Customer Reviews

Dragon Storm

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Granted, this film isn't the greatest movie about dragons to be rolled out, but based on the meager budget I think that it's pretty good. It's actually one of the better sci-fi/fantasy flicks that you can catch on SciFi channel these days. The story is nothing new, what with two warring kings at each others throats until a common enemy approaches, that being the dragons. Rhys-Davies does a good job with the material he is given here, and much like others have stated, he and Max Caulfield deserve better roles in better films.

There seems to be a lot of negativity about this movie. As a whole, however, it does a pretty good job with what it has to work with. The dragons look very good and the action sequences are nice as well. My favorite scene is when one of the dragons is harpooned by the ballista and falls to the earth, sliding towards our heroes only to stop a few feet in front of them. The graphics in that particular scene are very realistic when compared to other TV movies.

In short, if you like the flicks cranked out by SciFi channel, and allow some leeway for the budget, "Dragon Storm" isn't too shabby. I don't know if I'd buy it, but it's at least worth burning up a Saturday afternoon when it's raining outside.

For a low-budget, made for TV movie, DRAGON STORM has some pretty cool dragons. They swirl and blow flames from their mouths and they shoot off some nasty hulls or something. Set in the late 12th century in Carpathia, the "story" follows these dragons who come from outer space, and two feuding kingdoms. John Rhys Davies tries to camp it up but he limits himself; a broader expansive performance ala Vincent Price would have aided the film greatly. Maxwell Caulfield (will we ever forgive him for Grease 2) plays the heroic hunter who battles the dragons. The movie is Saturday afternoon Milk Duds, and is not a bad way to pass the time. One irritating point of movies lately though is their necessity to give us female warriors who inevitably are better than many of the men. Here we have an engineering young woman who actually builds a batista and can shoot dragons accurately with each shot; and we have the tomboyish yet sexy princess who can outshoot the hero. We all know that the chances of that happening in the 12th century is pretty preposterous. I'm certainly not a chauvinist by any means; I just wish movies would try and spare us this politically correct nonsense. Sorry ladies, don't hate me!!!!

Soon after a feature film 'Reign of Fire' failed to grab our attention, this made-for-TV film comes starring John Rhys-Davies and Maxwell Caulfield. The only thing I can promise is that you can see them in this film. And some big, bad dragons, this time back in 900 years ago.

Besides that, there are few things I can recommend about this film. The story itself is not bad; well, at least, the dragons here do not come out of the constraction site in London. Instead, they come from the outer space! Call it scientific accuracy, or just a plot contrivance. Pick your choice.

Anyway, the story that follows is not really bad. The castle ruled by the evil king played by Rhys-Davies is attacked by the dragons, and burned to the ground. Powerless, he goes to the castle against which he was fighting a war for a long time. King Rhys-Davies succeeds in reaching there, and the two kings team up, to kill the man-eating dragons.

And Maxwell Caulfied is Silas, a wandering hunter who happens to help out the evil king, and Silas is forced to join in the dragon-hunting force. The rest of the film is about the fights between the flying dragons and the humans (including the Princess) and the plotting king's scheme about overturning the enemy country.

Well, that's about it. The CGIs of the dragons are just OK, but no matter how it does, the film shows it's a low-budget one. The actions are not good, because when there is no tension, it desperately tries to show it by the busy cutting and the actors' loud yelling, all of which simply fall flat, leaving nothing behind.

According to imdb, the name of John Rhys-Davies will appear in at least eight films (including TV). You know, he was Gimli in 'Lord of the Rings' and ... why should he be so busy as this? His acting is just so-so, nothing that would remind you of the fact that he was in this Oscar-winning film. Same thing s can be said about Maxwell Caulfield. Like Steven Berkoff, his acting talent is considerable, and like Berkoff he got stuck in this realm of B-Grade films. He deserves much better things, indeed.

This movie is just a bit of fun! The acting, directing and production values are very good. Maxwell Caulfield makes an excellent reluctant hero and John Rhys Davies injects humor into his villanous role. The medieval setting is more convincing and less glamorous than in many movies I've seen. The script is pretty good, as dragon eggs land like comets on the earth, but we aren't sure at first (and neither are the characters) what they are. Even though the movie is not a bloodfest, it is too scary for children. The dragons do kill people, there is a fair amount of suspense, and the dragons are frightening.

THE PLOT: Set in a Middle Ages environment/time, two neighboring kingdoms find themselves besieged by Dragons that landed in meteors. Over the next 90 minutes, the Dragons burn, eat, and kill their way across the countryside. At the same time, political intrigue spins all around the main characters. Alliances are made and broken easily, with in a story with more secret (and not so secret) alliances than the latest Survivor episode.

The SPECIAL EFFECTS: Weren't bad at all compared to most `B' movies out there. Yes, it isn't quite as polished as the latest Hollywood blockbuster, but they're still good. The Dragons all look different and fly realistically, and there's enough fire in this film to make any pyromaniac happy.

OVERALL: Not a bad film at all. Also, there's no nudity or swearing, so you don't have to stress if you want to watch it with your kids. One female lead goes topless for a minute, but her hair completely covers everything.

On the whole a great, entertaining film.

