User reviews

How this movie got made with a supposedly $70 million budget and without being completely retooled is beyond me. The storyline and dialogue are beyond amateurish. Characters say things no real person would ever say and almost never react to things that were said before. No one seems to be grounded in the real world. The acting of the leads is fine given that the writing is such a dud...but several actors in supporting roles really drag the production down. The hero's hair probably should've gotten its own credit, it was so oddly attention- grabbing...not to mention that it gave one of the better performances in the pic. Finally, for a movie about L.A. being besieged by giant reptiles, this film is shockingly boring. What a shame! If you do see this, your mind will be constantly racing, thinking up ways that you could have taken the SFX scenes and built a far better movie around them. Sadly, it wouldn't have taken much.

To review "D-War" (sometimes called "Dragon Wars" or "Dragon Wars: D-War") with any real depth would be an exercise in utter futility. I mean that, really. The film is a big, loud special effects bonanza the likes of which have been seen plenty of times on United States soil, but "D-War" is unique in the fact that it is not an American production, but an Asian one, specifically of the South Korean kind.

But just because it's a South Korean movie with American actors, does that really make it good? It's a yes/no/maybe so type of answer. "D-War" comes to us from South Korean import Hyung-rae Shim, who announced the project back in 2002 and has spent the last five years getting it off the ground. It's received mostly negative reviews here in the U.S. and in South Korea (where it set box office records for an opening week with an estimated five million viewers within a nine-day time-span), but the movie's special effects and action sequences are undeniably stunning. But it's a shame about the story and characters.

Supposedly based on an ancient Korean legend, a 200-meter-long Imoogi (a giant serpent) called Buraki is denied a chance at immortality when two young lovers who are destined to perform the ceremonial rights run away and perish in their escape. 500 years later in Los Angeles, the man is reincarnated as American news reporter Ethan (Jason Behr), who as a child was given a powerful pendant by an elderly antiques dealer named Jack (Robert Forster) and now has to find the reincarnated woman, Sarah (Amanda Brooks), before her 20th birthday.

Sure enough, in special effects sequences that seem right out of any Asian monster flick made in the last 50 years, the dragon Buraki reappears with his seemingly invincible army of demonic warriors to continue his 500-year pursuit of what is rightfully his. Lots of explosions, guns, and destruction as ancient slams head-on into 21st-century military technology, and Ethan and Sarah try to find a way to stop Buraki and his army before he destroys the city.

"D-War" is a film that looks and sounds amazing, in theory, but the execution is so poor that you'll rightfully feel that you've been cheated by the time the credits roll. Make no mistake, Buraki and his minions look pretty cool and plenty menacing, and the destruction they bring about in their action sequences is nothing short of breathtaking. In this regard, Shim has surely done his job in presenting "D-War" as a no-holds-barred sci-fi/fantasy action epic.

On the other hand, the film's human players are drastically short-changed and given cheap, hokey dialogue and scenes that rarely connect. It seems that the only reason they're here is to give us something to root for, which is not in any real way genuine. "D-War" unfortunately comes off as something a lot closer to the poor American adaptation "Godzilla" (1998) than anything that is uniquely Korean. Another problem is that the story seems to take itself a little too seriously, with cheap humor that doesn't get anything greater from us than a weak little laugh. The acting and direction seem mediocre at best (so that you do feel a little sorry for the hokey performances of American heavyweight Robert Forster and up-and-coming Jason Behr), which is a real shame because Hyung-rae Shim is obviously a capable talent who knew what he wanted to do here and surely enough had the means to do it. His head seems full of ideas but the problem is with the execution of those ideas; maybe he was trying to do too much without really working out the material in greater detail. And the ending, a would-be "Raiders of the Lost Ark" special effects showdown, seems pretty cheap too.

I really wanted to like this movie, believe me, but "D-War" is a mediocre attempt at something that really had potential to be spectacular. But maybe it's because I'm an American. Maybe you'd have to be Korean to understand the mythical themes about that classic battle between good and evil. It's just too bad that the finished product of "D-War" appears to be like any other "B"-grade monster movie than the extraordinary idea that the director had in mind.

