Jun 292007
 
two reels

Long ago, a Kingdom was split by feuding brothers.  Since then, the two countries have fought.  With one about to lose, their sorcerer (Larry Drake) tricks the king into letting him summon the ancient protector of the land, a gryphon.  With the creature firmly under his control, the sorcerer moves to take over both Kingdoms.  The young prince of one (Jonathan LaPaglia) and the princess of the other (Amber Benson) work together to find a legendary weapon that can defeat the Gryphon before the sorcerer becomes immortal.

Gryphon is an old fashioned, sword and sorcery quest story.  If you’re a fan of the genre, or of anything similar (the ’50s-’70s Sinbad flicks), then you’ll be familiar with everything that happens.  It’s fun, it’s lighter than cotton candy, and as meaningless as any later Godzilla film.  The heroes must find a magical item, and to do so they will have to deal with physical and magical opponents and a few traps.  Naturally the leads will fall in love after the requisite bickering.  Yeah, you’ve seen it before.

While the basic plot is old hat, the specifics are better than you’ll find in most mid to low-budget fantasies.  The relationship has the needed sex appeal, and the cost of the main spell to the sorcerer is amusing.  The scenery and sets are believable (the Romanian forest locations make me want to trek to Eastern Europe), and the combats are as good as anything that doesn’t cost over 30 million.  OK, it’s not Lord of the Rings, but the swords clang in a satisfying manner.  And there’s some nice special effects, particularly the attacking ghost-knights.  The supporting cast is also better than normal, including scenery-chewing Larry Drake and the always lovely Sarah Douglas (Superman II, Conan the Destroyer), who has now been relegated to the mother role.

Better still is star Amber Benson (lesbian Tara on the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer)  Here she gets to play it sensual and tough, and manages both.  She’s got enough of the tomboy look to pull off the Princess-in-Armor bit, and is even better when she plays it sweet.  She manages to make a standard character as multidimensional as possible.

On the downside (oh, you knew there was a downside), there’s the title monster.  It’s a CGI creation and it looks it.  Everyone can’t be Peter Jackson, but there’s a middle ground between his perfection and horrible, video game animation.  The gryphon is hugging the horrible side.  It isn’t good for a film when viewers moan every time the monster pops up.

There’s also the sorcerer’s two witch-brides, that come off as modern wrestling babes.  I didn’t mind them, but then I have testosterone, and I’ve learned to expect hot chicks in fantasy films that don’t necessarily fit the setting…or are able to act.

But the biggest problem, and it’s a doozy, is Jonathan LaPaglia, who apparently traveled from Australia to this medieval world via New Jersey.  He’s the younger brother of Anthony LaPaglia and I couldn’t forget that for a moment.  A New York cop or an underworld gangster, sure I could accept him in those roles.  But as a sword-wielding prince?  Nope.  Not for a second.  This is miscasting on a grand scale.

While Gryphon will have a DVD release, it was financed by the Sci-Fi channel.  I recommend catching it there. For free, the price is right.

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