YMMV / Alatriste (2006)

• Ensemble Dark Horse: Quevedo, played by terrific veteran Juan Echanove, was considered one of the best things in the entire film.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Despite being poorly received in Europe and America, the movie was absolutely loved in Asia, to the point that Chinese popularly call it "THE Spanish Film".
• Just Here for Godzilla: Early modern warfare aficionados often gravitate towards this film due to its epic, decent-budgeted portrayal of a pike and shot battle in Rocroi.
• Narm:
  • Viggo Mortensen's acting is generally impeccable throughout the film, even with the added difficulty of it not being in his first language, but in the scene in which Alatriste finds himself rejected by María and she closes the door on him, his expression makes it look like Mortensen is having a stroke.
  • Comedic actor Paco Tous plays the unidentified Spanish general at Rocroi (either Melo or Fontaines, if not a Composite Character of the two), but as if the miscast was not jarring enough, he receives no presentation, being instead introduced directly in midst of the Battle of Rocroi. Spanish viewers are likely to be exhilarated at watching Inspector Miranda suddenly appearing in a sedan chair with Guns Akimbo and getting shot in the chest.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The great general Ambrogio Spinola making his obligatory cameo in Breda, even if from afar and played by an unknown extra.
  • Pilar Bardem, Javier Bardem's mother, playing the unnamed nun who serves as Olivares' spymaster.
• Presumed Flop: Controversies about the film's casting and differences with the book overtook it back at the day, which, added to it being a Spanish production (Spaniards tend to be pretty adamant in that nothing good ever comes from Spain) and its bad reception in Rotten Tomatoes (it sits currently in 17%, which many called a travesty), caused a certain belief that it was an absolutely economic failure too. In reality, while it was nothing to write home about, the film was a mild success abroad and also broke a couple of records in its native Spain. It comes to the point that it used to be Common Knowledge that author Pérez-Reverte had disowned the book, when he actually gave it a rare thumbs up.
• Questionable Casting: The most bizarre case in a cast already seen as inconsistent was having Inquisitor Bocanegra played by a woman, Blanca Portillo, who doesn't even look or sound remotely like the character is described in the books. The director claimed he wanted a fresher take on the characters and got the idea from watching Linda Hunt play a man in The Year of Living Dangerously, but most viewers found it just too bizarre to work.
• Signature Scene: The Battle of Rocroi, with scenes from it being endlessly used in YouTube vids.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The film used large amounts of Pragmatic Adaptation to get an entire book series into a single script (not to mention that, as the last books hadn't been published yet, the writers had to improvise a Gecko Ending for several subplots), and the result didn't endear many critics and fans.
• Vindicated by History: While reception was mixed, the movie has been re-appreciated over the years after the disaster the TV series turned out to be, with people pointing out that, unlike the TV series, one could tell the film's creators were trying their best to honor the books and make an engaging picture.

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