5/10

This movie was not good. Let's start off with that. But it wasn't a one or two star movie like people are giving it.

Pretty much, the plot is decent. It's something different. It's totally corny and implausible, but it's DRAGON WARS, it's not trying to win any Oscars. to people who say the visual effects are the worst they have seen, PUH-lease. The effects are about on par with Dragonheart and the Godzilla remake. Of course, this means the effects are ten years old, and films like T2 and Jurassic Park still look like they were made last year, but that's beside the point. The effects aren't THAT bad.

The acting is average. Nothing special. Better than Keanu Reeves or Clive Owen. See, what I'm trying to do here is show you that a movie like "Gryphon" or "Raptor Island" or "Alone in the Dark" are much much worse than this. Stop giving unfair comparisons. The last 20 minutes of the movie actually had some good action, and the final battle was great. Lighten up. Just have sit back and MST3K it if you want. But it's cheesy monster mashing fun.

I went into this movie with high hopes. Normally, I'm not too picky about my movies and creature movies are *always* fun to watch, or so I thought. I'll list the good parts of this movie: -The creature effects. All of the creatures were well-done, their movements were realistic, and they fit into the other imagery well. To be honest, the creature effects were the ONLY reason I gave this movie a 2 rather than a 1. Now, the bad things: -The acting. Good Lord, I've seen bad acting, but this movie takes the cake. Not a single one of the characters is even *close* to believable. It's like the director sent out a casting call and picked all the worst try-outs from it. I tried very hard not to giggle too loud, cause I didn't wanna upset anyone else in the theatre, but the acting really was THAT BAD. -The storyline: The entire story is full of plot holes from beginning to finish. You can pick at least 5 plot holes out of any given 30 minutes of film. The plot holes, of course, are complimentary with the cheese. This is probably one of the most clichéd, not thought-out, and outright dumbest stories I've ever seen put on screen since I had the grave misfortune of sitting up one night and watching Parasite on the SciFi channel. -The dialogue: This is a world where everyone says the cheesiest and most clichéd thing they possibly can, at every chance they possibly can. In this world, it seems like every line has been spoken before in at least 30 other low-budget creature movies. It is the world of cheese and cliché. -The special effects. While the creature effects were downright awesome, the special effects fail miserably. Yes, they are better than those seen in other movies, but a lot of it is in the presentation. And this movie has no presentation whatsoever. It looks kinda like the special effects used on the Power Rangers TV show, to be honest. To sum up: Dragon Wars is worth neither your time nor your money. The concept is good, but it is trapped in the bad directing, acting, dialogue, and cheesiness of the film. Wait til the next big monster movie comes out. It's gotta be better than this, cause Dragon Wars is absolutely horrible.

This movie serves as a timely warning to anyone who thinks they can both write and direct their own movie. Face it, you can't. Because that way there's nobody around to tell you when you hack great holes in your plot, have meaningless transitions, trite, unmemorable dialog and manage to turn a fairly cool Korean legend into a steaming pile of celluloid turd.

I wanted to like this movie as a trashy popcorn movie, really I did; I like lots of crappy movies. But once I've been forced to ask myself what the hell just happened and WHY, DEAR LORD, WHY? more than a few times, I really can't take it any more.

Also, I would love for someone to explain how LA became Mordor for the last scene.

This movie was horrible.

They didn't develop any of the characters at all and the storyline was played out horribly. It was a definite sleeper. You'd expect the action scenes on a movie like this to be its strong points but D-Wars surprises you with even a let down in that department.

Also, the acting was just a step above the level of a low budget porno flick. And I seriously mean that.

I was actually happy to see the end credits on this one cause it was just that bad!!! Please, whatever you do people, don't waste your time and money on a crappy movie like D-Wars.

This movie is likely the worst movie I've ever seen in my life -- surpassing the previous most god-awful movie, "Spawn of Slithis," which I saw when I was about 10.

Bad acting, stilted and ridiculous dialog, incomprehensible plot, mishmashed cut scenes, even the music was annoying. Did I leave anything out? Well, the special effects weren't bad -- but CGI does not a decent movie make.

