Lenya – Die größte Kriegerin aller Zeiten (TV Movie 2001)

Lenya – Die größte Kriegerin aller Zeiten: Directed by Michael Rowitz. With Anja Knauer, Hendrik Duryn, Julian Weigend, Walter Kreye. Walsung has been invaded by Burgundian troops of tyrant-king Hagir of Amelung. A prophecy says ‘The old gods send a hero to end the reign of the tyrant-king’. Odin himself decrees this chosen one will be the young warrior maiden Lenya.

“u0026#39;Lenyau0026#39; is a film about a young peasant girl who is chosen by the gods for a special task. She has to find a special sword and deal with an evil witch. So much for the story which could be lifted from a Xena episode. But I think it is better because it is not as goofy as Xena, the actors are better and the look of the film is more convincing. The performances of the actors were good, especially Sonja Kirchberger was fun to watch as the evil witch. Anja Kramers performance was good too, but her voice sometimes was so flat I thought she was reading a book.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe fight scenes were a mixed bag, some scenes looked obviously staged. The visual effects were a little bit too much in my opinion but of acceptable quality for a TV film. I really liked the locations of this film because they looked simply magnificent with all the old castles and wide landscapes (unlike Xena where every village looks the same). As far as I can tell the interior scenes were shot in the real castles or buildings and not on a soundstage which adds to the atmosphere. The camera work, however, was a mess. Whenever people were talking or fighting the camera moved around which was pretty annoying. Another overused technique was to show the same scene four times in a row from different angles. If used one or two times for an important scene it looks cool and emphasizes the tension, but used every five minutes (as in this film) it got pesky very fast. One further issue was the sound mixing because music was at some points too loud and the lip synchronisation was now and then (especially in the camp scene at the beginning) very poor. Also some scenes included more hissing and breathing than any other sound which was probably supposed to rise the suspense but made it sound awkwardly. The editor cut the film very fast but, again, at some points it just didnu0026#39;t fit and disturbed the pacing of the film. Given more attention in post production this should have been avoided.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor a TV movie produced by RTL (for people outside Germany: RTL equals crap) I was pretty surprised to have seen a film where I didnu0026#39;t had the feeling to have wasted two hours. The story isnu0026#39;t original in any way, but the actors perform very well and the look convinces so if you like Xena or Hercules you will probably like this too. I voted 7/10.”