Movie Review: Ring of the Nibelungs

Do you like Lord of the Rings? If you are a fan, then you would be interested to know the source to Tolkein's inspirations to the forging of the world of Middle Earth. J.R.R. Tolkein was a fan of Norse mythology, and he drew inspirations from various materials such as Beowulf, and some of the epic sagas from the old Norse world. Such as the Völsungasaga and Nibelungenlied (the two are actually parallel to each other, while the Nibelungenlied is pretty much the German version of the Saga of Volsungs).

Nibelungenlied, is the story of Siegfried the dragon slayer and Brünhild (the Queen of Iceland). It is epic, beautiful and tragic. A story about love, greed, friendship and betrayal. The movie, Ring of the Nibelungs is a TV mini-series based fantasy film made in 2004. The story is based on the Saga of the Volsungs and German epic poem Nibelungenlied. It is a 2 parts film that contains parts of the stories from the Völsungasaga. I watched it on home video just a few days ago, and I think it is one of the most faithful film adaptations ever made.

The story of Ring of the Nibelungs is about the rise and the fall of Seigfried, a hero whose fame was built after he slew a dragon. The DVD version of the film is 177 minutes, and has two parts. Part 1 focuses on Seigfried's rise to power. Part 2 is portrays how greed, jealousy and betrayal brought doom upon the main characters in the story. I do not want to spoil the story here, so all I am going to say is that the story is one of the most intriguing tales in Norse mythology.

The movie itself is well made, one must remember that this is a low budget, direct to TV film, so it does not have the Hollywood standard production values. However, the cinematography is very well done. The acting is medicore, while the lead characters did a good job, the supporting actors/actress are less expressive. Part 1 of the movie is a bit cheesy, but part 2 is when the movie really gets interesting, where the characters and the story really start to develop.

The central theme of the story is about the consequences of greed, but I have to put up warnings here, unlike Hollywood productions where most stories have happy endings, the ending to Ring of the Nibelungs is tragic, but this is a faithful adaptation to the original poem, and I thought the director did a good job at keeping the story original and resisted the temptation of altering the story to make an "Americanized, general film". Ring of the Nibelungs is like Lord of the Rings, the differences are that it is much darker and is set in the ancient Norse world.

Overall, I really liked Ring of the Nibelungs, not only because I am a fan of the Völsungasaga myself, but more so because this movie is a great adaptation. If you like Tolkein's Middle Earth mythology, and like the movie Lord of the Rings then I think you will like Ring of the Nibelungs.

Ratings:

Story 10/10 - faithful to the original Völsungasaga and Nibelungenlied, the story is epic, beautiful, dark and tragic.

Video 3.5/5 - this is a low budget direct to TV mini series, the production value is not on par with the Hollywood ones, but the visuals and cinematography are great.

Sound 3/5 - The music is good, but the sound effect for the fighting scenes are over done.

Acting 3/5 - the lead actor/actress did a good job, but the supporting actor/actress are somewhat mechanical in their portrayals, expressions and emotions.

Violence - The level of violence in this film is not very high compared to most of the Hollywood movies. Most of the death scenes only contain blood, and no decapitation or amputation of limbs on human. There is a scene showing the head of a dead dragon, but I think most audience over the age of 13 should be fine with the violence level in this movie.

Sex/nudity: There is one sex scene earlier in the movie and contains partial nudity, there are no frontal nudity scenes.

Final score: 7.5/10 - A good and enjoyable movie, if you like Lord of the Rings then don't miss it.