User reviews

Short of producing 2+ hour versions of each of the 4 operas in the Ring Cycle, this is simply excellent storytelling. Truly entertaining and worthy of viewing.

Given the obvious production and time constraints common to almost all television productions, the writers, director and cast have made a quite enjoyable film based on the Norse legends. They know they can't hope to surpass more traditional Wagner opera productions or the cinematic spectaculars like Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia and they don't try. They simply succeed brilliantly at presenting a quite entertaining and enjoyable film variation of the well known tale.

Kudos!!

It was by accident that I happened upon this movie on the sci/fi channel and realized what the story was really about- I enjoyed it very much and purchased the DVD after seeing it. I do wish the DVD was the original, however instead of the edited version. I am a major supporter of the new Beowulf and Grendel film by Sturla Gunnarson and think it's of interest that Nordic tales are making a comeback. We are definitely in need of some heroic myths that demonstrate the dichotomy/conflict inherent in these stories- That the human experience is not black versus white extremes- but all the colors in between..Finally I actually get the basic story of Siegfried and the ring of the Nieblungs..and I want to find out the rest of the story!

I've watched both parts and they entertained me very well. The second part was better, because the role of Kristanna Loken ("T3") was bigger and the fightscenes looked much better! This is a very good TV movie and Benno Fürmann ("The Order"), Max von Sydow ("Minority Report") and Alicia Witt ("Vanilla Sky") did a great job. Julian Sands ("Warlock") was very cool as the bad guy ;)

The story was different to the original German saga, but it was enjoyable. The effects were also very exciting for this budget! (23 Mio.)

First part: 6/10 Second part: 8/10

Based on the myth that influenced Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, The Ring of the Nibelungs shares many similarities with the great man's work.

Although limited I thought the special effects were excellent particularly the dragon. Siegfrid's accent was off putting but no less so than the posh English accents that many of the cast had considering this is meant to be set in Scandinava.

If you like fantasy and Lord of the Rings you will enjoy this. The soundtrack is very haunting and compliments the film very well. Kristanna Loken is gorgeous and although her acting isn't up to scratch, she does look great on screen ;)

Uli Edel did a damn fine job on resurrecting the Volsung Saga. I think that "Das Nibelungenlied" is not as much of a fairy tail as LOTR what gives this ballad a bit more of the realistic drama-feeling. No offence, but this is not the usual happy-ending US-Style flick that most of the audience is used to. Maybe that is the reason for this quite low avg. rating.

I really couldn't imagine anyone better suited for the role of cold queen of the cold Island. Kristan(n)a Loken prove to be as cold as beautiful, also a great actress in a role with much more script than she had in T3. Arnold knew back than that "she'll be back!" and she indeed is in this truly wonderful movie.

The picture is based on Germanic mythology ,¨Der Niebelungen¨, a Nordic legend that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to write the Lord of the Ring trilogy . It narrates the legend of a hero named Siegfred (Benno Furmann) who, not knowing that he is heir to a conquered kingdom, becomes popular with the Burgunds . As the young blacksmith meets the location where is stashed the Niebelungen treasure that's protected by a dwarf and a giant dragon . Siegfred slain and kills the dragon and he bathes in its blood (exception a body part where falls a leaf) . He'll become invulnerable vanquishing every enemies after numerous battles and confronting many dangers , misfortunes and risks. He marries a princess of Burgundios named Kriemhild (Alicia Witt) by means of a potion and then the Queen of Island Brunnhild (Kristinna Loken) will execute her vengeance , fulfillment a prophecy of rampage , ravage and destruction . In addition , Hagen (Julian Sands ) will try to take the Niebelungen gold .

