When I walked into a movie theater to see Tristan and Isolde with my little sister on Martin Luther King Day, I fully expected a love story much like that of Romeo and Juliet.

Needless to say, I was a little disconcerted when the movie began with a bloody battle, filled with sword fighting, stabbing and beheading. However, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt, because, after all, the trailers had compared it to Romeo and Juliet. Granted, there is a little violence in Shakespeare's timeless tale, but nothing too extreme. So I figured the violence would be limited to the opening scene, and the love story would set in soon after.

I couldn't have been more wrong. The entire movie was laced with fighting and death. I did catch a trace of romance here and there but not enough to categorize it as a romance, especially one I would take my 13-year-old sister to see.

The movie in itself was not bad. It was actually an accurate representation of life in the Middle Ages. Few people are familiar with the culture and don't know much about the conflict between the disjointed English tribes and the Irish. The movie vividly illustrated this, along with the importance these peoples placed on duty and loyalty.

What bothered me most were the trailers and advertisements that portrayed the movie as a romance. It was in some respects, although most of the movie consisted of battle scenes. The tag line said, "Before there was Romeo and Juliet, there was Tristan and Isolde." The previews highlighted scenes between the lovers but mentioned little brutality. My sister and I went to the movie because the previews were appealing, and we were in the mood to see a romantic girly movie on our day off.

I don't particularly care for violent movies, but many people like them. Advertising the true genre of the movie might deter some from seeing it but certainly not everyone. So why do the producers feel the need to conceal it?

We probably should have walked out when Tristan emerged from a castle, a severed head dangling from his hand. We didn't though, probably because we had that "I paid for this ticket," mind-set. In retrospect, wasting my money would have been better than enduring the violence and death. So the next time I go to a movie and don't enjoy it, I will leave.