"Arn: The Knight Templar" is the most expensive film ever in Scandinavia. Once you've seen the film's 139 minutes however, you sit back with a feeling of having seen it all before.<br /><br />In the Middle Ages our hero and main character Arn is born in the Swedish highlands, where different clans are fighting each other. He is raised in a monastery where he is taught to master the sword as well as the Latin language. Arn returns to his hometown as an adult, only to fall in love with the beautiful Cecilia. But of course this love turns out to be impossible. Cecilia gets pregnant outside marriage and as punishment she is sentenced to live in a monastery for 20 years. Meanwhile, Arn is sent to the Holy Land to defend Jerusalem in the name of Christ. Sounds familiar?<br /><br />There is absolutely nothing new under the sun in "Arn". You are simply left with a feeling of having seen it all before. Especially as our main characters' love scenes in the forest bear a remarkable resemblance to those of Mel Gibson's Braveheart. Of course, one can't expect something new and revolutionary every time one goes to the cinema. However, with a budget of over 200 million Danish crowns one goes to the cinema with an expectation of quality. And those expectations are not met.<br /><br />Nevertheless, some of the money has been spent properly. The film is visually very beautiful. The film's final battle, in which we follow our sweat-dripping hero fighting in the burning desert of the Holy Land, is by Scandinavian standards extremely beautiful - but in comparison with Hollywood just extremely mediocre.<br /><br />"Arn", which is an adaptation of Swedish author Jan Guillou's novel, is simply not a very good film. In particular the first half hour drags itself along, and you just don't have a clue about what kind of film you're watching. The film's opening sequence is actually quite good and points towards the fact that it's an adventure film, while the following boring half an hour points towards the love drama. This film tries so hard to be it all that it becomes a walking cliché (especially the scene in which Cecilia hands Arn her necklace is so incredibly cheesy, it hurts). All in all, it's sad that so much money has been spent only to have the audience leaving the cinema with a deja-vu-feeling, the thought "haven't I seen this before?".