This mythological , dark , epic, brooding film is plenty of archetypal personages and were jingoist tributes , in fact the Niebelungen heroes were even loved by the same Hitler. The movie is adapted from Germanic legends , even Richard Wagner made Operas about these deeds as ¨ Gold of Rhin¨ , ¨Cavalcade of Walkirias and ¨Ring of Niebelungen¨ . Besides , it inspired to J.R.R. Tolkien and his ¨Lord Of the Rings¨ . It has recently discovered a treasure next to Haelsinburg (Sweden) that's called ¨the Atila gold¨ and can be the legendary Niebelungen treasure . There are other versions about these epic facts , such as the 1967 movie featured by Terence Hill , Karin Door , Herbert Lom and directed by Harald Reilm which is considered average and of course the classic silent adaptation directed by Fritz Lang that is the best deemed . This modern rendition for television is spectacular and colorful and its narration is quite well . The flick will appeal to historical epic buffs and legendary heroes fans. Rating : good and well worth seeing.

When i first heard of this film i wanted to see it, so i sat and watched it. Unlike other people i actually enjoyed it. I liked it that much a year and a half later i bought it. Personally i liked the actors in this especially Kristanna Loken. She was terrific in this film. She portrayed her character the Queen of Iceland very well and she is quite terrifying. I had no problem with Benno Furmann either. I think Benno and Kristanna were a good match on screen, made a good couple. The story is very good, its a bit Romeo and Juliet-sh which i like especially when it is a fantasy film as well. Good effects, the dragon Fanfir was believable. Julian Sands as ever makes a good bad guy, just brilliant! I never listen to other peoples comments as i like to see things for myself. I give this film 9 out of 10, because its no Lord Of The Rings i agree but this is in my eyes a love story. Lord Of The Rings was more about war.

Actually it started out OK but the ending was really crappy. Imagine "LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring" end with Frodo destroying the Ring just because the director wanted the story to fit into a 3h time frame.

The left out Act 2 and 3 of the Nibelung Saga where Kriemhild kills here Brothers, Sacrifies here Family, her Children and here country just in the name of revenging here husband. Where Hagen hides the gold of the Nibelungs in the Rhein never to be found again.

This really is what the Nibelung Saga makes it that great and tragic and they killed it off.

So I was pretty disappointed in the entire movie after seeing the end. In summary I cannot recommend this Movie what SAT1 called "The Movie event of the year" they better should have made it into a 2-3 parter which the actual story being told. So if you want to see the Nibelungs their was an film made in the 70's which the whole story in it.

Released to TV in 2004 at 184 minutes and originally titled "Curse of the Ring" or "Ring of the Nibelungs," "Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King" runs 132 minutes on the shortened DVD, meaning its cut by 48 minutes. This is an ancient European tale going back 700-1500 years about a Scandinavian child of noble birth who is reared anonymously by a noble blacksmith (Max Von Sydow) and names him Eric (Benno Fürmann). Eric miraculously meets and falls in love with the Queen of Iceland (Kristanna Loken) before slaying a dragon and becoming a king. Unfortunately, he can't marry his first love because a rival king and blood brother (Samuel West) manipulates him into marrying his beautiful sister (Alicia Witt). O what a tangled web we weave when at first we practice to deceive!

For a movie that originally aired on Sci-Fi (now SyFy), this is an impressive film. The casting, locations (South Africa), CGI, score and numerous sword-fighting scenes are all top-notch, especially for a TV movie, which explains that it was released theatrically in some areas. Although this is a fantasy sword & sorcery flick the tone is serious and realistic beyond the magical elements. Witt is likable and winsome while Loken is stunning and tough in a warrioress sense. Fürmann is solid as the main protagonist, Eric/Siegfried, having the requisite noble looks. His fight with the dragon is outstanding and the creature looks formidable and frightening, to say the least.

The story struck me as very unique, but only moderately interesting. It could've been more compelling IMHO but, then again, I've only seen the shortened version. The cut scenes include: (1.) the Saxons at the smithy, (2.) Siegfried bringing the Dragon carcass back to Burgund, (3.) the lady saying she would be a pagan again just for tonight, and (4.) Kriemhild confessing her love for Siegfried (Eric) to Hagen, the house villain, played by Julian Sands. It's hard to believe that peripheral scenes like these could turn the movie into a captivating powerhouse, but I could be wrong. Nevertheless, the positives outweigh the negatives and this is a worth seeing if you have a taste for sword & sorcery.

