Review of Ironclad: Battle for Blood

-- I am no professional reviewer by any definition, but I don't understand the low ratings this movie is getting. Of course this movie is no modern epic with a $100 million dollar budget, however for what it did cost I think they did a VERY good job. -- They did an excellent job of recreating a medieval village with the castle behind it to retreat into when attacked by Picts, Celts, Woads, or Brigands. They created a most believable little pocket of medieval times and I don't know about these other reviewers but I was able to thoroughly be fooled and fall into the story. I read some review that discredited the language used but this wasn't a history channel special, it's an escapist window into another world for entertainment and I think this movie does this very well. And if it forces the viewers to actually exercise their imagination a tiny bit so much the better. -- I think the movie allows us to suspend reality for a little while and go back into a more violent time and that is exactly what it is supposed to do. The costumes and make up are real looking and professionally done which adds to the success of the movie. The only thing I saw in this movie that wasn't totally realistic to the mind is some portions of the story where they had to perhaps not show in great detail for the sake of time. An example of this was the young Hubert's travel to find his cousin which is accomplished mainly by scenes of him riding a horse across ridge lines to the left and then when they return they go across the same country only to the right. This is acceptable because the movie would have to be 2 hours or longer if you fill every detail. -- However the story itself was believable to me. The young squire has matured into an experienced heavy combat specialist and in the process is now become deadened to life without the adrenaline rush of combat. Now living the life of a young man returned to his homeland and suffering from post combat stress reaction. He lives to get drunk, fight and wench. He is followed by his former combat partner, whose life he saved and who now follows him to pay this debt of honor. -- When he returns to the castle he finds it under siege by one or more Picti clans. I assume the castle is a real one and I was impressed that they showed one of the major weapons being used from the castle was dropping large rocks on the enemy and that when they began running short it was ordered that an unused old battlement be taken apart for more ammunition (realistic). Though the Picts using a piece of roman torsion artillery I am not sure about. It appeared to be an over sized Ballista and was throwing high velocity logs at the castles stone walls. I know the Romans had these and they fought the Picts along Hadrian's Wall so I suppose they could have acquired one or the plans for one. I was just a bit surprised by the hit power being attributed to the weapon in the movie and why it was not directed at the Castle gate. However those are minor issues and I only noted them because I work with weapons. -- As a whole I find that I liked this movie and I was disappointed by those who have given it such a low rating. I think this was a very good basic entertainment movie, being well worth the cost of rental, though had I watched it at theater prices I might not have been so impressed. I might even watch this movie again time permitting. I hope they make another sequel and get enough of a budget to do a complete and higher quality job. -- I gave the movie a rating of 8 just to off set these ridiculously low rating by what I can only imagine are overly picky reviewers or people who paid theater prices to see it. -- My first blush rating was a 5.5 to 6.0