Young Charles is placed on the Frankish throne in the middle of the 8th Century A.D. Despite having many powerful enemies he slowly unites the nations of Western Europe and rebuilds civilization on the ruins of the Roman Empire. Young Charlemagns is placed on the Frankish throne in the middle of the 8th Century A.D. Despite having many powerful enemies he slowly unites the nations of Western Europe and rebuilds civilization on the ruins of the Roman Empire. This movie was astoundingly bad. The acting in this movie was below zero at best, the action was terrible, and the overall storytelling was atrocious. This film almost made me stop watching movies for awhile. And it was 5 hours?! This movie held me for all of 30 seconds before wasting seconds of my life with drudgery and there was no turning back from there. <br/><br/>It cannot be stressed enough the lack of validity in which this movie operates. I mean, the wife of a king telling another king what to do? That does not happen. And with the lack of any discerning acting talent, this movie proves that you have to leave the epics to those who can make them watchable. Not only was Helmut Griem excellent as Wiederkund, but Lino Capolicchio excels as "little" Pope Leo III !<br/><br/>When I originally saw this in 1994, I right-away saw in Capolicchio as "little Leo", our Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger…who is now of course our Pope Benedict XVI….Incredible, but that was my first impression!!!<br/><br/>Dark Aeges, HAH! Seeing this will make you yearn to know more about Fr.Alcuin of York (played by Frank Finlay), the greatness of "Karl derGrosse" (Christian Brendel) and the tragedy of Roland (Xavier duLac). It shows the conversion of the Germanic Tribes, their humility, and the splendour of European history. Beautifully acted, beautifully written, and inspirationally Catholic!<br/><br/>You will take the whole "epic" to heart indeed!
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295 weeks ago