10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Dragonheart but still a good movie, August 12, 2000
If you're looking for something like the first movie you're going to be disappointed. This is a completely different story aimed at families with children with simple morals about friendship and deception. On it's own it's a good family movie with some good action scenes. Rona Figueroa's martial arts were immensely entertaining to my family. The film's climax was a surprise.
Both of the film's protagonists were so naive that it had me squirming to watch them fall into the clutches of the evil and deceptive Osric.
The session Drake has with Kwan on learning to breathe fire is a hoot!
The costuming and sets were on a par with the original. I enjoyed seeing more of beautiful Slovakia.
There seemed to be some hinting around at the end that suggested there might be yet another movie in the offing. I am interested in what sort of story they might have in mind. I would like to see Drake with a better developed set of horns!
There are a couple of faults I find with this movie: I would have liked to have seen more of Drake and a longer fight scene at the end. The animation was not as fluid as the original Dragonheart. It wasn't awful either. I felt the story was a good one; a longer film would have fleshed it out more.
The original Dragonheart stands alone in its genre. I don't think another film will be made that is up to it's par.
I appreciate that the producers of A New Beginning did not try to duplicate the first movie; they went in a completly different direction and told a story that is family friendly and satisfying in it's own right.
Four stars for a solid family film.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I thought Draco was the _last_ dragon . . ., August 10, 2000
Blech. That's probably the best thing I can say about this video. The original movie "DragonHeart", of which I am a huge fan, is a movie with an interesting premise: the last dragonslayer and the last dragon team up together to defeat an evil king and free his people from slavery. Aided by a fiery peasant girl and a priest, they ultimately bring victory . . . at a cost. (Check out the movie reviews at Amazon.com for a more detailed plot.) One of the neatest things about "DragonHeart" was the simple premise of the last dragon and the last dragon-slayer together. So, I ask you, how can there be a sequel to the movie when it was about the _last_ dragon? There are no more dragons in the world after "DragonHeart"; just in the stars and in our hearts. It quite upset me to see the producer cheapen the effects and meanings in the first movie in order to produce a rather cheezy sequel. The plot is simple; a young boy training for knighthood meets a young dragon, Drake. Don't ask me where _he_ came from; _Draco_ was the _last_ dragon in DragonHeart! There is a problem----the dragonette can't fly. Together, they must learn how the dragon is to fly, but also overcome an evil ruler. Not the most fascinating plot, but it's certainly a sad substitute for the original movie. Not to mention the fact that the special effects are no where near as magical as in the first movie; at times Drake almost appears to have a black outline around him, and his movements are jerky and sometimes unnatural. I will say this, the acting seems decent; but the actors are not given much to work with! I have a great respect for the writer, Charles Edward Pogue, who did the first movie. I don't believe he wrote the plot or script for the second movie, and I'm willing to bet it wasn't anything he ever had in mind. This movie, quite simply, does not fit in the DragonHeart-Universe; the two movies are not compatible. Who needs a sequel like that? When a cheaply-done, childish sequel like this comes along, it will definetly ruin the effects of the original. So if you want more DragonHeart, read the novelization of the first movie; an excellent book, in some ways better than the film. But don't waste your time with this movie. Draco would _not_ approve.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Direct-to-video "sequel" changes focus to target the young, January 5, 2003
This review is from: Dragonheart: New Beginning [VHS] (VHS Tape)
After watching "Rising Sun" last night I had the luck to spot "Dragonheart: A New Beginning" on the Sci-fi channel. I've always been a fan of Dragons, and the original Dragonheart made such an impact on me that I just had to see this sequel, no matter the fact that it was billed as a 'family movie'.
...
The original Dragonheart was a masterpiece of a comedic tragedy; it dealt with issues like fun, friendship, love and spirituality, yet it also covered racial violence, genocide, guilt, sacrifice, and death. The end is a tear-jerker for a lot of people.
By contrast, "Dragonheart: A New Beginning" comes across as a movie that would be suitable for kids as young as 7-8 if they're not frightened by no-gore violence and characters getting put in "scary" situations. When I say no-gore violence I am specifically referring to the only "battle" seen in the movie where the only blood you see is on the tip of one spear. There are also a couple kung-fu fights. But, while there are a lot of bodies, you don't see any blood!
Being a family movie, everything is naturally light-hearted and never too serious because most of the action is predictable. However, this comes back to bite it in the climax of the movie as some of the characters act way out of character.
The main human character is Geoff (a stable boy at a monastery) who discovers and "makes friends with" the young naïve dragon Drake.
"Dragonheart: A New Beginning" comes in at 85 minutes in contrast to the 103 minutes of the original, and unfortunately you will notice it - there is not enough real character development between Drake and Geoff to show us why they would care for each other in the way that they do at the end. Up until the end, the relationship between the two is strictly kid/pet, with Geoff being cocky and self-centered and taking advantage of his close friendship to the naïve dragon to advance himself, which the bad guy plays on. Eventually, the desires of the bad guy are revealed and Geoff ends up `saving' Drake from a deadly situation which Geoff got him into in the first place, and Drake saves him while they both escape.
After their escape from the bad guy and directly up to the final confrontation is a long scene in which the secondary characters escape from their predicament and uncover another facet of the bad guy's plot. While the scene itself is decently done and doesn't need to be cut, it overwhelms the escape scene. It would have been much better for the entire movie if the escape scene beforehand had been expanded to show the forging of a true friendship between Geoff and Drake. As it is, in the climax when Drake makes his `fatal choice' between good and evil there is no indication that their kid/pet relationship has changed.
A couple people have commented on "bad acting" but I have to disagree. If you look at how the actors show their emotions and believe in their characters it's easy to ignore any technical problems and forget that they're actors - a big plus.
On the other hand, imperfect directing, scripting and editing have led to some nasty plot holes and characters getting out of character in moments that make you want to scream "WHY DOESN'T S/HE...?!". One example of a minor plot hole is when Drake discovers the typical knight/dragon relationship (i.e. dragonslaying) and the entire issue is swept under the rug. While we as the audience feel sorry for Drake as being the last of his kind and feel anger or guilt towards the activities which killed his race, we never really see Drake respond to the issue, which is a let-down for those of us interested in seeing the movie deal with more serious issues. Drake also gets FAR TOO LITTLE AIRTIME, making him seem to be a very two-dimensional character in contrast with the beautiful performance of Draco in the first film.
On the technical side, the design of the dragon is very good, the locations and costumes are decently medieval, and the choreography is amazing for a direct-to-video film. Drake is well-animated most of the time, though his CGI never totally blends with the live-action characters in the way that Draco's did, and some additional CGI in the end seems below Drake's level of refinement.
Overall, the movie's light-hearted tone and musical score, simplistic structure, predictability, transparent characters and surreal childish CGI dragon, not to mention the plot holes that keep it from standing up to the criticisms of adults, lead this movie to be a solid 4/5 star contender with the younger audience in general, 5/5 for being the only good dragon film for kids too young to handle the original Dragonheart, and a 3/5 for everyone else.
Personally, I liked it. :)
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