Marionettes - - fuck yeah! Well, not really, Team America having inevitably deprived this ambitious Anglo-Scandinavian co-production of much of its puppet power. Still, Anders Rønnow-Klarlund's dark fantasy - - set in an alt-universe where mannequins acknowledge the cords that connect them to unseen powers above the clouds - - remains a good-looking affair with a nightmarish edge.
The Hamlet-influenced narrative revolves around a young prince who disguises himself as a slave to find his father's killer. But the plot's just a hook over which Klarlund and co-writer Naja Marie Aidt can hang their philosophical musings on the fragility of existence and the ties that bind all living things, not to mention epic battle scenes that aren't a million miles from The Lord Of The Rings. Shame the British voice cast's so bland, the likes of James McAvoy, Ian Hart and Derek Jacobi taking their characters' woodenness rather too much to heart.
