I have a problem. You see, I've come up
with a new feature for the blog, something I'll be adding as an
occasional piece – what I'm calling Public Service Reviewing. I
even came up with a great tag line – 'I watched it, so you don't
have to'. It's a good tag line. I'm proud of it. I picked up a load
of cheap – and low-rated – movies on Amazon, mostly fantasy with
a few historicals sprinkled in, and decided to see just how low it
could go. I bought 'Amazons vs Gladiators', for heaven's sake. So,
what is my problem?
The first movie I reviewed is actually
good. Rewatchable good. Recommendable to my friends and readers good.
Sigh.
This is 'Dawn of the Dragon Slayer',
which I bought in the blu-ray version (and to get that out of the
way, it looked great but had zero special features...which is a
little disappointing, because I would have liked a commentary for
this one, a making-of, something) and fired up. It opens with a man
playing a flute being burned to a crisp by a dragon, which is a nice
opening – though it does ruthlessly expose the limited CGI budget –
and then we cut to our lead, a shepard's son called...Shepard...
(sigh) in the hills, who decides to try and slay a dragon that has
been killing his sheep.
I'm not going to go heavily into
spoiler territory here, but essentially, this is a bildungsroman, but
a good one. It's a low-budget production, but the production team has
been...sensible. The weak spot is the dragon and its effects, though
there are some good moments while it is attacking the castle, and I
suspect they knew that, as we don't see the dragon that often –
instead, the plot concentrates on story and character, and relies on
the actors to carry it off...and they do. The paucity of extras does
show a little at times – it would have been nice to have a few more
people in the background – but that's not a failing, really.
The show is shot almost entirely on
location in Ireland, and my god they take maximum advantage of the
scenery to get some fantastic shots. Roger Corman, when filming in
Greece, said that he didn't need sets for his movie with all the
ruins around, and this is perfectly true; the cinematography is
excellent. The soundtrack...isn't. During some of the 'run across the
landscape' scenes it's needlessly dramatic and pounding – something
a little more...wistful, perhaps, would have been better. Something a
little softer.
This isn't a great movie, but it is a
good one. Which is perfectly fine by me; it's a film you can put on,
watch for ninety minutes, and enjoy. I can't tell you what the DVD is
like, but frankly...buy it on blu-ray. The footage is worth it. There
is a sequel coming out, but it doesn't seem to be staring many of the
cast from this one, and the production company has done some more
fantasy movies, including a recent Kickstarter. (Which I backed,
before I watched this movie.) I'll certainly be watching future
movies by this group. Soon, I hope, as I already have another – in
blu-ray – and another pre-ordered.
So, I watched it so you don't have to,
but in this particular case, I'd rather recommend you do.
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