See 'Furious: Legend of Kolovrat'
Every country, possibly every people has a story or more than one story like Russia’s ‘Furious: The Legend of Kolovrat.’ A small force of men faces a vastly superior army, and the fate of the country hangs in the balance. There are other ties that bind the story together, usually some sort of revenge factor and some sort of family point, but in the end, it is a story that can inspire nationalism and faith in the righteousness of a people and its code. The Russian versions of the stories all tend to end the same way; just as the American versions all tend to end in its own stereotypical fashion. I find the Russian endings generally to be more satisfying.
Let’s get the negatives of ‘Furious’ out of the way – the CGI is terrible and really distracting in the beginning. Everything is far too clean and too straight-lined for 13th century Russia. It’s beautiful in the way that a painting is beautiful, but it also takes the viewer out of the story. Too much green screen that doesn’t hide the fact that it is green screen. The other complaint is the terrible female voice over that translates for Khan – I don’t know what language he is speaking, but if the audience needs a translation – either have your on-screen interpreter do it, make the Khan speak Russian just for the movie’s sake, use subtitles, find a voice that matches, or trust that your audience will be able to follow the movie through the actions on the screen. 80% of all communication is non-verbal – use that to your advantage. The woman’s voice was disconcerting and came out of nowhere. Plus, for someone whose Russian is suspect, I couldn’t understand either as they talked over each other.
Once you get past those 2 things, which mostly happen in the beginning of the movie, ‘Furious’ is entertaining. It’s nice to see the cultural differences and similarities that the film presents. The battle scenes are innovative, and watching the Russian warriors battle the Khan’s army is like seeing a different, more savage, version of Western knights. If you are interested in ancient warfare, this movie has a large helping of it. (And the bows were beautiful, even if the film opted for Mediterranean release.) If you have to choose between ‘Furious’ and ‘Stalingrad,’ ‘Stalingrad’ is superior, but ‘Furious’ is nice, too.
Let’s get the negatives of ‘Furious’ out of the way – the CGI is terrible and really distracting in the beginning. Everything is far too clean and too straight-lined for 13th century Russia. It’s beautiful in the way that a painting is beautiful, but it also takes the viewer out of the story. Too much green screen that doesn’t hide the fact that it is green screen. The other complaint is the terrible female voice over that translates for Khan – I don’t know what language he is speaking, but if the audience needs a translation – either have your on-screen interpreter do it, make the Khan speak Russian just for the movie’s sake, use subtitles, find a voice that matches, or trust that your audience will be able to follow the movie through the actions on the screen. 80% of all communication is non-verbal – use that to your advantage. The woman’s voice was disconcerting and came out of nowhere. Plus, for someone whose Russian is suspect, I couldn’t understand either as they talked over each other.
Once you get past those 2 things, which mostly happen in the beginning of the movie, ‘Furious’ is entertaining. It’s nice to see the cultural differences and similarities that the film presents. The battle scenes are innovative, and watching the Russian warriors battle the Khan’s army is like seeing a different, more savage, version of Western knights. If you are interested in ancient warfare, this movie has a large helping of it. (And the bows were beautiful, even if the film opted for Mediterranean release.) If you have to choose between ‘Furious’ and ‘Stalingrad,’ ‘Stalingrad’ is superior, but ‘Furious’ is nice, too.