AlexanderExtazy I gave it a 9... and I would have given this movie a 10 if only in the start they didn't say: "Spain ruled the world" ... which was widely acknowledged at that time and even at this time with all the historic studies that it wasn't true.Beyond the written introduction... I had to watch this movie 3 times in a row within a weeks' time in order to satisfy my believe that this theme is as close to Renaissance era as any other movie could make believe.Viggo's acting was incredible as usual... along with all other characters in the movie from start to finish.The storyline is remarkably amazing, along with the entire historical setting and cinematics. I couldn't be more happier for all history fans as I was.The ending was very aspiring, as well as "realistic" in my point of view; in comparison to Hollywood's bull-crap where the main character worships the girl at end of the movie, or in nicer words: the main character does a 100% complete change of profile at the very end of movie.But in Alatriste; Viggo starts as a mercenary and ends the movie being a mercenary... Not end it by running off with a girl and worship her till next world to come.I cannot say anymore words except please watch this if you are a history fan... it is beautiful !

jackasstrange My goodness. How the producers of this film could dare to slap our faces so hardly. Seriously. Apart from the fact that it can be single-handed the most painfully watching experience that i've ever had, there is nothing to remember about this film. Quite the opposite, actually. Or not. It's badness transcended the levels of the acceptable to any human stand through, so it maybe had hurt my brain and left in it forever a scar that will always remember me how was hard and painfully to watch this abomination.The plot is awful,awful,awful. It has no signs of any connection between the events which pops out at every two minutes in the film.The plot also don't has a premise, and even less a definite direction. It don't has any objectives. Pointless, in other words. The story makes no sense, the character development is non-existent.. Yeah. This, is in a short resume, a film totally slow and with almost two hours of pointless scenes which leads to nothing. And again, non- sense. I can't think in anything worse than a boring and nonsense film.A good thing about this film would be the cinematography. It's great, really very good, it inspiration in baroque paintings is evident. But even the cinematography is a bit messed. The lightning sometimes don't correspond to the ambient. Being said, this film is so atrocious that nothing can't save it,anyways.Do yourself a favor and avoid this film, unless if you want to appreciate the good cinematography of the film. If that is the case, just watch a few scenes.2.6/10

leoyoshiyang When I saw the low rating, I thought it was those foreign B-movies. By "foreign", I mean out of Hollywood and/or the international scene. I thought it had a weak plot, with no inventive happenings neither the other extreme, a lot of turn arounds. What happens is that this film is very balanced, it divides well, there's mainly action and romance, although the script flows really nice. I stayed always interested in what was going to happen and also in the characters, even though I couldn't distinguish them sometimes. I've got to give credit for the representation of that time. The clothes and scenario were good and the acting was much more positive than negative. You can notice how life was at that time, really different but the same. My writing may seem incompatible with my rating, but that's because I'm bad with praising.

m0rg16 The film could have been good. When you find an epic film produced in Spain, you expect it to be lacking in production design. You'd be wrong. This film looks grand and excellent, with action scenes that can rival Hollywoods and sets that will blow your mind away. But it tries to cover 6 books in 2½ hours! The result, as you can imagine, is a lot of incomprehensible jumps.If you're interested in history, it is worth a look but otherwise you might as well skip it. They should have adapted 1 or 2 novels. Not all 3. The result is that none of the characters get any depth and except for Alatriste, no characters are that frequent. Not even his comrades or his lover get that many scenes and they are spread out across the film.Very little is explained. The best example of this is the transition from a scene where Alatriste helps his young apprentice up from a shore to the final battle. Just like that, with no explanation, we're thrown into a battle in Flanders between France and Spain.I very much enjoyed the action scenes however. Very well made. The film was also very gritty and brutal. A testament to this is how many people in this film are stabbed in the throat, or across it. A knife is an effective weapon that can quickly kill a man in a most undramatic way, but it is hard to portray this effectively on film. But here, the filmmakers do not try to glorify their action. They just show it as it could have happened in real life.