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Marco Polo (TV)
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (21st September 2007). |
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The Film
 The longer the movie kept going, two things happened : a) the less and less impressed I was with it, and b) the more I wished it finished. The movie has the distinct feel of lack of research and amateurish meandering. It feels as if the filmmakers knew the vague outline of Marco Polo's life, put it up on the screen, and filled in the rest themselves. A great example of the level of research that went into the movie: Marco Polo and his party visit China, and everybody there speaks Cantonese. (Well, actually, essentially all of the movie is in English, but I won't go into that.) Only a small part of China speaks Cantonese, and Marco Polo only visited that area at the end of his 17-year sojourn in China. He and his party entered China from its Northern side, where people would presumably speak Mandarin (or an older dialect thereof). (The characters also mention Afghanistan by name, when the first usage of the name was some 400 years after Mr. Polo's visit!) The same logic went into casting Brian Dennehy as the leader of the Mongols, Kublai Khan. (Obviously the second greatest casting choice ever, right after John Wayne playing Ghengis Khan in 'The Conqueror'.) This brings me to the star Ian Somerhalder, who may be pretty but can't act himself out of a fine silk gown. His... Italian (?) accent is atrocious and is the perfect example of the acting in this movie: people who have accents, shouldn't, and people who don't have accents, should. Mr. Somerhalder has a bad Italian accent (sometimes), Brian Dennehy has no accent and Singapore actress Desiree Ann Siahaan has a proper British-sounding accent, when she's supposed to be a Chinese maiden. The only half-decent actor is Miss Siahaan, but she's not in the movie much. The writer chose to structure the film weirdly, which really makes no sense other than to start the movie with Marco Polo on his deathbed. Mr. Polo talks about his past, of his time in a Genoan prison. In prison, he recalls his time in China. This structure is really pointless and only serves to initially confuse the viewer. With all this going for it, the movie keeps up the quality with such insipid dialogue. When Kublai Khan says things like, 'The Chinese are the most creative people in the world', you definitely feel the Western influence in the mouths of the Eastern citizens. It's quite appalling and simply ignorant. As the movie keeps going, it gets more and more bogged down with politics and a pointless love story. When Marco Polo decides to visit the Far East (going from Italy to China isn't an easy task) and travels there in 24 minutes, you kind of know that the 2½ hours coming up won't go by as quickly. I'm done talking about this movie. It's pretty much on par with the 'Noah's Ark' TV movie from 1999. If you come across it, simply fling it out your window. Seeing it fly out there is far more entertaining than watching it go in your player. The one redeeming feature - the cinematography - isn't really redeeming because anybody could film incredibly picturesque vistas in China. It's not very hard to make a pretty movie there. If you absolutely want to see a movie about Marco Polo, stick with Chang Cheh's 'Marco Polo', from 1975. It's about as historically accurate as this one, but it's lot more fun to watch.
Video
1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Having a nearly-3-hour movie on a single disc will present problems (unless it's 'King Kong'). The backgrounds here are often a big murky and show definite mosquito and low-level noise. Black walls are especially prone to these problems. Apart form that, the picture does a appear a bit soft. Colours are okay, but not overly bright. The contrast could be a bit better. Print defects are never a problem, as are compression artifacts. At least there's no edge enhancement, or pixelation. The picture is good on a tube TV, but on a higher-end set, you'll start seeing all the problems with it.
Audio
The only audio track is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Apart from the fact that English would not have been even close to being spoken in that place and time, the track is okay. A lot of the movie consists of dialogue, and all the bad accents are clear (well, clearly heard, at least). The score and music are also heard very well, and occasionally use up the back speakers. The sparse action sequences do use the back speakers but only minimally and don't present the best mixing. The overall aural experience is okay, but just okay, and could easily be better. No subtitles are provided.
Extras
Genius decided to add a few features to their disc. First is Exploring Marco Polo (15:37) and it's your typical EPK. The director, producer and stars talk about Marco Polo, then talk about each other and end up talking about working in China. It's an okay EPK and, as always, the most interesting part of this is the behind the scenes footage. next is An Interview with Golden Globe Award-winner Brian Dennehy (6:15). Mr. Dennehy gives a nice interview. He talks about how he got the part and how he prepared to play Kublai Khan. He seemed pretty surprised that he was offered the part. He also talks about his fellow cast mates and the crew members that he knows. It's a short interview, but better than nothing. The Trailer (1:46) is next. A good trailer, it makes the movie seem better than it is. If you're a sharp viewer, you'll hear the crappy accents and realise the type of movie it will be. To finish things off - or rather, to start things off - there are some Start-up Trailers for 'Pandemic', 'Killer Wave' and 'Son of the Dragon' (with David Carradine!).
Overall
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