The Princess and the Warrior

Director: Tom Tykwer
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 2.0

Truthfully, I could go into complete and total detail with the flaws of the picture, but that would grow tedious and I honestly don't feel it's worth the effort. Truth be told, Tykwer has impeccable visual sense and an interesting cinematic style, but content-wise, The Princess and the Warrior, pretentious and full of self-importance, is poorly thought out. Franka Potente has her life saved by a would-be bank robber; they form an irrepressible bond that starts off with his hating her (Potente wins the "Big Trooper" award for getting hit by a bus, almost shot, her throat cut open, punched by her father, choked by the bank robber and thrown down by the bank robber); eventually they fall in love because that's what fate says has to happen. The second part of the movie feels like a series of "and then's" tacked on to one another to little success (it drags on to infinity - just when you think it's going to end ... it keeps going). The last five minutes - Tykwer's only shot at complete abstraction - are ludicrous.