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There will always be those films whose plots revolve around creating
opportunities for action and adventure sequences and frequently
they will be constructed well enough that we can get something
out of the story while enjoying the adventure. Not so with Sinbad:
Legend of the Seven Seas. Everything that we are fed in Sinbad
is constantly ridiculous. That works out OK in the adventure scenes,
wherein the ridiculous becomes fun, but it doesn’t work
so well in the story parts, which we are expected to take seriously.
Sinbad tells a story that starts out with Eris (Michelle
Pfeiffer), the goddess of chaos, who feels the need to wreck chaos
in the world but needs control of the Book of Peace to do so.
For some strange reason, she needs a scapegoat, and she frames
a pirate thief named Sinbad (Brad Pitt). This is bad because Sinbad
is childhood friends with Proteus (Joseph Fiennes), the Prince
of Syracuse and the one in charge of the safekeeping of the Book
of Peace.
Sinbad is about to get his head chopped off when Proteus nobly
offers to take his place so that Sinbad can go get the book back
from the goddess. Sinbad takes off to the edge of the world, accompanied
by Proteus’ fiancé, Mariana (Catherine Zeta-Jones),
to go take the book back. Along the way, Eris throws constant
obstacles in the way of their voyage that they have to overcome
as they go.
And that’s the sensible part. Nevermind that Sinbad kills
a dragon, boards down a mountain on a shield with Mariana in his
arms, jumps safely off a cliff, rides giant sea creatures at high
speeds, sails through the sky with the support of the boat’s
sails and successfully gets a book away from a goddess. We can
believe all that.
What we can’t buy are the parts that don’t need to
be unnatural. For example, we are given zero reasons why Mariana
doesn’t love Proteus (except that he doesn’t travel),
zero reasons why Mariana does love Sinbad (except that he does
travel), zero reasons to believe that Proteus is just fine with
Mariana’s leaving him and most importantly, zero reasons
to believe why Sinbad undergoes any real change of heart.
Then again, the kids are here to see the action, and there’s
a lot of it. The adventure sequences are almost nonstop, allowing
only for short breathers before getting back into the thick of
it again. Although fairly simply animated, they are still visually
exciting and constantly moving. They make up the core of the movie
and are usually entertaining enough to keep watching. It’s
also fun to see the use of so many ancient legends, probably unknown
to the kids, that are reinvented and played out in the adventures.
But even with all the unbelievable action and adventure, I think
it’s still possible, even in an action-adventure cartoon,
to tell a sincere and affecting story. Sinbad doesn’t.
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