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! :-)

This is an excellent movie. It has another name too. Dark Kingdom: Dragon King. And If you are the type of guy who enjoys Lord of the ring type movies with sword fight and magic. You will love it. The story line is so well narrated with twist and turn. The acting is very well done in the movie. Loved k Loken. She has done her role superbly. The movie has a decent pace and does not let one feel bored or dragged into it. AS i said, you will love if if you enjoys time period movies. In search of good movie, i started watching movies from different countries and bump to this one. The movie has medieval touch. It If n e one knows similar movie to this one, please reply.

This is an adaptation of the German epic poem the Nibelungenleid. The story is about Sigfried, the heir to a kingdom who watched his kingdom destroyed as a boy by the twin kings of Saxony, but was saved by being put on a raft were he was found by a kindly weapon smith. As he grew up he became a swordsman of no uncertain skill, and then one day, after a meteor crashes near his house, he travels out to see what caused the explosion and meets the Queen of Iceland, and after a long battle he subdues her and they fall in love.Later he travels with his adopted father to the local city, the capital of the Kingdom of Burgandy. He learns that they are being terrorised by a dragon who sits on a horde of treasure. He goes out and kills the dragon, and after killing it, bathes in its blood, and thus becomes invulnerable, with the exception of a section of his back where a leaf landed. When he discovers the treasure, he learns that it belongs to the dead, the Nibelungs, and that it is subject to a curse, but he lays claim to it, and takes it with him back to Burgund.This is only the first half of the film, and as you can see the plot is very complex. Not only is there this treasure (which is cursed) there is also a love triangle, deception, betrayal, and innocent murder. This story is a tragedy, and Sigfried is the tragic hero. However, Brunhild, the queen of Iceland is also tragic in her own right, however she never did anything wrong. It was because the sister of the King of Burgundy fell in love with Sigfried and used magic to take his love for herself.Tolkien took a lot of ideas for his story and his realm from this (and other) tales, but the main theme of Lord of the Rings, that is the cursed ring and the desire to possess it, comes directly from this tale. The desire is the possess the treasure for oneself, but possession of this treasure breeds envy and jealousy. When the Twin Kings learn of the location of this treasure, they raise an army and travel to Burgundy to forcefully take it for themselves.This film is divided into two sections, but then again it was originally released as a mini-series, which is not surprising because the movie is three hours long. However, it seems that the first half is about Sigfried's rise, while the second half is about his fall, and his fall is bad and hard indeed. It turns out that the King of Burgundy is also in love with Brunhild, but he is nowhere near as skilled in battle as Sigfried. By this time Sigfried is no longer in love with Brunhild (witchcraft has turned his heart away from her) and Sigfried agrees to disguise himself so that first he might defeat her so that the king may marry her, and then he does it again to get her into bed. She knows that something is up, but it is not until she is mocked before the church by Sigfried's wife when she realises that she has been betrayed.However, it is not Sigfried that betrayed her, but his wife. She has poisoned him so that he may no longer love Brunhild, and in her guilt, she withdraws from the world and dies a lonely woman. However, by the time that everything has been revealed, it is too late to do anything about it. Sigfried has been murdered and the damage has been done, so in a tragic set of circumstances, the show comes to an end, while the treasure is thrown into the Rhine, never to be seen from again.When I first saw this film I wasn't all that sure about it, but as soon as I discovered that it was the Nibelungenleid I really came to appreciate it. In a way I first thought that it was simply another Lord of the Rings rip off, but it is not. In fact, the story that this film ripped off (a lot of the story has been left out) is the same story that Lord of the Rings ripped off. That does not mean that Lord of the Rings was a bad book, it was not, but then neither was this a bad movie.

I was absolutely mesmerized by this movie- despite the unnecessarily distracting hair cut given to the male lead that makes him look just too girly. In any case, I was not familiar with the works that inspired this movie but was completely captivated by the story of love, the fulfillment of anticipation, and deceit. I would have like to have seen more of the conflict between the old Norse religion and the new Christianity since that seems to be the important background for the story and is mentioned in the final two lines of the movie. Kristanna Loken is always a pleasure to watch and I wish the movie would have focused a little bit more on her and the lives of Icelanders. I was expecting some below B level movie but the it's well realized. This is a great epic with a great story and good performances. I did not want it to end. I wish there were more movies about the pre-Christian European peoples.