Abelar: Tales of an Ancient Empire

I agree with jewel5's review, I had not seen Lee Horsley in anything since he did the series "Paradise", He was a very popular actor in the 1980's. He had the starring role in " Sword and the Sorcerer", and I thought this was a sequel to his character "Talon". I was totally wrong about that, he had a very small cameo role and was listed as "The Stranger"?? This movie was a mess from the beginning, and Michael Pare's acting was terrible, he sounds like he is reading "Q" cards. I guess Lee Horsley's acting career is limited to "cameo" roles of less than "B" movies now, this is a shame that a gifted actor such as Horsley is reduced to this because of his age(mid 50's I believe). I rated this a 1 out of 10, but it should be a 0 out of ten!!

Saw this at the Louisville Frightnight Film Convention back in July. It wasn't ideal conditions and the dialogue was hard to hear. Think there was something wrong with the sound system as the music and effects were very loud. It was a midnight screening that started an hour late but there was still a good crowd. My friends and I hung around after the costume ball to see this. The picture was really great. Its really shoot nicely and the actors are attractive with Melissa Ordway being HOT as the princess trying to recruit her half brother (Sorbo from Hercules) and a bunch of hot looking half sisters to save kingdom from another hottie, the actress from Monsters who looks better here and is not annoying as she was in Monsters. She's actually excellent here as a super powerful vampire. The story is told in sort of flashback form. We meet the Princess as she enters a town after seeing the vampire being reborn. We don't know the connection until the Princess starts to recruit and tells the story of who she is and what happened. What I liked about that was how it made the fantasy more modern and compelling. I liked the mystery and having to put the story together. Usually these movies just spell it out and its not very interesting. The other thing I liked was how fast paced the movie was but without losing characterization. I wished the film had bigger scenes but I didn't miss them until after. The violence when it came was shocking and surprising and got a lot of reaction from the audience. In a way there's so much humor that its really gets the audience involved. It was a very loud audience, in a good way. The music was good and the worst part was the special effects which weren't special. The climax where the vampire is killed is too fast and not as well done as it should be by today's standards. Her change into some kind of snake was a bit goofy. I think the low budget is really what hurt this film the most. The actors were all good and better than I expected. It was cool to see familiar faces like Rolf Mueller and Michael Pare, Sasha Mitchell (!) and even Oliver Gruner from Nemesis. i think they were all in previous films for the director. Definitely a solid rent. Hopeully the dialogue can be heard better!

As soon as I saw that this was out, I rented it. Wow, what a piece of crap. It had none of the fun of the original and really didn't even tell a story at all. Lee Horsley Does appear but only for a minute and it is disappointing. Some of the plot devices from the original are used but wasted and the whole thing appears to be shot on video. The Tri-Sword appears off camera but is used very poorly. Michael Pare takes the place as the hero/ betrayer of the Sorceress vampire Whatever. Every episode of Hercules is better than this piece of junk. If you want a movie worth of the original, try "season of the Witch" or Solomon Kane.

I don't really know what to say. I think I can make better CGI in paint, and the acting is better in porno movies. Kevin Sorbo did a good job, but you get the same amount of good acting in the Hercules TV show. Melissa Ordway on the other hand, wow, you know she got this part for her pretty face, not her acting skills. If you want some kind of adventure, STAY AWAY! Go for a walk in a park and hit a tree with a twig. Wow! Much better fun than this movie... Catwoman is better than this movie... It might seem like I am only bitching, but I feel like I need to warn people about this half made movie...Oh yes, this is only part 1...and no part 2 has been started...

This type of production should be illegal. It's a waste of money, that could have fed many starving children somewhere in the world. It has no entertainment value. Mostly it seems like a group of former * film actors had decided to make a non-* film, but failed miserably. Sure you get to see some tits(which is probably the reason why some praise the movie), but even the tits are as bad in quality as the movie itself. Val Kilmer? Where? The Val Kilmer I remember was an actual actor! Not a wanna-be * star. What I liked about the film, was that it was on DVD, so I could speed it up to finish it sooner. Breathtakingly bad movie.

