By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Anyone attempting to watch Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage Ultimate Director’s Cut should know three things. First, it was originally released in 2014. Whatever new footage was added back in, a search for the original release is required to make comparisons. So far, I had no luck in finding…
Second, this homage to the classic films of yore recalls when Ray Harryhausen set the bar with the special effects and third, suspension of disbelief is required because of the obvious green screen. Plus, don’t take this movie seriously. It’s modelled after those B movies of the golden age, and honestly, the sorcerer villain steals the show with a delightfully sinister and hammy performance which puts Skeletor from the man to shame. My interest was piqued because I watched Harryhausen’s work and had to see this tribute to the stop motion king. Some of it even dates back to Willis O’Brien’s styling.
The narrative takes a best of approach from each adventure Sinbad (played by producer, writer, director Shahin Sean Solimon) undertake, and tries to be as coherent as possible as he attempts to rescue his love Firoozeh (Sadie Alexandru), from the said sorcerer.
The better animated moments are with Shiva and the Roc. I’m sure two more fantastic creations could have been added. However, to avoid being liable, the effects people had to redesign from the ground up. That is, I didn’t find the skeleton warrior as terrifying whereas that grimace in the original was far more terrifying. Most of the puppets look good, and I suspect fans of O’Brien and Harryhausen will check this film out no matter what.
3 Stars out of 5