I can't believe I actually spent money to see this movie. If anyone has the contact info for Hyung-rae Shim (the director), please forward it to my user name "at gmail," and I'll contact him to personally demand a refund.

First off, I have no idea how this movie made it to the big screen. Its not even the low budget SCI-Fi channel movie, its just awful. Me and my friend who love action movies, Independence day, Jurassic Park, LotR, etc. went to see this movie expecting this movie to me a Transformers with dragons, mindless entertainment. All we got was a mindless hour and a half. The CG was not as bad as I was expecting, but the plot is so awful along with the acting, it made up for it. Its basically a Chinese legged of dragons returning every 500 years...Sounds like a good remake of Rain of Fire? No, The plot tries to be deeper than it should be leaving not only plot holes, but with magic, and a very small actual war between dragons(rather big snakes) it just gets ridiculous. The director attempted to add a bit of humor in the movie which fail. Me and my friend laughed through the whole thing(along with all 5 of the audience), and cant believed we spent money on this. The short trailer on TV makes up for most of the action while crap makes up the rest. I've seen a lot of B movies like Reptilian, The Cave, Spider, and others, but i have to say if you want a non stop laugh for an hour, watch this.

Story: 1/10 CG: 5/10 Acting:3/10

I don't drink...but it would have helped before watching this movie

I see a lot of really negative posts by people who wrote in August, though the movie was not released in the US, at least, until the middle of September. Maybe these are unhappy expats living in S. Korea who saw it early. I am in the US and just saw it today. I thought the special effects were excellent, better than the trailer. The story was non-Western, but I think we are all used to this from many other movies. It wasn't at all hard to follow. The acting by the leads was weak, but other people were quite good. There was humor throughout, too. I rated it at 8 because I had a good time watching it, which is what I went for.

If you are under 13 or above 13 and pretty intoxicated, you'll enjoy D-war. If you are a seriously dedicated fan of all kinds of brainless action films, you'll enjoy D-war. Otherwise, don't bother! I saw the movie today with my nephews and 3 of their friends. They really loved it and that made me feel good. After the movie was over, all the kids(my nephews and their friends)could not stop thanking me for taking them to the theater.

The CG is good. Acting and directing are horrible. Storyline is extremely simple. But, since the half of the audience was kids, they were screaming, shouting and cheering every time the dragons appeared on the screen. This made the viewing experience far more exciting than it should have been.

It's a good movie to take your kids to, but except for the final battle sequence, D-War is disappointing. I give this film 7 out of 10 mainly because the kids loved it so much.

Everyone does things that they later regret. Things that they wish they could blame on drugs or alien possession. Things that although seem rational at the time, later reveal themselves to be engraved invitations for suffering and endless recriminations of stupidity.

For some people it is signing the note for the new Hummer, for others it is picking up a homicidal hitchhiker, for still others it is sending their bank account information to third world millionaires mysteriously strapped for cash.

For me it was a film.

D-War: Dragon Wars In hindsight, I should have guessed how environmentally friendly and thoroughly recycled this movie would turn out to be from its stuttered and repeating title. But with my willing suspension of disbelief intact, and a naive faith stemming from the cool looking poster in the lobby, I really wanted this film to work. Sadly, by the time the old man in the pawnshop explained the entire backstory, fifteen minutes into the picture, I had the sudden, sinking revelation that comes from knowing every plot point of a still unseen film. And worse: I knew just how badly every point would all suck.

Let me be perfectly clear here, the English language lacks sufficient nuance and depth in the field of ultimate evil to properly describe just how bad this film really is.

As for knowing all the twists of movie, I was wrong. In the spirit of the old Godzilla films, whose scales this one is not worthy to fill, it conveniently sprouted extra sub-plots every time the main characters were threatened by the specter of meaningful dialogue.

It was infested with close calls, miraculous escapes, and concentrated deposits of poorly explained angst.

This film is what would happen if you gave the produces of the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers access to the national defense budget. And lots of liquor.

Let me try to explain.

Imagine you could get a hold of all the coolest-looking set pieces from successful action movies of the last decade: First take the rasta-talking army of amphibians from Star Wars Episode One and remove their Prozac until they are ready to club Navy Seals.

