Labyrinth

It's quite possible that the low reviews for this series are influenced by its religious themes. Yet the producers must have been aware of the risk. Religion can be a polarizing subject. Any misstep-real or perceived-could lead to backlash.

However, I see the religious elements as metaphors, similar to how the shark in Jaws represented more than just a predator. This series, like Jaws, is ultimately about human experience. Themes of fear, guilt, redemption, and existential questioning resonate on multiple levels. When viewed this way, the characters' struggles feel more real and profound.

I give the series a 6.5 not only for the engaging characters, but also for the courage shown by the series creators.

My wife had read the book and while she said it wasn't one of the author's best, it was good enough, so I gave this a go. I've found that sometimes weaker books from an author make better films than stronger ones, and while I was a little dubious of the subject matter, I thought I'd give it a go anyway.

What I got was a heap of fairly risible trash, with phoned in performances, some remarkably passionless bonking, a retread of the familiar "It's all a Catholic plot!" Grail stuff, and a curiously strong desire to persecute Cathars. Not on religious grounds, mind you, just for being annoying. It's a pain when you're several hundred years too late to join in the fun :(. I'm just rather disappointed, overall. It's full of actors that I like, so I disregarded the rather uncomplimentary heads-up from the Radio Times and plowed on with it, only to come out at the end with, well, nothing.

The miniseries deals with two women , modern-day Alice Tanner (Vanessa Kirby) , a volunteer at a French archaeological excavation who finds the skeletal remains of two people in a cave , and medieval Alaïs Pelletier Du Mas (Jessica Findlay) , who lives through the Crusades and Cathar slaughters in medieval France , both of them are seeking the Holy Grail . As there are three sacred books that reveal the secret of the Holy Grail from the Crusaders and various tracks as a labyrinth-engraved ring that lead to resolve the enigmas . In 1209, newly married Alaïs to Guilhem Du Mas is living in Carcassonne , a stronghold of Cathars defended by Viscount Trencavel (Tom Felton). Meanwhile , it is besieged by Simon Monfort (John Lynch) and Guy D'Evreux (Tony Curran) leaders of the Crusaders . Hunted by the Inquisition and deserted by the nobles of their districts, the Cathars became more and more scattered fugitives : meeting surreptitiously in woods and mountain wilds .

This is an epic film mingling actual events along with past happenings by means of a lot of flashbacks ; as while in contemporary time occurs an intrigue starred by Vanessa Kirby , in Middle Age when the city of Carcassona has been declared heretical by the Church being starred by Jessica Findlay , and his nasty sister Katie McGrath . The most interesting moments concern about the historic events dealing with Catharism , a movement that thrived in some areas of Europe , particularly southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries , the followers were known as Cathars and are now mainly remembered for a prolonged period of persecution , it appeared in Europe in the Languedoc region of France , as here are shown impressive battles and strong massacres , they are the highlights of the movie . Acceptable mini-series , though sometimes result to be pointless , non-sense , and confuse . Based on the bestseller by Kate Mosse who plays a small role as Montsegur Guide . The picture was professionally directed by Christopher Smith , though it has some flaws and gaps .

