Dragon Wars is a film that was the first attempt for Korean filmmakers to make an American based movie. However it failed at the box office to produce big numbers and was quickly pulled by Sony. Needless to say, what could of easily been a great and fun movie to watch quickly feel apart quick.
Dragon Wars is about a battle that has been fought for ages. At the beginning of the film we get a quick glimpse of the past when one of the first Dragon Wars took place and good overcame evil as the one with the chosen mark got away from the evil Dragon Buraki. Hundreds of years later the hero’s of that time have been reincarnated, and the great Dragon War is about to happen again. Buraki army, filled with many ancient foot solders, flying dragons, giant lizards and super evil dinosaurs are back to hunt down the new chosen one, a girl named Sarah. Sarah along with her reincarnated friend Ethan must find a way to resurrect the good dragon Imoogi and save our world from the evil that is about to destroy it.
When I first popped this DVD into my player I got into the plot of the film right away. It had many fantasy elements in the back story that tied into the story in the present that really bought the plot to life. However; that was short lived as the plot quickly turned silly and started to fall apart very quickly. The problem with the script was that the characters were not developed at all and I personally could not relate to them. Honestly the script had too much action and no story, and I felt as if Dragon wars would of made a better video game instead of a movie.
The acting was nothing great, even though the film had some familiar television faces such as Roswell actor Jason Behr, CSI’s Chris Mulkey, Aimee Garcia also of CSI fame and George Lopez show, as well actor Robert Forster of Jackie Brown and Delta Force fame. The acting kind of went hand in hand with the directing and the script, so I can’t say it was good, because their really wasn’t much any of the actors in this film had to work with.
The production value was nothing special either, the majority of this movies sequences involved the over use of CGI, honestly folks I felt like I was watching a video game the majority of the time. I felt this film tried to hard to be like Lord of the Rings when it came to visual effects but was no where near what that film was able to achieve. You figure with an estimated budget of close to 76 million dollars that Dragon Wars would of had better visuals, and why some of them look good, the majority of the film I hate to say looks more like a video game on the Playstation 3.
Overall, Its obvious folks that I really didn’t care much for Dragon Wars, it was a film that started off with a very strong back story, but lacked in many other areas such as character and plot development. The film did put up so decent box office numbers in South Korea but bombed in the U.S. only making a total of about 11 million dollars in five weeks. I found the majority of this film was pretty much just one giant fight scene between humans and dragons, one right after the other with a story that took a back seat to all the action. Sure their are some impressive fights in the film, but it’s nothing great. I’ll take a good story over action any day.
Dragon Wars will probably be a film that young boys who love playing with toy dragons and dinosaurs would enjoy watching, but as for adults and fans of horror or giant Asian monster movies probably won’t care much for.
– Horror Bob
DVD Features:
- 500 Years in the Making
- Photo Gallery
- Dragon Wars Animatics: From Storyboard to Screen
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
