Leofwine_draca Review of Forbidden Empire

Forbidden Empire (2014)

A few decent scenes, but overall rather predictable

[5/10 · 13 June 2018]

FORBIDDEN KINGDOM is another big-bucks Russian fantasy flick that descends into lengthy and repetitive action scenes featuring plenty of CGI augmentation but not a lot in the way of voice or character. The film feels more like a Hollywood flick along the lines of VAN HELSING or I, FRANKENSTEIN than anything more distinctive. It's supposedly an adaptation of a famous Gogol story but is about as far from that as you can get. The underrated Jason Flemyng plays a traveller who heads off to a Romanian forest to find himself battling a malignant demon. There's one decent set-piece involving a headless creature attacking our hero but otherwise it's all rather predictable and gets tiresome about twenty minutes in. Charles Dance has a small role and is always welcome, but there are one too many over-the-top Russian characters in support.