Monday 5 October 2015

Fire and Ice: The Dragon Chronicles

Where wearing nothing is probably better than wearing armor.

A fire dragon (literally on fire) is terrorizing the peaceful kingdom ruled by a good king (Arnold Vosloo). Fortunately his free spirited and strong willed tomboy daughter (Amy Acker) is around to try help save the day. This is a good example of how decent actors can really help a subpar script. Apart from perhaps one or two deviations you probably have already guessed how this will play out and you would be right. This film also has average quality sets and average CGI but they certainly aren't shy or hesitant to use it. John Rhys Davies is also very watchable and it has simple but workable tunes musically.

Unfortunately there are many weaker actors around too and an almost total fail in the costume department. I'm not sure if it's intentional but the "armor" worn here is the most worthless that I've seen for awhile with guys in chain mail getting one hit punched or kicked to the point where guardsmen are seriously useless. The director also likes horses as a good portion of the film involves them, as well as camera shots that rotate around one subject. This is ok once or twice but some people seriously might get dizzy. Having no combat choreographer is also telling and makes "fights" just a mess of camera cuts to watch. The main culprit here though is the script. Trying a new lore for dragons is good but it has to at least make -some- sense. Also the heroes plan gets to the point of face palming stupidity too, which again doesn't help it in the slightest.

They're supposed to be looking at the same thing...

Alas Fire and Ice, I give you only one and a half useless pieces of armor out of five. I don't want to watch it again nor can I recommend it to anyone save for the most die hard fans of the names above.

2 comments:

  1. I'm a fan of Amy Acker, so this has been on my "to watch eventually" list. I'm disappointed that it's not very good. :( Eh, I may watch it anyway. Thanks for the review!

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