This was really a surprise of a movie. "SAGA: Curse of the Shadow" is somewhat of a mixture between "Lord of the Rings" and "Dungeons & Dragons". And if you enjoy high adventure, sword and sorcery, or enjoy (or ever have) playing Dungeons & Dragons, then chances are very likely that you will enjoy this movie as well.

The storyline in "SAGA: Curse of the Shadow" is rather interesting, especially because it is well thought through, and director John Lyde did a good job in managing to entangle the threads of the three different tales of the three main characters; the elf Nemyt (played by Danielle Chuchran),the human Keltus (played by Richard McWilliams) and the orc Kulliman (played by Paul D. Hunt).

Without getting too much into fleshing out the actual storyline, I will just quickly skim it and summarize. The story is about three unlikely adventurers who have to join forces against an awakened evil that threatens the entire land.

The storyline is actually quite much like something you would find in most high adventure tales of sword and sorcery; it is something taken right out from a Dungeons & Dragons game. And I love it. It was so cool. Sure this wasn't as grand and epic on the same scale as "The Lord of the Rings" movies - given they were on two entirely different budgets. But "SAGA: Curse of the Shadow" actually fared better, much better, than all of the three "Dungeons & Dragons" movies that are out on the movie market so far.

The acting in the movie was quite good. And the above three mentioned actress and actors did good jobs with their given characters, and they also fared well in the combat and melee situations, which just improved the enjoyment of the movie quite a lot.

As far as costumes went, then "SAGA: Curse of the Shadow" had some pretty nice touches to the costumes and the make-up of the various creatures and characters. It was all quite believable, and it worked out quite well. However, one thing that didn't sit well with me, was the sounds like roaring and growling lions that the orcs had to make. Yeah, I get that they are of savage minds, but come on, those sounds were just a bit too much.

Another great treats for fans of the fantasy genre and people who enjoy the Dungeons & Dragons games. In "SAGA: Curse of the Shadow" you will see humans, dwarfs, elves, orcs, mermaids/sirens, dragons, zombies, a minotaur, and even two deities.

The movie was beautifully shot, with lots of good camera work. And there was a lot of visual treats for the eyes from the various locations and scenery found throughout the movie.

"SAGA: Curse of the Shadow" is highly recommendable if you enjoy adventures, sword and sorcery, or if you are fan of the fantasy genre in general. I enjoyed this movie tremendously, and was totally caught off guard at how cool this movie turned out to be.

Considering that Curse of the Shadow was shown on the SyFy Channel, expectations were relatively low. However, while Curse of the Shadow is no masterpiece in any shape or form, for a low-budget fantasy movie I found it pretty good and by far one of the best movies aired on the SyFy Channel in recent memory. It doesn't look bad at all for low-budget fantasy, the scenery is colourful and really quite gorgeous, the special effects are not overkill and are well-modelled and easy-moving, the costumes certainly don't look cheap-fancy-dress-quality and the make-up is very good especially for the Orcs. With the photography too it was mostly fluid and does evoke a sense of wonder, apart from some slow-motion overuse. The music is rousing, haunting, beautiful, energetic and mysterious on numerous occasions, not quite perfect mind as it does have a tendency at times to be too loud and drown out the dialogue. The script was better than anticipated, the dialogue at least wasn't too simplistic or too wordy and apart from the odd awkward-sounding moment understanding what was happening- especially compared to a lot of other low-budget movies of this genre and others seen recently- wasn't so much a problem. In fact the interplay between the central characters was quite witty, though the coolest lines came from James C. Morris' character. The story was engaging, the fantasy world was both wondrous and foreboding, the numerous fantasy creatures were really fun to spot and were well-designed, and the witty dialogue and likable characters- Kullimon being the most interesting- keep things moving along nicely. True, it is not the most original story on the block but it didn't seem too carbon-copy, and there were few if any scenes that felt irrelevant, while lengthy the prologue did get to the point. The action sequences, all of which were reasonably well-paced, were mixed execution-wise, some had spirited choreography, suspense and passion, others were let down by characters after being wounded acting very soon like everything's all right and some random, cyclical placement. The climax did feel a tad underwhelming, again it was spirited and passionate but also rather drawn-out pace-wise and the lack of believable peril diluted the suspense, if it was more epic and less convenient it may have helped a little. The characters are likable at least and while not fully-fleshed out the movie does do enough to allow us to care for them, the pacing flows well generally and the directing is credible. The acting isn't perfect with the female having the odd one-note occasion but is still reasonably good, Paul D. Hunt is very enjoyable as Kullimon. Overall, not great but a very pleasant surprise. 7/10 Bethany Cox

RISE OF THE SHADOW WARRIOR is another cheap fantasy flick that heavily rips off Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and in particular the look, feel, and style of the Peter Jackson trilogy. The setting is a world of dwarves, elves, and human warriors, not to mention a bunch of orcs who look EXACTLY the same as those in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. A dark undead god or some such is trying to come back and take over the world, so a female elf has to go on a quest to save everybody. Expect cheesy martial arts action scenes, some cheap gore and splatter effects, wooden acting, and not bad make-up. The whole story is shot out in the woods somewhere and feels very cheap at times, although there's plenty worse out there in this genre, sad to say.