I've been seeing the Princess Bride comparisons, and this movie is so not The Princess Bride. I'm not sure I believe that's what they were going for. It seems to me that someone involved was working from The Fantasy Blockbuster Handbook (A Work In Progress). Wizard-battle light show? Check. Sweeping vistas? Check. And so on.

I enjoyed Danes more than you did, but I agree that there were too many tongue-tied, eyes-locked moments. I thought she did what she could to make the love story believable, but in the end it was something you had to accept rather than believe.