York (played by Frank Finlay), the greatness of "Karl derGrosse" (Christian Brendel) and the tragedy of Roland (Xavier duLac). It shows the conversion of the Germanic Tribes, their humility, and the splendour of European history. Beautifully acted, beautifully written, and inspirationally Catholic!You will take the whole "epic" to heart indeed!

It's not easy to make the Dark Ages interesting, but "Charlemagne" just about pulls it off. I'll have to re-read my Einhard for the details, but for the most part they seem to have got the story right, although of course, I don't think we know as much about Charles's personal life as this film might lead one to believe.That quibble aside, the production values are quite high (resisting, for the most part, the temptations of excess prettiness), the pacing good, and the international cast handles their roles competently.A good introduction to a truly astonishing historical figure.