GRADE: B

Of course you can make a movie out of The Nibelung Saga, no problem. It is an exciting story, which has all the elements of a proper movie: love, war, jealousy, action, heroes and villains, mystery like dragons, dwarfs, a magic ring... (sounds a wee bit like Lord of the Rings, doesn't it?) Anyway, and then you have all the capacity to start with: a great landscape, fairly decent actors, average budget, CGI that sucks only to a point where it's still bearable, but then... *drum roll* ULI EDEL rears his ugly head, to top it all! And the horror begins with THE MAN who has so far managed to ruin! every! single! movie! he has been involved in! I mean, seriously, WHAT THE HECK!!!!!!!

!!!!!!! SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!! SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!

Brunhild, the queen of Iceland, played by former terminator chick Kristanna Loken, who said herself that she knew jack-squat about her character -and you can tell in the movie-, I repeat, she surely DID NOT DID NOT DID NOT simply sail past Siegfried's smithy. Oh, and Siegfried DID NOT grow up as a schizophrenic retard who calls himself Erik, the "Master over the fire AND (!!!) the elements" (like Brom, Aluminum, Copper, Magnesium... you name it)His name was Siegfried, Mime, the smith, gave him that name and he found out about his parents in a different way. King Siegmund actually outlived his son and Queen Sieglind did not die in a Xena-amazone-warrior-princess kind of way. Hagen was not such a bad guy, but he CERTAINLY WASN'T THE ILLEGAL BASTARD SON OF ALBERICH WHO!!!!!!!!!!! WASN'T !!!!!!!!!!!!! A!!!!!!!!! NIBELUNG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, his name is ALBERICH, as in King of the ALBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!! Oh, this is getting painful! And of course, there had to be a strange foreign language-thingy to get it just this much closer to Lord of the Rings... again! Then, Gunter of Burgund had two brothers, both of whom were quite intelligent young men who ruled Burgund together, not just one lad barely out of puberty, who just happens to *sneak* onto the ship they sail to Iceland with, just so he can get some more screen time, because he had to be introduced to the public for the next Harry Potter movie, in which he will be starring as Cedric Diggory. Siegfried actually loved Kriemhild, no need for sneaky Hagen, the half-Nibelung with Daddy-issues *bangs head against keyboard* to pull the secret "lurve"-potion out of the bag! What else... Brunhild was not karate-Barbie on crack FROM HELL, she did not beat Siegfried in ice skating with axes, but in a fairly structured combat which involved spear-hurling, archery and a sword fight. The Nibelungs were not spooky ghouls out of a cave, they were a proud people who were not extinct, but later ruled by Siegfried as their king, as indicated by his title: Siegfried, KING of the NIBELUNGS!!! One final piece of advice: If you ever come across anything that has the words Uli and Edel in combination: RUN!!! RUN FOR YOUR SANITY!!! RUN AS IF A BIG UGLY CGI-DRAGON WAS CHEWING ON YOUR BOTTOM!! This is all for now. Writing this review made me reach a decision: Excuse me while I go drown myself in a bucket! Toodles!

The blacksmith Siegfried (Benno Fürmann) meets the Queen of Island Brunhild (Kristanna Loken) in the crater of a fallen meteoroid and defeats her in an ax battle. They fall in love for each other and Kriemhild promises to wait for him in her kingdom. Siefried forges a sword using the strange ore; he slays a dragon and baths in its blood to become invincible and wealthy with the Treasure of the Nibelungen. Then he fights and defeats the dwarf Alberich (Sean Riggs) from the Realm of the Nibelungen and gets his magic helmet that makes the user take whatever form he wishes. When Siegfried meets Kriemhild (Alicia Witt), she drops a magic love potion in his wine and he immediately falls in love for her and forgets Brunhild. When Siegfried asks the hand of Kriemhild to her brother King of Burgundy Gunther (Samuel West), he advises that he would accept if Siegfried helps him to win the strong Queen of Iceland Brunhild. Siegfried uses his helmet to defeat Brunhild pretending that he is Gunther and Brunhild accepts to marry him. When the jealous Kriemhild discloses the truth to Brunhild, she leads Siegfried and her kingdom to a tragedy.

