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In a remote village at the edge of the Ancient Roman Empire,
a young girl called Serena
is enslaved and her family butchered by the sadistic Roman
General Crassius. Ten years later the young girl has become
a reluctant slave-dancer, but after stabbing a depraved Roman
senator in self-defence she is forced to escape with a fearsome
Amazonian warrior. Under the protection of the Amazons, Serena
learns the art of mortal combat and, driven by her hatred
of Crassius, soon finds herself in a savage gladiatorial arena,
pitted against impossible odds, but resolved to avenge her
parents death at any cost...
Gladiator
was
a cinematic masterpiece and Xena is a camp, often funny
TV series. Amazons and Gladiators tries to pass itself
off as a cross between the two. But it isn't. It is neither
serious or moving enough to be a poor relation to Gladiator,
nor is it camp enough to be compared to Xena.
It
is so obvious that this is a low budget movie. The sets look
like balsa wood and to avoid building a huge amphitheatre
to rival The Coliseum, the writers move the action into the
middle of nowhere. This now means that the gladiator battles
take place in a venue that would be better suited as the location
of a modern day amateur dramatic society's annual pantomime.
There
are two scenes that will make you cringe with embarrassment.
Firstly the writers try to cleverly pay homage to Fight
Club with a line about the rules of the Amazonians and
secondly the ending to the movie has a really preachy, don't
treat women like objects, speech.
This
last scene is awful, made more risible by the fact this is
exactly what the production has just spent the last 90mins
doing. There is a perfect example of this where our hero has
to fight a man - we are told she won't win because men are
stronger. Well done! They have managed to produce an exploitative
movie which shows women as objects of desire.
There
is one interesting twist in the movie, but rather stupidly
someone at Paramount decided to spoil this by printing the
details on the back of the video sleeve - slick move.
If
this had more sex scenes it would be a passable soft porn
movie, as it is it is a dogs dinner of a movie - stick to
Xena. Now I never thought I'd say that.
Nick
Smithson
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