I've spent some time lately highlighting what's wrong with Alatriste in conversation with two fans of the film, one being a charming Argentine actress-turned-programmer. She probably thinks I'm too enamored of low-key, low-budget, "alternative" cinema, as she calls it. And there seems to be a critical consensus that what's wrong is, mainly and to put it simply, too much plot/source material. Complaints about Mortensen's accent are petty. A couple of times he forgets Spaniards don't pronounce the "c" as if it is an "s". Big deal. I liked his performance. Press material I got indicates budget at 24 million Euros. It's a lot of money when you consider that The Lives of Others cost 2 miilion Euros to make. Perhaps you'd find Alatriste boring, but I didn't. I found it flawed. If you didn't like Kingdom of Heaven, you should probably avoid it.