Paladin 2 : La Prophétie du Dragon

Add Dungeon & Dragons with Harlan Romance seasoning and stir in a bit of Game of Thrones, the end result is The Crown and the Dragon. Yes, the CGI-effects could been better and derivative factor is high but the Irish-Scots cast never treated the material with contempt - displaying admirable professionalism with director Anne Black keeping things tight as humanely as possible in this tightly-budgeted concoction.

Young and naive Ellen Barethon (Amy De Bhrún) accompanies her aunt to a secret enthronement of the rightful king in a land taken over by foreign empire to deliver an ancient artifact to the royal majesty. Ellen soon become the sole guardian of the relic after tragic circumstances and had to rely on one Aedin (David Haydn). Aedin saves her from certain death and later cuts a deal to be her 'protector' as Ellen vows to finish what her aunt started.

The artifact is merely a MacGuffin. The heart of the story lies in the burgeoning relationship between Ellen and Aedin from guarded suspicion into the inevitable you-know-what. Kudos to both Amy and Haydn for making the romantic entanglement authentic and grounded in reality with immeasurable help from no-frills script. The 'string' dance by the pair is beautifully choreographed and for me - one of the few highlights in the flick.

It's eye-catching performance of Amy De Bhrún that keeps the proceedings lively. Her spunky character is someone you can hold on to during dreary parts and the anchor holding together the movie as it head towards obligatorily revelations and proper intro of traitorous Corvus (Tim Treloar) coveting both the relic and bewitching Amy.

If you are looking for guts-ripping sword fights and battling mystical creatures, this is not the movie for you. The elements are there but purely on perfunctory level.

It is rare to come across a sword and sorcery fantasy movie that actually impress and turns out to be good entertainment. "The Crown and the Dragon" is not one such movie, unfortunately.

The story is dragging on in an endless cycle that seems to take forever to get nowhere. And the pace of the story was ultimately what made me give up on the movie and find something else to watch.

The costumes and sets were actually quite good, and was the peak of the movie, which doesn't really forebode well for a movie meant to entertain. That being said, then I will also give the movie that the actors and actresses were actually doing a fair job with their given roles - they just had very, very little to work with.

As for the dragon, well it was alright, not super great, but it was alright for what it was intended to do. However, don't expect to be blown away or dazzled in any way from the CGI effects.

There are far better fantasy movies out there, but also far worse. "The Crown and the Dragon" is a slightly below average experience as far as sword and sorcery movies go. I am rating "The Crown and the Dragon" 4 out of 10 stars.

Fantasy films with a female lead (particularly one as beautiful as Amy De Bhrún) are rare, hence I was keen to view this offering about a young noblewoman fulfilling her destiny, which involves a potty-mouthed Aragorn hero, some bad soldiers and a dragon.

On the plus side, there is a plot, there are some fight scenes which are not bad, the acting is above average, Noblelady and Aragorn are likable characters and the dragon is rather well done.

However, ultimately, the film is brought down by what appears to be simple directorial disinterest. It lacks pace, continuity (the condition of her dress and the whereabouts of his sword), wholesale copying of scenes from Ivanhoe but on a much cheaper scale, and a rather abrupt ending.

To tell the truth, I had to re-watch this three times, because I kept falling asleep and it wasn't because I had had tiring days at the office.

Don't expect much and you won' be disappointed.

The stunts in this movie were horrible. It felt like the director gathered a bunch of drunks from the local pub and paid them to be in a movie. Any fight scene you find in this will look like the drunks were too inebriated in order to coordinate properly. The special effects appear as though they were made on a 15 year old computer running Windows ME operating system.

The acting (during dialog only) wasn't overly bad, but that is about all this movie had to offer. I seriously felt like I could make a better movie with a $100 camcorder and a couple of bored friends. The plot was weak and predictable. I can honestly say that the CIA should use this movie as a new form of torture. Do not waste taxpayers money on torture devices, just simply strap the terrorists to a chair and make them watch this movie on repeat until they talk.

This got a huge 2 from me only for the very few times I chuckled from the pseudo-witty dialog. I have never given a movie on IMDb a 2 before, but this one takes the cake. They should have named this movie the Yawn and the Flagon. Seriously, spend your money elsewhere. The director sure did.

I got to see an early release of this movie with friends. It was God awful.

Aside from the two positives (1) the scenery was quite lovely and, 2) the musical score was enjoyable), that's it...

The acting was abysmal; the story lame; the fight scenes a joke; the directing awful.

I can only guess that the people who gave it high enough ratings to get it to a 5.8 were those who worked on the production. This is not even a "B" grade quality movie.

This is a movie that should never have been made - why people invest money to make such trash is absolutely beyond me.

This is a movie where you say "move along, nothing to see here..."