It's Just Movies

— by JOSUE SANCHEZ —

Vampires, nudity and swords … oh my. Oh, and did I mention blood splattering and CGI? That’s what you’ll see in this red-band trailer for “Tales of an Ancient Empire.” It stars Christopher Lambert (“Highlander”) and Kevin Sorbo (“Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”). It also stars some of the hottest, non-ancient looking actresses they could possibly find.

In case all the previously-mentioned aspects didn’t awaken your curiosity, I’ll tell you more. To me, one very cool trait I picked up from the trailer is the very psychedelic feel it exudes.

Don’t understand what I mean? OK, I will explain. There is a default style of movies that have become very popular lately. They use a particular style or template that they follow. Many of them are Saturday night movies on the Syfy channel, and others are straight-to-DVD movies. But, I find that they all try to emulate a kind of Boris Vallejo feel to them, with a little “7th Voyage of Sindbad.” These are good things to aspire to, even if they come short. If you want to know what I mean, and don’t know who Boris Vallejo is, click (here) and (here) for some examples of the artists’ groovy art. His pictures have been around for decades, and many of you probably have seen them before.

I tried doing research for the movie, and found the official studio description, which is pretty brief: “A princess is on a quest to unite the five greatest warriors to save her kingdom from a demon sorceress.” I needed more, so I wen to the official movie site an found a caption about the movie, that was probably supposed to be the tag-line, it read: “An age ruled by lusty adventure and darkest sorcery – When all things are possible.” That sentence read wrong to me, I thought I might be reading it wrong, but no, it was copied it accurately. But then something interesting happened. I bumped into some new information that made things a little different for me. The movie is directed by Albert Pyun! He directed the 1982 classic “The Sword and the Sorcerer,” and this movie is kind of a sequel to that movie! In “The Sword and the Sorcerer,” a mercenary with a three-bladed sword is recruited to help a princess foil the designs of a brutal tyrant and a powerful sorcerer in conquering a land. Understanding this makes the plot description for “Tales of an Ancient Empire” just seem so much more interesting. Now, I am interested in either watching a new trailer where the special effects are completed, or the movie itself!

I would finally just like to mention that the top stars — Christopher Lambert and Kevin Sorbo — have huge followings. Lately, I have been surprised by all the “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” fans on Twitter, and they seem absolutely loyal to Sorbo. It is possible that this movie could be an instant hit in DVD sales, but time will tell.

There is no official release date for “Tales of an Ancient Empire.” But look out for it in 2010.

. . .

Follow Josue Sanchez on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Josue_can.