Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker

I will try to make a point here, I'm not an English speaker but i will do my best. As a big r.p.g. game fan, from Baldur's Gate till Dragon age Origins, I have to say that i didn't like this movie. I didn't expected much, the animation is OK, and the voices are somehow realistic. But the rest is a huge flaw, specially the characters and the story. Let me give you an example: Mages in this movie don't use magic to fight.... they fight hand to hand against knights!! Another example are the enemies, like the Ogres and Golems which are shown barely weak , slow(ogre) and fragile. I seriously doubt that the people involve in this movie knew the characters types and the context.

Not being overly familiar with the Dragon Age games, I didn't really have any prerequisites for this movie, so I just took it for what it was a sword and magic fantasy animated adventure.

That being said, then the movie was sort of cliché. Sure, in a fantasy movie you need to have the stereotypical good against evil plot, which is also present here, but it is also spiced up with a sub-plot of betrayal and deception.

The characters in the movie were mediocre at best. You didn't really get to see any interesting characteristics of anyone, as they were shallow and sort of just flashy in and out of everything. Not even the two main characters were given proper character traits or personalities. At best, then you get annoyed with the Cassandra character because she is single-minded, narrow-minded, naive and sort of a brat. For a Seeker, then she is awfully childish in her mindset and seem so far away from being properly capable of taking on such a responsibility.

As for the voice acting, well it was adequate. At times it worked out well enough, but at other times it could have used a bit more commitment and passion.

Now, what really worked for the movie was the visuals. The characters were nicely animated, even though they had a hint of bordering on being in the Anime genre. The costumes and armors were really nicely detailed and quite nice to look at. However, something I personally didn't understand, was the alternate usage of a sort of weird hybrid mixture of animation and CGI for the characters, but using full-blown, all out CGI for the dragons and scenery. It was a mixture that often didn't fully stand well together. Personally, I think they should just have picked one style of visuals and stuck with it. Now, I am not saying that it is bad to look at, far from it, because to their own, they are quite stunning. Just a weird combination of attempting to mix styles together (which also failed in that "Dead Space" animated movie).

Another thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the overpowered abilities of Cassandra. If she truly was all that powerful and capable in battle, why did they need circle mages for the fight with the dragons, or how come she wasn't at the top of the Seeker order? That leader was so easily bested and cut down, that it was just painful to behold, especially since Cassandra possess these skills and prowess in combat.

Despite a heap of things that just didn't fully add up, "Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker" was fun enough to just. Just take it for what it is, a fantasy adventure (of mixed visual styles) that doesn't require any thinking on your part. If you enjoy CGI animated movies, the "Final Fantasy" movies, "Resident Evil: Degeneration" ("Damnation" sucks horribly) or even "Tekken: Blood Vengeance" will prove more entertaining than "Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker".

And just for a final rounding up comment; what was up with the music that played when the credits started to roll? It was horrible and so misplaced. What a wrong choice of music to put into a fantasy adventure.

So first I'd like to start with saying that I've not played the games and I will not compare the movie to them. The movie wasn't bad but it wasn't really that good either.Graphicaly it was done very well .The animations were top notch and even though they might seem strange in the beginning (atleast the faces) you very soon fall in love with the style. the atmosphere was amazing as well but ... that's just about it. Those were the good sides of the movie. Now for the bad part. The story was nothing special in fact it was very generic and clichéd and unoriginal. The voice acting wasn't that bad , the dialogs were pretty simple and there weren't really any lines to remember from the movie.There were a lot of goofs such as different placing of the characters and different lenght of the surrounding objects or distances. As a conclusion , the movie wasn't that bad but it was also not a great movie that would be remembered very long or even at all. It's interesting to see the animation style but the rest is nothing special.Kind of disappointing actually because of the cliché plot .

One point for visuals and voice acting, kinda.. Everything else is pretty much crap.

Main heroine Cassandra comes out as an annoying brat, not heroic.

Mages, in this movie, are completely useless in fights and that includes blood mages as well, while in the games they were the real death dealers. I mean, if one little girl (Main heroine) can kill dozens of blood mages in a few minutes - alone -, why there is so much worry about those evil blood mages in the Dragon age universe in the first place? As an added retard bonus, mages are using staves in fights instead of magic.

Writing is just awfully dull, uninspired and predictable.

I recommend this movie to no one.

I went in to this film expecting it to be pretty bad. I love DA:O and really like DAII despite it's flaws, but an anime based on a character that I personally don't really care about, felt doomed to fail. And yes, the plot is very predictable and clichéd but at the same time entertaining. I liked getting to know more about the seekers and Cassandra was pretty badass. But! Some story elements were just so wrong.

First of all, the evil blood mage thing is kind off overused after DAII. And what's with the sudden army of ogres and golems that the blood mages just pulls out of nowhere only to never use them again. And Cassandra is kicking their asses despite them being really tough opponents in the games.

Then there's the problem with the story being set in between the events in Kirkwall and Varric's interrogation. The circle mages just felt wrong. They shouldn't be that loyal to the chantry. After all, Varric says that the circles are rising up, and yet all the circle mages in this film are good loyal mages while every apostate is an evil blood mage. And why would mages fight with scythes/swords instead of magic?

But the animation is nice and it's entertaining enough to sit through. If you like Dragon Age and want more back story, then by all means watch it. If you don't, well you're not missing anything.