Your Highness, to put it bluntly, is a burn out

Romance, adventure, magic, breasts, and a top billed cast including Academy Award winner Natalie Portman – Your Highness has all the ingredients for a box office hit. However it was disappointingly un-epic. It's as if whenever the writing got deep or tough they would cut to a new scene with some plot-based comedy going on. Most notably in the labyrinth when Thadeous is facing the spirit of the Labyrinth in a test of a true hero – cut to Courtney being molested by a Minotaur. I don't know if it was just written this way or if it was cut to fit a time requirement but if we've learned anything from Lord of the Rings it's that people can sit though the amount of time required to tell these kinds of stories. I'm not saying Your Highness should be told in nine hours but considering the movie is only 102 minutes it could have used an extra 15-30 minutes of character development. The bad guy was not bad enough, the betrayal wasn't deep enough, and the triumph wasn't triumphant enough.

            However the set design and costumes flawlessly captured the medieval qualities of the story while also appropriately incorporating anachronism such as a mechanical bird or metal hand. The female costumes were appropriately inappropriate, and the men were adequately decked out in armor, tights, and tokens of love and heroism. However the way Fabious was contained during his torture just confused me. I wasn't sure what they were going for with the sort of hammock like restraints.

            The film was laced with overtly flashy magical effects, including lightning; appearing and disappearing, energy balls, and more. In today’s 3D age the special effects are up to par- nothing really innovative. Most of the film can be described that way – nothing innovative. The film alluded to so many other aspects of popular culture: The Legend of Zelda, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, Glam Rock, The Huns, and Greek Mythology.  I was left wondering if that is what the writers were going for or if they were just lazy. Your highness will determine if you like this film, but the theatrical release of this film is lacking, it's not Lord of the Rings and it's not Pineapple Express. However I can see an extended edition, a director cut, or deleted scenes making this film what it should have been.