Please rate my idea of script for a movie with my friends
So me and a bunch of my friends recently started working on a low budget fantasy movie project together.I got tasked as being screenwriter and writing the main story and I wanted to hear honest opinions from other people about the story idea and if it sounds interesting or too generic.
The movie has a dark medieval style aesthetic and starts as a political war story between two kingdoms. The important thing is that it is NOT supposed to immediately become a giant action fantasy movie. Most of the first half is focused on politics, character conflicts, tension between kingdoms and slowly building dread.
The story follows two kings at war. One of them is an older king who genuinely cares about his people. His son, Prince, is the main character and the “hero” of the story. The other king is much colder and crueler and rules alongside his right hand man, who starts as a morally questionable character but slowly changes throughout the story.
So by now it just seems like a very generic move script.A war betwen two countries.One is evil one on is good.But that is what i want,i want for it to seem basic at first even tho at the end it will be more than that.It will be about the message of doing good at the cost of your own good.
The movie opens with soldiers entering caves after reports of strange killings. They are guided by a miner who claims something unnatural is living down there. All of them die, but the audience never fully sees what killed them. This is supposed to foreshadow the danger that is slowly approaching the world.
After that, the story focuses on the war between the kingdoms.prince is shown to be a talented commander, but he is also exhausted by war and slowly losing faith in it. Early in the movie his father tells him a quote that becomes the main theme of the film. He tells him that the life of a true hero is usually hard, cruel and short, but real heroes still choose it because it is the right thing to do. This quote later foreshadows princes death near the end of the movie.
As the war continues, villages begin getting attacked by mysterious creatures. At first they are only rumors, then destroyed villages are discovered, and eventually both kingdoms realize the monsters are real. The two kings organize a temporary alliance because the monsters threaten both sides.
One thing I really wanted to do differently is make the monsters feel like a slowly growing disaster instead of just “fantasy enemies.” A lot of scenes focus more on fear, silence, empty villages and confusion rather than constant fighting.
During the alliance, Prince and Righthand are forced to fight together. Righthand slowly starts respecting him and questioning his own morals and loyalty to the evil king becouse when the alliace was being made he was the one who suggested to king that they should betray the other kingdom when the monsters are finnished. Meanwhile the evil king’s son second prince becomes more unstable and cruel because he constantly wants his father’s approval and keeps failing to earn it.
Near the end of the story, after the monsters are nearly defeated, the evil king betrays the alliance and attacks the weakened good kingdom. prince dies fighting as a hero, fulfilling the quote from the beginning of the movie. Righthand realizes the destruction he helped create and ends up killing himself out of guilt. In the end, the evil king actually wins.
The main message of the movie is basically that true heroes often suffer, fail or die young, but still choose to do good because it is the right thing to do.
So yea it seems basic at first.Its just two enemies finding peace to fight common enemy but at the end its not actualy about that.the monsters are not the real final twist,the humans are.There is also a lot i left out and did not talk about here like the second prince who will have entire arc on his own.
We already started getting costumes and props and are trying to make the atmosphere feel serious despite the low budget.
So yeah, I’d genuinely like honest opinions .Is it too basic,do i need to change something,does the final twist and message of the movie make up for the basic start.Please be honest,thanks for reading.