What’s kinda interesting is the story around the task at hand. For instance the dragon is holding the town
hostage. Unless she (you bet your boots it’s
a strong independent woman dragon) gets her human female virgin sacrifice once
every five years she’ll burn the place down.
Oh and the dragon’s name is Vermithrax Pejorative. Wow, cool.
Although I had to look it up, I don’t remember anyone actually saying it
in the movie but whatever.
Another odd tidbit is there’s this one local virgin named
Valerian (Caitlin Clarke (Blown Away)) who pretends to be a boy to get
out of the death lottery. She knows her
days are still numbered though, plus she’s had enough of this bullshit, so she
spearheads the plan for help. Problem is
the sorcerer (Ralph Richardson (Tales from the Crypt (1972))) gets
killed before he sets out on the journey (sorta complicated to explain) leaving
his apprentice, Galen (Peter MacNicol (Heat (1986))), to take the job.
At first Galen seems personality-less but he grew on
me. What’s different about this
character is despite his youth and inexperience he’s actually very brave. He never backs down from a fight and doesn’t
think twice about hunting down the dragon.
Ok, he displays some mild arrogance here and there. But at the same time he’s devoid of macho man
bluster that was incredibly popular at the time. In appearance he’s basically the opposite of
Conan the Barbarian, short and lanky with soft features. I think that’s ultimately what makes him
appealing though. He’s a seemingly average
dude that’s definitely in over his head but he wants to help these people and admirably
sees his task through. Well, he’s also
in love with Valerian but his heroism doesn’t come off as showboating either.
While the story could’ve been adjusted a bit (the finale is unfortunately
anticlimactic) and there are several superfluous characters the main draw is
that dragon and the showdown with Galen.
Leading up to this we only catch brief glimpses of the creature’s claws,
tail, back of the head, fire breath and her swooping by in the sky quickly. It’s the usual mix of building suspense,
keeping you hungry for more, smart filmmaking and trying to keep the budget
down.
Anyway, there’s some silly business outside the beast’s lair
with Galen having to first fend off the film’s human antagonist (John Hallam (The Wicker Man)). This asshole is absolutely
unnecessary. Not only does he want Galen
to fail in his mission but he wants to actively kill him just because. There’s no real reason.
So once we’re through with that dipshit we go deep inside the
ominously lit rocky cave where Galen encounters dragon babies. They’re nasty demons that look like grotesque
mutated bats the size of a large dog. They’re
gnawing on a virgin sacrifice with one biting her foot clean off (did I mention
this is rated PG?). This sequence
reminds me a little of the rodents of unusual size part of The Princess
Bride. The movie may have come out
after Dragonslayer but the book was released well before.
After all that fooling around Galen finally makes his way
into a colossal cavern with a lake…that’s on fire! Vermithrax sneaks up out of the water from
behind and we get our big reveal and holy fucking shit this thing is fuckin’
awesome looking! It was such a dramatic
build up to this confrontation and it delivers in spades. A bunch of filmmakers (nerds) have said this
is their favorite dragon on film and you know what? I agree.
It has the perfect shape with a sharp snout, beady eyes, a serpent neck,
horns, spikes, pointed wings, razor talons, etc. Alright fine, that sounds like every dragon ever. I’m not doing this thing justice. Look up pictures.
Now of course this achievement is largely due to the phenomenal
effects. The good folks at ILM put forth
an amazing bonanza of practical gags.
They use every trick in the book including new ones for the time like go
motion, an offshoot of stop motion that attempts to incorporate motion blur
making the movement seem more realistic.
They were also using this technique in The Empire Strikes Back
and ET. And at least in Dragonslayer
it does look better than stop motion.
One minus is Vermithrax doesn’t look so hot while flying
which appears jerky, stiff and sorta blurry.
Part of the reason why the finale falls flat is an overreliance on
having the dragon fly. And I totally get
it on paper that it sounds tremendous but it doesn’t look nearly as nice as
when she’s slithering around in her cave.
While it’s got its fair share of issues the positives are real
strong. Aside from the kick ass effects the
production design (Elliott Scott (Indian Jones, Roger Rabbit)) and score
(Alex North who apparently recycled his unused music from 2001) are also
top notch. The characters aren’t the
strongest but they’re likeable and the story throws in a few curious details to
keep your interest. It’s worth checking
out for that lady dragon alone.
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