George P. Reviewed on 11/3/2016...
Weak as all hell homage to the classic Sinbad movies. It's bad on just about every level. The guy playing Sinbad is dreadfully dull, and I don't mean dreadfully dull in the classic sense. I mean they could have found a better Sinbad by walking into a crowded laundromat blindfolded! Why not cast someone with some charisma to play the lead in the movie? Is it unfair for viewers to expect a little energy from the star of an action-adventure movie?!
They used stop-motion animation, much like the older Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films. This was the nerd-draw of the movie, and the reason why people like me actually looked forward to it. I read something about the movie way before it came out and was blown away by the concept. A Ray Harryhausen styled movie in this modern era of CGI ladened movies? Yes, I was "all-in". Unfortunately it almost takes a movie like this to make one remember and realize the greatness that was Ray Harryhausen. Harryhausen was deeply involved with all aspects of the filmmaking process, resulting in high action/adventure films with energetic actors and special effects that blended together seamlessly with the musical scores and rich colors and so on. It just all worked!
We don't get any of that good stuff here. The creature designs are basically deplorable. Well, I did like the giant beetle creature design, but the Roc looked terrible and was animated poorly. And what is that blue demon thing at the beginning of the movie? It looks like a child's toy from the jiffy mart. Seriously, wtf is that?! Anyway they drained the Harryhausen well with a Kali statue (Golden Voyage) and a Cyclops (7th Voyage). The scene with Kali was done so poorly, it's not at all accurate to label it a homage. Just awful. And the Cyclops looks like Homer Simpson. Ok so here's the biggest problem with the FX: the animation is uneventful and lifeless! The entire movie feels cheap and rushed, sadly resulting in a lost opportunity.
Tough for me to say this because the end result is such a sad, sick joke of a movie, but I do applaud the effort of the filmmakers and animators even though they did a really bad job.