Dragon's Rage

Every now and then, my friends and I have a "pizza and bad movie night". Generally we select fantasy movies. Our latest outing was this...

First of all, it is almost three hours long, and boy, does it feel like four! The actors are generally giving it their best, but the budget is clearly very limited and nowhere more so than the CGI. The dragons, for the brief periods you see them, are so poorly rendered and animated that it was shame a 1990s TV movie, and this was made in 2012!

The story makes very little sense, and the internal logic is baffling at best. Everything revolves around "bloodsteel", which is a consumable magical material. There is a strange steampunk vibe to various parts of the worldbuilding which just seems out of place.

Some movies are so bad that they are entertaining, but this one was mostly just bad, despite the game attempts by the cast.

First of all, I must say that I don't fully understand why they opted to go with a drawn cover for the front of the DVD? It sort of makes you think it is an animated movie once you pick it up. But looking at the back of the cover proves something else entirely. With that odd bit of confusion out of the way, let's get down to the movie.

Well, if you enjoy fantasy and if you are a fan of games such as Dungeons & Dragons, then you'll definitely find enjoyment in "Dragons Rage", despite this being a movie that is relatively unknown. I bought it from Amazon just because I enjoy the Dungeons & Dragons game and the DVD was fairly cheap, and it is always fun to try something new. I was pleasantly surprised with how "Dragons Rage" turned out to be.

Sure, the movie was pretty 'standard' for an adventure movie of this genre. But still, it was enjoyable, because there was put some thought into the plot and there was a good amount of details everywhere. The costumes and armors were nice to behold and the CGI effects in the movie were on overall adequate. Mind you that this is not award-winning spectacular CGI effects, but it serves its purpose well enough.

The characters in the movie were nicely fleshed out and detailed, and they had a handful of fairly good talents to portray these. However, it was really odd and surreal to see Christopher Lloyd in a role such as this. I am not saying he is bad, far from it, but this role just strays so far from what we are used to seeing him in. Natassia Malthe, playing Perfidia, was the one carrying the movie.

"Dragons Rage" is a great adventure movie, and it did well with its budget. It would have been even more spectacular if they had an even bigger budget to operate with. "Dragons Rage" is well worth a watch if you enjoy adventure and fantasy movies.