Nova Zembla (2011) Reviews

• A beautiful ship on her voyage but led by an inexperienced captain

  kdv932012-04-23

  Nova Zembla doesn't hold up to the promises made. In fact, it fails utterly, which, truly, is a shame. An adventurous story, a beautiful setting and (for Dutch standards) good acting but all that cannot make watching this film bearable. The storytelling is unbelievably slow. While being promised an action-packed heroic story it instead halts drastically every time a little climax should be due, resulting in the opposite. And if your film is to be made for a Dutch audience based on a classic Dutch history lesson almost every Dutch person will remember, you just can't get away with it. Not even with showing random scenes of Doutzen Kroes' breasts. The cast was fine though and the acting wasn't particularly bad. The lines didn't seem forced and it all had a genuine feel, which is often lacking in Dutch films. The technical side of this film wasn't bad either and the effects, costumes, locations and props are a rare perfect blend. It is clear this film lacked the experience of a great captain and should be a learning opportunity for inexperienced director Reinout Oerlemans. Nova Zembla fails to hoist the colours and sail full speed ahead and instead feels more like a rowing boat without oars. A typical trailer-beats-film.

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• pity, unfortunately

  bouke-223-2581282011-11-27

  The idea is good, decors are very well thought of and very well done. Amsterdam and the scenery's are a charm to watch. (some minor mistakes, but hey, you can't have it all ;-)) Unfortunately the story is a bit thin and bleak, casting is way off Doutzen is more being a 21th century (very nice) model, than a 15th century girl, Robert is not convincing in his acting and does not fit the role at all. Derek and Victor ... well I have seen them way better before. Teun is not being convincing in his role as 'the bad guy' at all Highlights were Jan Declair as Plancius and Semmy Schilt as Claes. Technically the 3D performance was not adding much to the experience (done because they were able to??) some scenes were even disturbingly bad in 3D quality. The ship is nicely done, and is very well thought of in details. All in all, expensive movie (12,5 euro's) for 2 hours of disappointment with a few highlights in performance, story or scenery

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• A waist of my time

  marcel_3452011-11-30

  Making a movie about such a 'big' event in Dutch history seems like a very good idea. But, after sitting down for sometime in the cinema i started to get bored. Then more bored and eventually I couldn't take anymore boredom and had to get up and leave the cinema. This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time! The storyline is disappointing, and doesn't seem to follow a clear path. The Characters are shallow, and the actors seem to take no effort to give some depth to their character. This would be a hard task anyway, since the conversations between the actors are so weak that it would be a big effort to make anything worthwhile come out. The gorgeous Doutzen Kroes makes her first movie appearance with a weak performance. I am a big movie fan, but this one, in spite of all the buzz in the Netherlands, is best to avoid!

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• Attractive film in the adventure tradition

  Andy-2962012-04-27

  The Age of Exploration (or age of Discovery). Those 200 years (more or less) from 1450 to 1650, when a few brave men coming from Western Europe, traveling in fragile wooden ships and armed with primitive fire weapons, basically conquered the world. It's strange that very few movies have been made out of that era. Perhaps this is so because this era is now a bit politically incorrect (since it many times involved Europeans invading and conquering Native people). But movies dealing with early polar exploration should not have such a problem, since there were few if any native people there. So here comes this fine film from the Netherlands that tells the true story of Willem Barents, the Dutch navigator that seeking a Northern route to China (Spain, being in war with the Netherlands at the time make it difficult for Dutch ships to go to the east through the Cape of Good Hope) reached in 1596 (more than three centuries before the North Pole was reached) the island of Nova Zembla in the High Arctic Sea, an island that is now a part of Russia. However, the ice soon broke the ship and the crew has to spend in the island a harrowing winter. Shot in 3D mostly in Iceland, this film is handsomely made, with a good, classic storytelling. The story is mostly told through the eyes of Gerrit de Veer, the young, inexperienced chronicler in the expedition. Famous Dutch model Doutzen Kroes has a small role, appearing mostly in flashbacks, as Gerrit's fiancé back in Holland (she was obviously hired because she was believed to be a box office draw, not because her character was really needed in the story).

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• Too many missed opportunities

  Exploited2012-06-29

  There are a lot of things that can be said about this (typically Dutch) movie. Without a doubt, the adventures of Willem Barentz during his third voyage to find a way around "the North" and his stay on Nova Zembla merited an epic movie. Even though Reinout Oerlemans is a very inexperienced director the quality of the production is mostly "acceptable". Great camera-work in general and pretty decent acting. The biggest problem with the movie, however, is the script. It deviates from what really happened in so many places it defies belief. Why Reinout Oerlemans and Hugo Heinen would have strayed so far from the truth is difficult to understand as much of the real story would have added to the tension. They completely missed the reason for Barentz to become stuck in the ice contrary to his previous two attempts in sailing through the arctic, for instance. There are many more examples of "truth is stranger than fiction" to be found in this movie. In the end the movie is dull and not very engaging. Constantly giving the viewer the sense of missed opportunities by the script. The true story of Willem Barentz' voyage could easily have beaten "Titanic" in terms of suspense and majesty. Instead, this attempt can only be called a mediocre, unnecessary and (in places) simpleminded distortion of reality.

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