I find Ian Somerhalder's performance in Marco Polo very refreshing. It's by far his best performance in a movie.The story line is very interesting written, we are following Marco Polo in his quest and the story it's actually accounted to his cell mate in prison.Each scene is filled with all very relevant historical details and Kevin Connor has the full credit for it. The dialogues are sometimes funny, sometimes filled with meaning but most of the time they are filled with history.All in all Marco Polo It's a good movie that can teach you a lesson or two from the world history.Ian can be the guy next door ready to play whatever - from the sexy vampire to the old full of wisdom scientist or adventurer like Indiana Jones or even Jesus of Nazareth.

I gave a 2 (instead of 1 - awful)because of the attentive grand costuming, scenic beauty, and the breathtaking Asian girl that is the love interest of Marco.But in this day and age it is outrageous that a Caucasian plays the Mongol king. Plus that incongruity continues to break the story flow thru out the movie. I was hoping to see a story that included more about the travels of Marco, the technological and cultural discoveries of the lands he visited. Instead, we get about 5 minutes of that, gunpowder its main obsession. The rest of the movie seems to be fabricated love triangles, invented King and Marco interactions, ridiculous "uprisings" with a smattering of poorly choreographed kung fu fights, internal convoluted political machinations with a sprinkling of "wise" Chinese sayings, and discussions of "freedom" that are extremely unlikely to have occurred. Save your money, save your time do not watch this movie unless you want to see a long boring soap opera.

Given the fact that the makers had access to plenty of money, good costuming, and even to the locations (or convincing computer-generated substitutes), this could have been a very good historical movie.Alas,the derogatory comments on this site regarding script, acting, and casting are perfectly valid. Who on earth cast Brian Dennehy as an oriental? There are established oriental actors who look the part — John Lone would be an obvious choice.The real Marco Polo could speak Italian and French, and on his way to meet Kublai Khan may well have learned Turki, the language Kublai sometimes used in his written communications. But the ridiculous scene where they meet bears not the slightest resemblance to Marco Polo's real-life account, in which the great ruler was the soul of courtesy. Dennehy's grumpiness was pure fiction, like so much else in this tedious production.The question that begs to be asked is: if one wants to make a historical epic, why present bad fiction instead of interesting fact?

Wonderful movie about people: people are same today as they were at Polo's time! Some people left comments about "bad acting". I did not see any of "bad acting". On the contrary, I think the acting was very good. Plots, betrayals, love, hatred, and other human situations that also happen in today's everyday life. What a great teaching sample to learn from! The movie teaches about how people behave today - just like they behaved at Polo's time. Most wonderful movie I have ever seen. I presume, the special effect fans and fans of computerized 3D effects left bad comments because, ... well ... the movie is true to its purpose: description of real human behavior and life. I lived in former USSR, Austria and Italy. Now I live in Portland, Oregon, USA. I feel the same way that Marco Polo feels. I saw the same things that Marco Polo saw (not in China though). Movie is very true to its purpose. I bow to the creators of the movie.