The saga of Siegfried is certainly one of the most beautiful tales of the old times of pagan gods. In 1924, Fritz Lang released the masterpiece "Die Nibelungen: Siegfried", an impressive movie ahead of time and one of the most beautiful fantasies ever. The made for TV "Ring of the Nibelungs" was a great surprise for me, since it is another wonderful version of the saga of Sirgfried. The story is engaging, developed in a perfect pace and using decent special effects. The cast has great performances, and includes the gorgeous Alicia Witt and Kristanna Loken in the role of the sweet Kriemhild and the strong Brunhild. In the end, this delightful movie is not so powerful as Fritz Lang's masterpiece, but it is a great family entertainment. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição do Anel" ("The Curse of the Ring")

I love this type of movie. I find anything period interesting. But this movie did not live up to its promise.

The story was great. How could the movie makers go wrong with a tried and true legend? But the acting was horrendous. Max von Sydow was wonderful. Kristanna Loken played her part well and with the deep feeling one would expect from Brunhilde. The rest of the cast never rose above mediocre and Benno Furmann was awful. Hard for a movie to impress when the lead is so unimpressive.

The costumes were often gaudy. Perhaps this was an operatic effect??? But overall, they left much to be desired.

An additional flaw was the directing. Too often the extras in the film ignored the main action, which was often in the town square. I would have thought the sets could have been better unless, of course, most of the money was spent on the aforementioned gaudy costumes.

All in all, much as I like this genre, I could not recommend this movie to anyone.

After shelling out lots of dollars to sit and watch some of the latest romantic comedies, I decided it was time for a little indulgence. Surfing the net I casually caught a still from a film about a ring and dwarfs. The charter's name in the caption was Brunhilde. I thought to myself, that sounds familiar.

Well, it looks like someone finally took a crack at bringing Wagner's ring cycle to film format, only this time shot as a Movie of the Week for TV audiences instead of as a feature film for theatrical release. With that in mind, I have some observations to make: For a TV film it gets a passing grade, but only just. I remember ABC's "Movie of the Week", and seeing all kinds of popular TV and film stars being dragged into projects that would be shown once on the network to garnish ratings, and then vanish into the ether to be only shown on Sunday afternoons or late night shows before the national anthem and test pattern. Well, that's kind of what we got here.

Only "Curse of the Ring" gives the audience some very high production values in terms of art direction, but not much else. We see the Nordic and Germanic setting of the tale, and are given some decent support cast members, but the two leads nearly slay themselves as they deliver lines with as much enthusiasm as a local weatherman telling us about the latest cold front. The acting from Benno Furman was that difficult to watch. Kristanna Loken wasn't much better, but at least her character had some fire in her. Benno walks through the project like a star eyed school boy who's concentrating on remembering his lines, all the while Kristanna is doing her best to tell future directors that she actually can act in spite of the collagen in her lips and a blonde dye job that would have put a 1950's pinup to shame.

Seriously, there's lots of visuals to be proud of here for what the project is. The SFX are quite impressive for a low scale TV production, and the amount of energy and care that went into the art direction is also something of note, but the two leads are as flat as a local theatre troop being recruited as extras for that Hollwood production that rolled into town. Their acting is that bad... or worse.

Had the producers pumped a few more dollars into this thing, and cast not necessarily well known talent, but competent talent into the roles, and then re-aired the project several times, then guaranteed this thing would have made its sponsors proud, and then some by boost DVD sales. As it stands now this thing is only five bucks to buy on the open market, and believe you me there's a couple of reasons for that; they are Furman and Loken.