If you're a fan of Lord of the Rings, Dragon Storm will not amuse you. It's a poorly plotted mishmash of modern tropes crammed into a fantasy context with dragons, obligatory Syfy "super weapons", and hot chicks that fight better than the men. The world is barely realized, and the dragons are actually from outer space. Which makes about as much sense...as fire-breathing dragons.

If you're a gamer however, Dragon Storm feels very familiar. Oh sure, it's supposedly about squabbling King Fastrad (John Rhys-Davies, gleefully chewing scenery) and King Wednesbury (John Hansson) and how the dragon invasion upsets their delicate balance of power. But in reality it's about assembling a group of mismatched heroes into an adventuring party to kill monsters. In other words, it's Drama & Dragons.

Which character do you want to play? There's ranger Silas (Maxwell Caulfield, wearing a hilariously-bad wig), an amazing shot with a bow. Or perhaps you prefer Medina (Angel Boris), the beautiful warrior princess that's an even better shot with a crossbow. If that's a little too daring for you, try the Nessa (Iskra Angelova) the inventor of the world's most accurate ballista. Or Remmegar (Richard Wharton), the resident alchemist. And if you just don't feel like playing in a medieval world at all, just play martial arts monk Ling (Woon Young Park).

I played in a D&D campaign once where one guy was a low-level monk in a high-level party. Here's how the game went:

DRAGON: ROAR!

FIGHTER: Whoa, I am NOT going near that dragon! I shoot it with my bow!

WIZARD: Whoa, I am NOT going near that dragon! I cast a magic missile!

MONK: ...I hit it with my fists.

When you're up against dragons, you've got to ask if Ling is going to be very useful. But who cares, he'll surely be more helpful in the next adventure...

That other adventure is the brewing rivalry between the two kings that eventually erupts into open warfare. Okay, more like a skirmish, because there aren't that many actors to populate the various castles. So Ling does get to show off some martial arts there. See, your monk character CAN be useful!

But who cares about all this hand-to-hand fighting, we came to see dragons! It's not quite a storm of dragons - more like a small fellowship - but the dragons are beautifully rendered, from their pebbly hides to their gouts of flame to the wind rippling through their wings. They fly, they dive, they roast and occasionally eat people.

Dragon Storm is quite proud of its silliness. At one point scheming King Fastrad receives a dragon egg that he mistakes for a sculpture and proceeds to fawn over it, pleased that he's received his first housewarming gift. By the time Davies is done with this joke you know Dragon Storm is on it too. If you have low expectations, Dragon Storm has it all - dragons, hot chicks, sword fights, and a guy getting his head bitten off (a Syfy staple). What more could you want from a D&D session?

I bought this expecting at least a decent story, unfortunately the lead doesn't seem to know how to use a bow (nor do I but that looks wrong even to me!) most of the cast looked like they tried its a shame they couldn't keep the story straight!

A meteor shower brings down some aliens whom get called dragons by the locals, being animalistic they lair in caves and hunt for food including the locals.

Its apparently been some years since they arrived since one local the Leonardo De Vinci of this side of the world built his own industrial sized crossbow or whatever an artilley sized crossbow is called!

He's killed sometime ago but his daughter and her brothers hunt his killer and join up with the hero a bowman who shouldn't be able to hit the side of a barn unless by accident, the heroine, the captain of the guard of the evil king (the guy from stargate plays him at least convincingly, the king is played by John Rhyss Davies who even at his worst is still better than all bar his captain!) and a few others.

One of whom decides to steal a dragons egg by himself and whilst I could see this being pulled off in a dnd game it still ends up messy!

On the whole only buy this if you fancy seeing an alternative to reign of fire, however THAT movie whilst just as shaky has a lot more interesting ideas than this one!

I hope this review helps I only wish I could explain to everyone's viewpoint but I tried my best!

I too caught this on the SciFi channel when they were running a marathon of dragon movies. Although better than some I saw, it certainly can't compete with Dragonheart - Collector's Edition, but then it certainly is not a big budget movie either and so for B class it is palatable. I kind of enjoy these low budget fantasy movies that the SciFi channel releases. Even if they aren't of the same caliber they are somewhat plentiful and reasonably entertaining. If you enjoyed this movie, be sure to catch Dungeons & Dragons (New Line Platinum Series).

CA Luster

A great movie for a great price. I was simply amazed! I would reccomend this to anybody who likes Medieval movies with dragons. =P

I watched this movie because it has Angel Boris in it, and I love Angel Boris. But let's face it, if Angel Boris is in a movie, that's a good sign that the movie is going to suck. Not because she is a bad actress, but she's an average actress who probably can't land the good roles. But she's hot, so who cares?

The only real reason to watch this movie is John Rhys Davies. He enjoys himself thoroughly playing a nasty, scheming bad guy, and gets most of the good lines in the film.

The dragons are done with much better CGI than I would have expected from a Sci-Fi Channel movie, but the film makers must have spent 90% of their budget on the dragons, because the rest of the film is almost comically under-produced. There's like 10 people in the village where the king lives. The lack of budget shows.

The acting? The plot? The dialogue? Well, let's say I've seen much, much worse. I still love Angel Boris though.