Any story worth telling must have a beginning, middle and end. Well, fat chance finding any of these in this one... Weak plot, incoherent development, pathetic acting and many more await the unaware viewer. I followed the plot with mixture of disbelieve, disgust and awkwardness. My memories of Val Kilmer in Willow are so vivid that I was ready for another film fest of the same scale. Alas, imagine my disappointment when I was subjected to meaningless scenes of violence and bad acting. The director Albert Pyun is definitely not George Lucas and no mistake. Victoria Maurette's Kara cannot speak because of the fangs but tries not very successfully to compensate with provocative sensual presence. Works the first 15 minutes, after that leaves an aftertaste of embarrassment. The rest of the cast are not even that good. Well, not entirely their fault that they cannot believe in what they are doing - the plot is so thin that it cannot feed the need of the actors to believe in their characters. I vote this dreadful film with 1 out of 10 only because there is no way to give it 0. Pure waste of time and money.

coogee-577-681676 must be either high on drugs or trolling to call this piece of crap 'the best film of the 21st Century so far'. This is no joke, this movie could win without a problem the most retarded, poor and amateur movie since its first part in the 80s. The film is so poor and ugly, so lacking that the producer could take the gun and shoot himself before annoying the world with such a devastatingly retarded film. The result of it is it managed to win a large amounts of haters. In fact, the movie needs to be boycotted as well as further 'movies' of this excuse of a director.

This is the first movie I have reviewed here, and I do so as a response to those who are praising this movie. I don't know how anyone can honestly praise this movie, it is a shear mess. Editing and pacing were terrible, production quality below most TV episodes. I'm sure the actors did the best they could with what they had but what they had wasn't much. This movie is in no way near as enjoyable as "The Sword and the Sorcerer", it is in no way nearly as coherent. This movie made little sense, even with the ham-fisted exposition. The trailer for this movie was better than the movie! Maybe this mess could be salvaged by throwing it into the category of "so bad it's good", and that's a big maybe. There are only two suggestions I have for watching this movie: either watch it inebriated or, simplest of all, not at all.

Would give it higher f that were possible. Got DVD as a gift and have to say its far superior to Clash of the Titans or Prince of Persia, even better than the higher budgeted Solomon Kane. What Ancient Empire had going for is that its a very unpredictable plot and story line where it starts as a story about a sorceress demon taking over a kingdom with vampires and then we understand that the vampire/sorcerer attack is merely a catalyst for characters to learn who they are and the rallying to defeat the sorceress (an superb Whitney Able), really is about a dysfunctional coming together to make peace with being abandoned by a mercenary warrior who fathered a lot kids as he adventured. The back story is deep and it takes a while to assimilate it. Kevin Sorbo gives a strong performance as hustling Aedan. Actually all the performances are at worst interesting. Melissa Ordway and Victoria Maurette really stand out as half sisters on opposite sides and Jessica Delgado as a slave girl turn vampire lackey. The pace overall was good though a bit fast in the beginning. You have to get use to the pace. The photography was lush and striking at times, though the DVD picture seemed to be blown up which caused scenes to be soft and overexposed. Music was excellent and captured the tone. The movie is more a family drama than action and magic. That only really bad moment is at the end where the film ends abruptly and announces a coming sequel called Red Moon, where I guess, all the story lines climax. This film was a wonderful surprise and I can't wait for the sequel and to watch this again. The scene with the tongue is memorable!

Some recent Albert Pyun movies have fallen short of his "low budget guilty pleasure" niche. Amid pressure to deliver in what seems to be his highest profile film in years, "Tales of an Ancient Empire" is a dense and stylish start to what Pyun clearly envisions as a series that offers many lusty and very guilty pleasures pleasures head and shoulders above the dreg that is Syfy or Asylum fare. It starts on a rocky shoal of imagery and quality. Its almost as if the first four minutes belonged in an alternate universe of movies. But after, Pyun finds his footing. Coarse, initially convoluted and densely populated by roguish characters, it's an intriguing world that hews closer to "Richard the 3rd" than "The Sword and the Sorcerer" with all the expected back stories that propel the plot. After watching this Part One of these "Tales", I'm hooked, with the disclaimer that this ambitious venture requires a no-reading- the computer screen-while-watching commitment. It's not easy to track and is not meant to be. Above all Tales is about family and the deep wounds that can fester in a child or jilted lover and how that can drive the wounded party to despicable acts. Kevin Sorbo shines best as he perfectly balances the pathos of being a abandoned bastard and the charm of a greedy rogue. Whitney Able (a breathtaking sorceress vampire) and Melissa Ordway (the ravishing Princess Tanis) also provide strong characters and performances. Victoria Maurette struggles a bit with her Kara, a half human, half vampire creature who is never quite as unabashedly sensual as the role calls for. As with most Pyun efforts, Tales is beautifully shot with rich compositions, although degraded somewhat by spotty editing and some dodgy low budget special effects. Cynthia Curnan's script is more literate and clever than is found in this sub- genre. Indeed, its the use of language that distinguishes the film. Certainly, Tales is destined to capture a smaller audience than it's hackneyed sword and sorcery predecessor but it carries a higher ambition and creative verve. I can see fan boys with ADD turning against this but for those who enjoy a rich tapestry of colorful characters and plot lines, Tales is perfectly in your wheelhouse.