This one being based on historic facts as : Pope Innocent III attempted to end Catharism by sending missionaries and by persuading the local authorities to act against them . In 1208 Innocent's papal legate Pierre Castelnau was murdered while returning to Rome after excommunicating Count Raymond VI of Toulouse . Pope Innocent III then abandoned the option of sending Catholic missionaries , launched the Albigensian Crusade which all but ended Catharism . The crusader army came under the command, both spiritually and militarily, of the papal legate Arnaud-Amaury. In the first significant engagement of the war, the town of Béziers was besieged . The Catholic inhabitants of the city were granted the freedom to leave unharmed, but many refused and opted to stay alongside the Cathars. Their first target was the lands of the Trencavel, powerful lords of Albi, Carcassonne and the Razes—but a family with few allies in the Midi. Little was thus done to form a regional coalition and the crusading army was able to take Carcassonne, the Trencavel capital, incarcerating Raymond Roger Trencavel in his own citadel where he died , allegedly of natural causes; champions of the Occitan cause from that day to this believe he was murdered . Simon de Montfort was granted the Trencavel lands by the Pope and did homage for them to the King of France, thus incurring the enmity of Peter II of Aragon who had held aloof from the conflict, even acting as a mediator at the time of the siege of Carcassonne. The remainder of the first of the two Cathar wars now essentially focused on Simon's attempt to hold on to his fabulous gains through winters where he was faced, with only a small force of confederates operating from the main winter camp at Fanjeaux, with the desertion of local lords who had sworn fealty to him out of necessity—and attempts to enlarge his newfound domains in the summer when his forces were greatly augmented by reinforcements from northern France, Germany and elsewhere. Summer campaigns saw him not only retake, sometimes with brutal reprisals, what he had lost in the 'close' season, but also seek to widen his sphere of operation—and we see him in action in the Aveyron at St. Antonin and on the banks of the Rhone at Beaucaire. Simon's greatest triumph was the victory against superior numbers at the Battle of Muret—a battle which saw not only the defeat of Raymond of Toulouse and his Occitan allies—but also the death of Peter of Aragon—and the effective end of the ambitions of the house of Aragon/Barcelona in the Languedoc . The Battle of Muret was a massive step in the creation of the unified French kingdom and the country we know today—although Edward III, the Black Prince and Henry V would threaten later to shake these foundations. The Cathars spent much of 1209 fending off the crusaders. The Béziers army attempted a sortie but was quickly defeated, then pursued by the crusaders back through the gates and into the city. The doors of the church of St Mary Magdalene were broken down and the refugees dragged out and slaughtered. Prisoners were blinded, dragged behind horses, and used for target practice. What remained of the city was razed by fire. After the success of his siege of Carcassonne, which followed the Massacre at Béziers in 1209, Simon de Montfort was designated as leader of the Crusader army. Prominent opponents of the Crusaders were Raymond Roger Trencavel, viscount of Carcassonne, and his feudal overlord Peter II, the king of Aragon, who held fiefdoms and had a number of vassals in the region. Peter died fighting against the crusade on 12 September 1213 at the Battle of Muret. Simon Montfort was killed on 25 June 1218 after maintaining a siege of Toulouse for nine months .

Love the Cathars, would be happy to have one for a neighbour. The concept of liberal Christians that believed in equality for all, accumulation of wealth was bad, sex was healthy and believed in reincarnation is very interesting. The fact that, in the 12/13th century, philosophically they were kicking the roman catholic churches butt says a lot. Tying that in with the holy grail and mixing it in with factual historical references gave this mini series a lot of scope. The reference to carrying our past with us in our blood is very reminiscent of Frank Herbert's Dune and the inference of a genetic memory.

However, the heavy handedness of the direction and use of cliché characters and tropes that did not make sense left me squirming in my seat. Especially in part 1 and the end of part II in the medieval period it felt as if the Cathars had some rabid twitter account saying "Dear bad guys guys want to know all our secrets?....". Yes we know it's the good guys against the bad guys but how come the bad guys seem to know more about what their counterparts are doing than they do? Damn you twitter account!!!

Speaking of which, I felt sorry for Katie McGrath who portrayed a cardboard cut out of her Morgana character in the Merlin series. She's a good looking woman and a fine actress but did she seriously have to lose her clothes so often? She was only one of many flat characters with trite dialogue. There is one scene where she can see someone shake his head in response to a question she asks when she is looking away from him. At this point I was also shaking my head as the dialogue/monologue leading up to this point felt like a quick fix to try to explain her motivation for being such a nasty piece of work and failing miserably.

When it came to the end it felt that I had only seen half the production. It felt as if a whole group of scenes had been cut out and re-spliced leaving me trying to figure how we got to F from A without B, C, D and E. If I'm being kind I would like to think that due to external pressures that a real cracker of a production is out there waiting to be shown at a future date.

As it was I found myself just becoming more frustrated as things made less and less sense. Even the role of the grail in the end becomes diminished except potentially as lesson teacher to humanity.

On the plus side Jessica Brown Findlay playing the medieval heroine was the closest to a fully formed character in the whole story and I'd like to see her in more roles. Production was good especially in the medieval scenes and the filming felt clean and slick. I now feel enlightened as I've had a chance to meet the Cathars, not to be confused with the Kardashians. Giving it 5 out of 10 as I feel like I only saw half of what could have been.

"Labyrinth" is an entertaining mini-series disclosing two stories, one in 1209 and the other in 2012, in France. Alais Pelletier Du Mas (Jessica Brown Findlay) is followed in the Middle Ages, when the Crusade attack the City of Carcassonne where she lives with her father and her evil stepsister. In the present days (2012), her descendant Alice Tanner (Vanessa Kirby), who is a teacher working with her archeologist friend in a dig, is chased by a mysterious ring that is looking for three ancient books and a ring to achieve power and eternal life through the Holy Grail. The historical event and the fictional present are entwinned and is attractive for a television mini-series. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Labirinto" ("Labyrinth")