How sad is this?

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Wow. The cinematography in this movie is truly FANTASTIC. There are lots of truly incredible scenes of the natural beauty of New Zealand's north island. We were very impressed with the camera-work in the scenes where the flags ripple underwater, looking like blood. According to the credits (and the Wikipedia article) it was all filmed on location. And the music is haunting and is still running through my head 24 hours after seeing the movie.Even after traveling to Mauri (native) territory and saving the Mauri chief's life, our heroine is presented as very Pakea (white) in culture and outlook, telling her son she wants to take him to "our home" with the settlers. We found it less than plausible that she wouldn't have expected her 13-year-old son's identification with the Mauri life after 6 years of living with his Mauri grandfather, and by his wanting to go to war (had she never met any teenage boys before?).But that said, one thing we appreciated about this movie is that it didn't glorify the warfare. It didn't show the full blood-and-gore, but there were plenty of dead bodies about. The ending, where the heroine looks back on the futility of the wars, is moving and poignant.We found some of the Irish accents hard to follow, but the DVD offers subtitles.My wife and I have no problems giving this a 10/10.

This was one of the dullest movies I have seen in some time. I'm in my late 40s, and watched it with my son-in-law (early 20s) and son (17). The scenery was beautiful, but the story was a bust. We watched about an hour of it and turned it off. I spent more time on my iphone during the hour that we watched it than I spent actually watching the movie. I gave it a 3 because I enjoyed the scenery and cinematography; otherwise I would have given it a 1. I'm sure there are people who are really into the "art" of it all who will find my review appalling but we're all entitled to our own opinions, right? I couldn't figure out if this was supposed to be a "chick flick" where the focus was on the mother, or if it was supposed to be a movie for guys, with the focus on battle and adventure. In my opinion, it didn't succeed in either.

This is by far one the most boring movies I've ever seen! And if you don't believe me go ahead and watch it for yourself.The movie starts of slow, the storyline makes no sense at all. People fighting doesn't make any sense. I could not make sense of what they were talking during the movie (in most cases I didn't even bother) It does nothing to keep you watching the movie, the only plus point would be the cinematography. New Zealand looks awesome. Everything else just plain sucks.The actors try their best to keep us awake, but unfortunately you will go to sleep instead.Do us all a favor, even if this gets on "On Demand", Don't WATCH IT!

A good example of reversed, politically correct racism where white men are presented as senseless brutes who're only there to be massacred and their aboriginal adversaries as noble heroes, superior both in their appearance and abilities. Apart from making the story overally dull, this also prevents the neutral viewer to identify himself with one or the other side - it's just too simplifying. The repetitive score is incredibly annoying (as is the voice-over), the characters lack any depth and the viewer is soon lost between questions like "who is this character" and "what the hell is that supposed to mean". Photography is wonderful, though, and on the whole there's a lot of atmosphere to it but nice shots of misty landscapes alone don't save this movie. The DVD box uses Kiefer Sutherland as an eye-catcher. In fact, his character could have been played by anyone else because it's basically just an empty shell (like most non-Maori characters), and disappears anyway around halfway the film. But if you are eager to see Jack Bauer in a kilt, that's your kind of movie...