The 13th Warrior
User Comments

September 27, 1999

I am so glad someone else shares my opinion of Crichton.  I first heard Sphere as a book on tape and immediately filed it in the trash. Although he does occassionally have some great plot ideas, the characters are so flat that they are like cardboard paper dolls being moved around a set.  No matter how fast paced the action, it is hard to care about the outcome because the characters are not real people. It annoys me that he is so successful.  It especially annoys me when I find I do enjoy some of his work, mostly because even when it is good, the development of the characters could make it really great and yet he is never willing (or able) to take that final step. Thanks for all the great details in your reviews.

-- Laurie E.

Thanks for writing. Yes, it seems we agree on Mr. Crichton. In Sphere, his idea of character development was to inform us that so-and-so had earned 2 PhD's from MIT by the age of 20... or something to that effect. As for the ending, the less said about it, the better. The tragedy is that Crichton's initial inspiration for a story is often good. I just wish somebody else would execute it.

--Carlo

In the first paragraph, the reviewer said: "While few.....once in a while one comes along that doesn't suck......To these, we can now add The 13th Warrior...." That means this movie does NOT suck, right? But the rest of the review says that the movie sucks, BIG time. Well? This is rather confusing!

--Justin S.

Justin,

I'm sorry if the review was not clear. You are correct... in the opening paragraph I meant that the movie doesn't suck (especially by comparison to most fantasy films). I have rated the movie a C+, which according to our scale means a reasonably enjoyable but unremarkable film... i.e., barely above average. Meaning in this case that the movie wasn't good, but I had an O.K. time watching it.

I've just looked over my review, and I agree that it does seem a bit critical for a C+ movie. Still, I think I explained that the decent acting and some nicely-done scenes help to redeem a poorly written story. Anyway, thanks for the feedback. It helps to receive thoughtful criticism.

--Carlo

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