Crown of Shadows

It's unwatchable. Everything looks nasty and lacks human spirit. Movies are meant to be made by humans as they are not only a way of entertainment but also a form of art. The use of generative ai is obvious in visuals and i'm pretty sure that whoever wrote it didn't even pick up a pen once. It's slop and doesn't even deserve a 1/10 rating, if i could go into negatives - i would.

I love a good medieval dragon fantasy movie, so the title and cover image on Tubi got my attention. It's been awhile since I've seen a good new movie in this genre, and sadly this was not good. I should have paid attention to the 2.7 rating. Save your time if you read the reviews first.

Painfully slow pace with drawn-out scenes and slow camera movement and some scenes trying to have a slo-mo effect that just made painfully obvious CGI worse. Going even 2 hours, let alone over 2, is completely pointless unless there's actual story to tell. Dragging out scenes with slow pacing isn't telling a story. Nor did it build suspense or emotion. It took over 40 minutes for this flick to get somewhat interesting.

Crowds of people being CGI-generated was painfully obvious (one way to save money on extras) as well as the dragons and burning scenes. There're a couple of scenes with an "infant", also painfully obvious as a doll.

Costumes and most props were well done. Mostly good castle scenery even as CGI. Acting was decent and the script was relatively fine. So much potential, but completely lost in the painfully boring pace.

Can't say anything except that anything Lawrie Brewster touches turns to dust. The Owl-man from Lord of Tears couldn't even survive this man's pestilence on the world. Unfortunately the talent involved in this project cant see through it. Megan Tremethick is beyond talented but I fear her commitment to Lawrie will be her downfall when it comes to acting. Hopefully she can get away from that weird Hitchcockian relationship and thrive.

There's a growing, prevailing philosophy in low budget fantasy flicks that if you throw enough AI generated images at it this will help mask the dull direction, poor acting and empty 'same old same old' story. It doesn't. It highlights that most of the movie, as with a plethora of other rubbish sci-fi and fantasy, was filmed in woodland and/or an abandoned building. As a genuine, lifelong fan (60 years) I pray to the gods of Harryhausengard that the next offering will have merit. 99.7% of the time my demon of disappointment is sated. It's just more boring junk painted to appear interesting. There are a tons of great, low budget films. It's the art, skill and vision of its creators and actors that make wonderful cinema, not the amount of cash you throw at it. I mean, look at Marvel? So save you time and go watch something else.

It makes me wonder why was this created? Who wrote this? Who directed it. Most scenes occur in a random forest. Same handful of actors appear in most scenes. It couldn't be any more low budget if it tried. The lead actor is horrible lol I imagine him prepping for this role was just watching YouTube tutorials on acting tips. Surely this had to be a money laundering scheme because it's not a real movie for real people to enjoy.