Dragon Hunter

Since this is a story about a man who is a Dragon Hunter in a world of Orcs, Elves, and Dragons you would think this is a Fantasy. However, as a fantasy film, it pretty well sucks. The Dragon is only in the movie for a few minutes and the orcs you see are just a band of five, dispatched in seconds, and the special effects for them are quite weak, they're just men in masks. The Dragon, on the other hand, is a pretty decent CGI for a low budget flick from 2009.

Realising the budget wouldn't be so large the writer and director, Stephen Shimek, decided to make it about the journey of brothers Darius and Kendrick, played strongly by Erik Denton and Maclain Nelson respectively, to get to the Castle Okarda to train the last Dragon Hunter. On the way, they form alliances with a band of soldiers who accompany them on their mission.

As a drama, it's an above-average film with some really nice camera shots. I particularly liked the way Shimek created the love scene between Darius and the Elfin Raya, portrayed elegantly by Kelly Stables. There's a nice chemistry between the pair and as they move in for their first kiss a rain shower starts, and you know what the rain drop hitting the leaf really represents.

The actors have above average acting skills and give the most to their roles.

The only things that irked me were the amount of time the journey took; they walked a lot... and must have passed the same tree at least three times, this slowed the film down quite a bit... not to the point of boredom, but close. Then there was the swordplay when the Hunter was training. It would've been advisable to bring in an expert to show them how to wield a sword correctly.

This is not a fast action-packed movie it's a slow meander through the fantasy realm and therefore not for everyone. I enjoyed it, though I wouldn't rush to watch it again... or ever.

If there's nothing else to watch and you can't get out the house for some reason, then this could pass the time quite well.

If you take a look at the rating the experience of watching this movie will offer you no surprises. It is not a good movie. I will go even so far as to call it a bad movie.

Now, as to what makes this movie so bad, I would say "the characters". Oh, I might even exclaim "The characters!". For they possess absolutely no depth. They are shallow husks, waiting to be filled with life and back story. And the the other thing is the really bad camera work. Whenever there is a fight scene the camera starts shaking so you can't make out anything. I am not yet sure if the camera operator got a seizure from excitement or if he got bored and started polishing Lord Vader's helmet, if you catch my meaning. I hope it was the latter, so at least one person got some fun out of this whole mess.

Lets take a look at the summary..

Orphaned as a baby when his parents were killed in a vicious orc attack, Kendrick of Elwood was raised by his elder brother, Darius. Though only nine at the time, Darius devoted his life to Kendrick's care and to purging orcs from their land. As Darius grew into a great warrior, he sheltered Kendrick from all possible harm. Now, after years of absence, a new danger emerges, more lethal than the threat of orcs or men. Reports of dragon attacks spread like wildfire through the panicked land. In memory of his mother's prophesies of a mighty Dragon Hunter in their bloodline, Darius leads Kendrick on a perilous journey to the castle of Ocard - the Dragon Hunter training grounds. As they battle through evil men and orc-infested lands, they align with a band of rogue warriors who swear their allegiance in this hazardous quest. The Brothers of Elwood, joined by Raya, an elven princess, Olick, a mute Berserker, and five human mercenaries must escape orc ambushes and dragon attacks to reach the fortress at Ocard. Will dragons completely decimate the countryside? Only the Dragon Hunter will decide! The summary itself is wrong, at no point in the movie is the word "princess" even mentioned. The "mute" berserker speaks thus hardly making him "mute".

I had no hopes for this movie because I actually enjoy low budget fantasy movies. This movie however can only be summed up by one word "terribad". It isn't the plot, it isn't the acting, it isn't the fact the characters have no depth, its the horrible camera work that makes this unwatchable. You can not see any fighting as the camera starts being shaken every time there is a battle, not slightly but to the point where you can not see anything. The ended was...well...wow...that bad. I have nothing else to say.

You know when you make it over an hour through a movie and you only have like twenty minutes left, and even though it's awful, you've come this far and just have to finish it? Well, this is not that movie. I was literally five minutes away from the end and couldn't care less.

The acting was downright pitiful with characters lacking any depth to pull any emotion from anyway. Blame the writing, it was some of the worst you'll see.

The plot sounded interesting enough in the ultra-nerdy sort of fashion, but rest assured, it falls short here, too. Awful plot. Awful writing. Pitiful direction.

The continuity was thrown out the window. There are scenes in which a character's beard appears to have gotten a magical trim over the course of a few seconds, until...BAM! It's back!

The effects are just goofy. The dragon, well, I won't give it away, but it's laughable to say the least.

Although I gave this only one star, and would probably consider it one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time, it isn't without it's charms. It's charms being that it is so terrible, you'll find yourself chuckling every few moments. The chuckles eventually wear off and you stop caring, at which point you should just turn the movie off.

All in all, the director/writer/producer in Shimek should be shunned from the fantasy community, hanged for his abomination, and mocked for eternity in his pathetic attempt at a film. This guy is pathetic. Literally something that you would not believe until you see. Yes, it's THAT bad.

See it for a laugh with buddies over some beers, but I'm sure you won't want to watch more than forty five minutes or so.

If you plan on watching it for any other reason than mockery, just don't.

I am embarrassed to admit that I watched this film all the way through, even though I could have turned it off at any time. I was, I suppose, oddly mesmerized by the awfulness of it all. Who knows? On some level, perhaps I enjoyed it.

The dialog is stilted and corny, delivered in a manner so "ham" the actors should have been pierced with cloves and garnished with pineapple. The dragon, despite its total 1950s-style animated cheesiness, must have been considerably more expensive per minute than the ham actors, because its appearance on screen is mercifully brief. When one considers the quality of the actors, the sets, and the special effects, it seems probable that this was the lowest budget feature length film of 2008.

Nevertheless, I will be on the lookout for future performances of the fabulous Slate Holmgren, whose face and mannerisms are perfect for a comic villain. Needless to say, he was NOT a comic villain in Dragon Hunter.