Next, take close approximations of Kira Knightly and Tom Cruise (You can even call him Ethan as a "subtle" nod to the Mission Impossible franchise.) and give them lots of film noir narration, so no one get confused while trying to follow the wading-pool depths of their thoughts.

Finally add a raspy-voiced villain in pointy armor worthy of a Lord of the Rings yardsale and a couple of giant cobras, angry at having their scenes deleted from latest edition of King Kong, and lay them all out in no particular order in modern day Los Angeles.

Now run to the drugstore to find something for your sudden migraine. When you return, puree these ingredients until any overlooked hint of originality is dissolved into a homogenized mass of cheese and serve semi-gelatinous.

At several points during this picture, I found myself saying out loud, "Make the bad movie stop," and breaking into tears.

To call this a B-movie would be giving it an undeserved promotion. After summer school, and a lot of physical therapy, it might possibly pass for a C level film if you could somehow sleep through most of it.

In short, if you ever find yourself with money and brain cells to burn, and the need to punish yourself for hideous, unspoken sins against humanity, Dragon Wars might just be the film for you.

I am sooooo happy that we went to a matinée. I would have been really p.o.'ed if I had spent a bunch of money on this one.

The story line is great and would possibly have been able to have been saved if they had used real actors who could really act. The plot development went on for -- ev -- er and I wish I could have even that 50% of my money back.

The effects and graphics were good but if you are looking for a movie then wait until it comes to a Red Box near you so you will only waste one dollar.

As movies go, this one should have been left in the can.

left me speechless at the end of the movie.

overall, in my opinion, the movie gets 5 out of 10. 1 because i'm a Korean. plus 1 because i want Korean movies to succeed overseas. plus 1 because the CG is not too bad. plus 1 because it's little better than the previous movie by Shim. last plus 1 is added because i'm a Korean.

now about the movie.. storyline interruptions and inconsistency between the scenes are not really noticeable due to bad actings. also i've never seen director's comments(documentary) in the ending credits. only good part about the movie are the in-city fighting scenes.

since i consider myself to be a patriot, i refuse to comment more in detail about the movie.

only warn others to not have high expectations before going to see the movie.

Apparently "D-War" was originally a Korean film. But instead of simply translating it into English (either with captions or dubbing), they separately filmed some American actors and inserted them into the movie. Then, during portions where the Koreans talk, occasionally the narrator summarizes what they said...no captions, no dubbing...but a LOT of confusion. This is a case where a film bombed and much of it simply was because the film wasn't translated well to English-speaking audiences! It fel much like watching a film in a foreign land and understanding nothing until, on rare occasions, someone sitting behind you explains a BIT of what is going on! I think the filmmakers would have been kept the film in Korean...period.

The story, because of the way it's told, is pretty confusing and I'm not going to bother recounting the script. Suffice to say that there are a lot of CGI monsters, explosions and wire fu.....all set to a story that just left me baffled. And, it left me wondering what non-Korean speaking person would sit through the movie.

Overall, there is some nice CGI, some lovely acting by Korean folks and nothing of any value for non-Korean speakers! Next time you want to market a film abroad, do a better job of it! And, in light of this, I can understand why the film is #68 on the IMDB Bottom 100...at least the international/English speaking version. Pretty much unwatchable....but at least it looked nice.

Hilarious, laugh out loud moments ... and yet not a comedy. I particularly liked the planted gag of the ambulance soaking the "filthy bum" who then shouts after them in anger "you filthy bums", I mean wow, someone's online degree in literature is paying off! The worst script imaginable, with plot introductions in an instant, ridiculous movement in the story, ZERO character development (even between the characters who meet .. it's as if they all have known and trusted each other for years) dodgy voice over with added echo effects, and plot holes.. oh God are there plot holes!! To be honest I write this not even having watched the entire thing, but I certainly expect the last 30 mins or so to not exactly enhance the already pathetic attempt in cinema ... thank god we've got a good looking lead to somewhat make us forget that the film is a load of ... well ... use you imagination for the conclusion of that particular sentence!