Technically, other than the art direction, the shots are simply okay. Better lensing as well as overall direction could have saved this thing, and pushed into beyond its niche, and into the realm of general audiences appreciating a well crafted and acted film. As it stands now it simply appeals to the Tolkien and D&D crowd. And again, this didn't need to be so, but the film is what it is.

Dramatically the film tries to go into the realms of love and betrayal, and we get a taste of that by virtue of the story. Even Loken starts to shine a little as an actress when she does her scenes that address this concept, but we're weighed down by the fact that nobody seems to really care about the lines they're reciting. Well, perhaps that's unfair, because most of the supporting cast do an okay job.

Overall I'm glad I saw it finally, but it's not something I'd readily recommend.

Definitely watch at your own risk.

I really enjoyed the movie (having read the Wagner play for my German classes a decade ago, and then already liking the story). Of course there are not many surprises, given that the story is one and an half centuries old (more if you trace back to the original legends)

Most acting was decent, I didn't like the performance of Alicia Witt though, though I can't really pinpoint what irritated me about her performance. Of course she is not a likable character, but it just seemed that the timing was a bit off, and the acting was a bit forced.

I also liked some of the historic points like the reference to the Roman Emperor, and little details like Roman legionairs (or at least people using their weaponry and armour) walking in the cities. Xanten, one of the central cities was one of the most important, if not the most important Roman city in the Germania Superior province.

although the flick was somewhat dragged through mud by some people who commented on who played the parts and how well chosen they were for that it is my belief that the movie is much better because... like many other versions before it, it respects a certain guideline of the actual story "das nibelungenlied". Although the fight scenes are impressive at times it is not that which the makers intended. these scenes appear this way because in the written version of the story they are presented with a certain grandeur and dramatic value. all in all.. this may not be the best movie ever made on this subject.. but it is a damned good one and one can see the actual striding of the filming cast and crew to make it what it is. now just buy or rent it, stop reading about other peoples opinions about it.

This film is a beautiful legend about the true love, hate, betrayal and friendship. I think not the effects are the most important thing in this movie but the message it gives to us. I will remember this film because there are very few films with such strong message. Everyone who believes in good and in morals should see this movie! The actors play is not at a high level with the exception of Max Von Sudof and Kristanna Loken but this is not so important because the background of the film - the history on the basis of which it was made is fascinating. I really enjoyed the play of Kristanna Loken. She proved that she is one of the most prospering actresses at the moment. Especially in such epic kind of movies. Enjoy the film.

This movie was seemingly made by an amateur (in the worst sense of the word) with a big budget. The guy who plays Siefried is thisclose to doing male porn. And whoever plays "Buffy the Brunhilde" should go back to working at the Dairy Queen in Rolla, Missouri. Max von Sydow looks nauseated to be involved. He's got an expression like "wait'll I get my hands on my agent..." If you have any interest in this story, get yourself the George Solti recording of the REAL "Die Nibelungen" and a translation (unless you're German) of the libretto. Better yet, mortgage the condo and go see the actual staged opera. I guarantee the experience will blow away even the Lord of the Rings movies. Short of that, maybe try to find a copy of the Fritz Lang silent version of Die Nibelungen. It kicks dirt all over this one.

I always seize every chance I get to see a production of a true classic. Ring of the Nibelungs was a diluted, Hallmark-style commercial TV version of the Wagnerian opera epic - but nevertheless it managed to be quite exciting and exhibit good entertainment value.

The first hour or so was slightly boring, but it got much better in the last two thirds. I was quite caught up in the story, and quite interested in the characters. And though it was a vastly simplified version of the original story, it did keep all the most essential structural elements. I thought it worked quite well.

The actors were mostly good. I liked Alicia Witt, especially at the end when she realized and regretted what she had done. That was a powerful moment. But the most honorable mention must go to Kristanna Loken, who was anonymous and inexpressive in T3, but here managed to show that she is actually a highly capable young actress. She was fetching, to say the least! I loved her performance in the public duel at the wedding banquet!

I rate this TV movie a solid 7 out of 10.