Parents' Guide to Desert Warrior

Although it has a clear message about working together, this epic adventure movie is just too overly familiar and, in the end, doesn't really engage or resonate emotionally. Directed and co-written by Rupert Wyatt, Desert Warrior is said to be based (loosely) on real events, and is, to date, the most expensive movie shot in Arabia (at $150 million). But when you're actually watching it, it's hard to believe those things. Mackie's scoundrel bandit and Hart's plucky princess will no doubt remind many viewers of Han Solo and Princess Leia in Star Wars, but without their chemistry or tension. Other moments feel plucked right out of the Mad Max movies and a number of classic Westerns, and there's even a reference (unintentional?) to Raiders of the Lost Ark ("bad dates...").

What's more, the story is strangely inert, despite frequent bloody action scenes. The entire movie is about assembling the team and readying for the big battle, which takes up the final half hour. The editing of that battle is rapid-fire and choppy, so that it's difficult to tell the heroes from the villains. It's all a blur. Speaking of the villains played by scenery-chewers Copley and Kingsley (in only one scene), they're about as one-dimensional as villains get, relentless and cruel, with no shred of humanity. Not even Mackie, who's usually enormously likable, is able to do much with his unnamed bandit, other than to wear a grim look throughout. Desert Warrior does have a few good moments, and the scenery is pretty, but it could have been genuinely epic.