Empire of the Wolves (2005)

Waste of time

Sorry, this movie sucks

Good concept, poorly executed.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

In my experience fellow user-reviews like on IMDb can be, but don't have to be of course, very helpful. Either in deciding whether to watch a movie, or for the purpose of getting a better understanding of it afterwards. So I am always grateful when a reviewer took his time, and actually helped me along in a good way. That said, 'L'empire des loups'by director Chris Nahon is a case in point. The cinematography is ambitious, and it's not just l'art pour l'art, it works in enhancing our viewing experience, at the same time keeping up with the several plot twists this movie abounds, or drowns, in. The musical scores aren't some ready-made products but try to punctuate the action,sometimes successfully, sometimes less so; but always staying high enough above average to strengthen their scenes. The lead actors are engaged, and deliver mostly believable performances of the characters they are given. Especially Arly Jover as „Anna", anyway Jean Reno as the shady and brutal ex-cop Schiffer, but also Jocelyn Quivrin as the not too stereotypical younger homicide cop Nerteaux. The occurring shortcomings seemed to me to be not their fault but clearly the director's. Watch 'L'empire des loups' in the French original by the way, with your preferred subtitles as I did (German), to make the most of the cast's efforts. But these caveats concerning the actors' performances – 'the characters they are given' and so on – lead me to the main problem of this on a superficial level entertaining, partly also quite captivating movie. On the one hand it contains rather a few plot twists. Some generally foreseeable, others considerably unbelievable. And although I'm unable to come up with any better alternatives for the script writers to get out of the - in the structure of this plot inevitable, I guess – dead ends, they still should have made a better effort. On the other hand, and that brings me back to my introduction, beyond just plot twists and the like this movie simply degrades the further it progresses. This process works just as fellow IMDb reviewer „kosmasp" has already shown in a rather moody review in 2007. He writes „… you will notice the point where the movie breaks ... where it won't only get ridiculous, but the movie also falls to pieces." And he's right. I noticed this - in a way, to be honest - while watching it, and could see it clearly in retrospect after reading his review. In fact, this movie is a textbook example of the Hegelian notion that merely quantitative changes beyond a certain point pass into qualitative differences – Marx's words, not mine. Anyhow, thank you, kosmasp, though I don't follow in your harsher rating of only four stars, because I still think that 'L'empire des loups' displays many positive facets that I enjoyed on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Four stars I assign to the many, sometimes seemingly unavoidable, movies much worse than this one. It deserves a five, I gave the lead actors a six. But maybe that's being a bit too friendly?

I was pleasantly surprised by this film and have also wondered about the negative reviews. The movie has two problems 1) a problem of perception: it starts off looking like a fairly routine mystery / police procedural, but elements of other kinds of movies begin to trickle in as the plot reveals itself -- which may have confused some reviewers wanting a pure genre piece, 2) the plot IS a little hard to follow in places and depends on one important coincidence in particular. However, the overall story makes sense in a "gestalty" kind of way and I don't think it's a killer issue. Oh, and 3) the English dub (which I turned on a couple of times) should be confiscated and burned. It's a fairly good dub in syncing the lips, but the voicing is as inappropriate as any bad dub of a Japanese film. For Pete's sake, hire a mimic next time you dub an actor as well-known as Reno.But I take real issue with the critics who labeled as "ridiculous" this or that aspect of the film. People have given high marks to James Bond films that stretched belief far more painfully. The real issue is that the French filmmakers aren't telegraphing the genre to the viewers. Good for them.Offsetting any problems is the wonderfully mysterious setup that ends in a real surprise about 40 minutes into the picture. That's the point when the picture shifts gears and we start seeing the "action/adventure" film which is quite well done.

Not a bad action/thriller.A bit slow for a action movie, and not quite thrilling enough for a thriller. Still the action sequences were well done and some of the fighting sequences verged on excellent.The story was slightly far fetched and tho the writers tried for twists it was really very straight forward.Jean Reno was good as always and I thought Jocelyn Quivrin was excellent.This movie was like a cross between "the borne identity", "seven" and 100 average cop movies.Worth a watch id you like Jean Reno.

L'EMPIRE DES LOUPS is another intelligent, intense and very explosive thriller from the author Jean-Christophe Grangé who wrote also the first CRIMSON RIVERS. It kept me all the time guessing what came next and there were many puzzles to solve. Director Nahon made a great job and all the actors delivered a very solid performance. I hope there will be soon another one. I don't know why this movie is underrated on IMDb with actual 5.4 but I give with my wife a solid 7.5/10. If I compare the quality of this film with similar Hollywood thrillers then it's no doubt one of the best and a must see for all fans of this genre. I am a little disappointed why this excellent thriller didn't get enough attention at the theaters and even me discovered it accidentally in the film dates of Jean Reno.