The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake

 Lazy sunday afternoon, so that means time for one of those traditional TV adventure movies, this one hailing from 2009.

 

 

Don't expect a blockbuster though, these are the kind of movies you just enjoy on the couch for what they are: television flicks.

 

In 1592, Captain Francis Drake sets sail from Cadiz, his rival Don Sandovate (hello Boba Fett) on his tail.  But unbeknowst to him, his daughter had hidden onboard his ship as well.  They get into a storm, finding themselves suddenly 2000 miles of course in Syria.  Here they are greeted by a Sultan, who tells them his oracle magically had them summoned to him.

 

 

His reputation preceeding him, the Sultan had him brought in order to find the Tree of Life and help his people, who suffer from a plague.  Drake agrees to the proposed terms, and first sets of to find the Map of Plato in the Library of Alexandria's ruins.  His onboard historian unlocks the riddles as they go, leading to finally find the tree on the artic regions, where he finally gets rid of Sandovate as well.

 

So, the positives of this short (86 minutes) SyFy channel made movie: it is enjoyable for what it is, a historical figure (sir Francis Drake) tossed in a story suitable for Sindbad or Jason and the Argonauts, including mythical monsters, hidden tombs and swashbuckling galore.

 

The neutral is the special effects.  You can see this is a television budget made movie, and especially the big monsters suffer from it, not going above "Xena Warrior Princess" level, except that technology has advanced more then a decade between this movie and the venerable series of my youth.

 

And of course there is the negatives, and one that is for many critics a big one: the acting... Adrien Paul is tossing around a terrible accent, and the additional actors are, well, let's say they give off the vibe of a bunch of very enthousiastic rennaissance faire battlefield re-enactors.  With all respects to the re-enactors, they do it out of love, and these blokes actually do it as a profession...

 

 

Never the less, for an hour and a half of watching there have been far worse movies out there, so I personally don't think it a terrible waste of time in the end.