User Reviews

"10.000 AD - Black Pearl" is one rather unusual movie, you can't really compare it to "10.000 BC" or any other recent blockbusters. If the comparison is allowed, it rather is following the footsteps of "Conan the Barbarian" with John Milius' questionable 'Nietzsche for dummies' bits between fights - just with a kind of ecological mysticism for substitute, although that would-be philosophy finally boils down to a "we can only save the world if all tribes unite" idea combined with the cringe-inducing "you are the chosen one". The story around that is equally simple: as always in fantasy movies, the heroes need a magical object (sword, amulet, crown, crystal... in this case a black pearl) to win the war against Evil. Thousands of years after the Third War, Evil is personified by the demon Sinasu and Good by a warrior who requires two teachers until he is ready to fight.

I really enjoyed the technical side of the movie. The camera makes beautiful shots of the wilderness, from the mountains to under water. The music creates a mysterious 'otherworldly' atmosphere with simple folk instruments and voices. The editing is amazing. Scenes which begin on a mountain top are suddenly continued on a beach, a fight is suddenly interrupted by a dialog, the present by a glimpse of the past - you constantly have to pay attention, this makes the whole movie much more challenging.

"10.000 AD - Black Pearl" is esthetically superior to 99 per cent of the low budget movies. Unfortunately it makes the mistake to rely on its story and symbolism too much. The actors are discussing the drought after the Third War destroyed nature - while they are standing in a green forest next to a brook. It is meant to be meaningful, but doesn't make much sense, frankly speaking. "Good looking, ambitious, creative, but not convincing enough", could be the fitting bottom line.

I don't know where to begin on how bad this actually was. It could have worked. It could have. But it didn't. To me, the movie falls short in many many areas.

First, the plot is lacking, and is full of literary cliché. The chosen one, mystical item that only the chosen one can use, and the fate that the chosen one save the world. It also seemed to me that the story kept bouncing around from time period to time period without really showing us much, and to make it worse, it was hard to tell when in time they were. The only indication seemed to be Ergo's facial hair.

Second, the movie seems full of anachronisms and plot holes. Supposedly, several thousand years have passed since the end of the world, yet many remains of civilization seem to still be standing and in rather good condition for the amount of time that has passed. One such thing, is a tank that sits on the beach. Any metal object would have corroded away after a few centuries and not be around after a millennium, let alone several. Another thing that fails is the lack of any technology. Nuclear war would not revert mankind to the stone age. Pre-industrial, maybe, or even classical Greek, but not stone-age. Also, several instances of metal (Such as Ergo's eyebrow ring) and finely worked stone seem to occur, while the characters cannot even seem to create shoes, wooden tools and weapons, or crafts of any kind, while at the same time having woven clothes (Which they seemed to keep impeccably clean throughout). As far as plot holes are concerned, not only do the characters seem to hope around the continent (they seem to travel between the Rockies, Hawaii, Yosemite National Park, New England, British Columbia, and the Grand Canyon), but for being a post apocalyptic world where is supposedly never rains, the country seems overly lush and green, as well as there being flowing rivers and snowfields.

The final problems that stood out to me, was some of the more technical aspects. I know this is an independent film, but, there are many things that could have been better still. The camera never seemed to be steady, and was always bobbing up and down. Could have used a tripod, I feel. The fighting choreography could also have been better. Many times when characters were fighting, it looked like they had based it of the Dragonball anime, and it looked like they were playing patty-cake. Oh, and everyone seemed to have some level of magical ninja power. Finally, the first 30 minutes are narrated and the characters speak in some unknown language, but at one point, they switch into plain English and the narration stops. If they were going to start one way, they should have continued.

Good for a MST3k-ing, but otherwise, needs work.

And that's all I have to say about that.