Apr 282004
 
two reels

Dragons appear on Earth and destroy the castle of corrupt King Fastrad (John Rhys-Davies). Fastrad takes the opportunity to impose on the hospitality of King Wednesbury (John Hansson) and secretly plans to overthrow him and take his castle. Overtly, Fastrad works with Wednesbury, preparing a team of dragon slayers that include the woodsmen, Silas (Maxwell Caulfield), skilled hunter and Wednesbury’s daughter, Medina (Angel Boris), Asian warrior, Ling (Woon Young Park), alchemist, Remmegar (Richard Wharton), Fastrad’s guard, Theldag (Tony Amendola), and weapon maker, Nessa (Iskra Angelova).

Another of the low budget shot-in-Eastern-Europe genre flicks that have become common, Dragon Storm keeps trying to be a quality fantasy, before tripping up on its lack of resources and poorly thought out script. It is two films, one of royal intrigue and one of dragon hunting and the royal segment should never have been filmed.

The dragon slaying story mostly works. It’s a pleasure to see a group working together to defeat an enemy instead of constantly bickering as is the fad with untalented script writers. Wharton’s alchemist and Ling’s warrior stand out as amusing yet fitting for the action/adventure moments. Medina is a cliché as the princess trying to prove herself (not that the other characters are original), but Angel Boris is beautiful enough to make it work. Only the drab woodsman, played by Caulfield with a bad hangover, fails. He should be the romantic lead, but he has no energy and offers nothing of interest. There’s a great deal of silliness connected to the hunt, such as shooting down fast-moving dragons with a slow cranking ballista, but as long as it looks good and has a bit of excitement, which is does, those problems don’t interfere much with enjoying the show. What really looks good are the CGI dragons. These are some of the best creatures made in recent years and I can’t think of a dragon that is significantly better. There is an impressive scene of a dragon floating on the wind, its wings rippling. That’s good stuff.

Unfortunately, whenever things switch back to the kings, the movie’s in trouble. I like John Rhys-Davies. He made a good dwarf in Lord of the Rings and was superb as Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but his villains come out as cartoons. The script didn’t help, giving him dialog that is only fit for someone twirling the ends of a mustache. The budget shortfall mainly reared its head with the kings and castles. The “kingdoms” are minute, holding no more than a hundred people each and lacking enough buildings for anyone to pretend there is a town. For the great battle, Fastrad’s hired army amounts to one guy with dialog and a few lost-looking extras who can’t quite figure what to do with their weapons. As for Wednesbury’s army, he has none. Nobody. Without the cash, director Stephen Furst was forced to settle for a chase. I’ve been seeing far too many films lately where one or two people, running through a Bulgarian forest or ruin, has replaced combat. Interesting that it is now cheaper to make first rate dragons than to hire some competent stage fighters and a reasonable number of soldier extras.

Dragon Storm was doomed to mediocrity or worse in the planning stage. Either it needed its fairy tale elements cranked up or it needed to swing more towards exploitation sword and sorcery, with some blood and nudity. With ex-playmate Angel Boris on set, who is best known for her string of Playboy videos, it’s hard to see why the second option wasn’t attempted.

Back to Fantasy