Dragon Fighter

The first 45 minutes of Dragon Fighter are entirely acceptable and surprisingly watchable. The characters are believable and interesting. The cloning lab looks really high-tech. After that, it all collapses. The characters start behaving idiotically, and a new subplot is introduced from nowhere about a fusion reactor (and this is supposedly "present day") going critical, the only plot justification of which is that it is required to kill the dragon - only it doesn't. The finish is incredibly weak. One wonders what made a movie that started out so well turn so wrong.

All the characters except Dean Cain are played by Russians. This results in some weird situations and details, like the character being played by Vessela Dimitrova being called "Bailey Kent" despite her heavy accent (and despite her, on one occasion, inexplicably switching to *Spanish*!).

Because of the decent start, I considered rating this movie a 5, but it really was more disappointing than that, so I only give it 4.

Cloning a Dragon. Why not? Of all the dragon slayers, someone had to have a vial or two of dragon's blood somewhere, didn't they? Well, when I first heard about this movie that's what I thought and that would have made sense. But, no, they found some "dinosaur" bones about 1000 years old and some how manage to use the dry, aged bones for the DNA.

Director Phillip J. Roth has an interesting way of filming the movie, with a lot of split shots, sometimes up to 5 different camera views at a time. Unfortunately I found this more distracting than enhancing.

Anyway, Dean Cain plays the part of Carver, the head of security for a top secret scientific research cloning facility, he is not your average muscle-head tough guy, he has a brain and great deductive reasoning. He uses them to figure out what is going-on and that what is going to be going-on might not be a good thing when it happens. The acting is good, the rest of the cast are basically unknowns, but are actually rather gifted. Kristine Byers, portraying Meredith, is very attractive and very believable despite that fact.

Not to spoil the film but the movie is a little slow to start, and it's about 45 minutes into the movie before anything really exciting happens. BUT once it does, you are on the edge of your seat!! The egg hatches in only 3 hours, and you don't see what it is for a while, the killing starts and the suspense builds.

It has all the required idiots a horror movie needs, even though these people are supposed to be geniuses in scientific cloning, so you feel smarter than most of the victims, and that makes the movie worth watching in it's self. The suspense lasts all the way until the end, and the end doesn't let you down. This movie is one of the best "B" movies I have seen in a long time.

Seeing it on DVD, VHS or a movie channel would definitely be worth the price of rental. I would recommend the movie for anyone who likes fantasy movies of horror movies, and it's not too bloody or scary for younger viewers, especially because everyone knows there is no such thing as dragons, right?

I really wanted to like this movie, and i was entertained to a point. But, there are tons of things very wrong with this movie.

There is a very annoying split-screen style that occurs every so often during the movie, showing different camera angles of the scenes. Inventive yes, but i found it quite distracting and just plain annoying to watch it in that fashion.

Another thing is the cloning of the "Dragon" so rapidly. How could something go from a single DNA strand into a multi-ton beast within a few hours? Let's forget that it is basically scientifically impossible, but where was it going to get so much raw organic material to produce that level of exponential growth? This isn't the first time in a movie that they've leaped over the seemingly obvious scientific facts, hoping that the dummies out there wouldn't care or notice.

The ending was equally as troublesome, military airplanes shooting down the Dragon? That reminds me of what happened in the horrible movie "Retillian". At the very end we see soldiers (or scientists) exploring the underground facility which was blown up by a Nuclear core meltdown that was 53% of Hiroshima, right after our heroes escaped. When the soldiers go in, the facility only appears to be mildly damaged...how they could even go into it at all is beyond me.

Anything positive about the film? Well, the beginning of the movie that takes place during medieval times is decent, and the Dragon CGI effects are fairly believable except for a few scenes. The acting is admirable, but that in and of itself fails to help the weak plot.

This is far from the worst film i've ever seen, but i wouldn't recommend it or give a seal of approval. It's worth a single viewing for fans of sci-fi movies, but for everyone else...just forget Dragon Fighter.

It's hard to praise this film much. The CGI for the dragon was well done, but lacked proper modelling for light and shadow. Also, the same footage is used endlessly of the dragon stomping through corridors which becomes slightly tedious.

I was amazed to see "Marcus Aurelius" in the acting credits, wondering what an ex-Emperor of the Roman Empire was doing acting in this film! Like "Whoopie Goldberg" it must be an alias, and can one blame him for using one if he appears in this stinker.

The story might been interesting, but the acting is flat, and direction is tedious. If you MUST watch this film, go around to your friend's house and get drunk while doing so - then it'll be enjoyable.

Sure it's got it's weaknesses - it's inconsistencies are annoying, the effects (though, for the most part excellent) occasionally vere towards laughable, and the acting ain't gonna win any Oscars this year....(Razzies, anyone?)...

BUT - it's driven along by a good, solid premise (obviously inspired by Jurassic Park, complete with moral debate), a considerable amount of effort by the star to keep it going - he does an admirable job, incidentally - and the aforementioned mostly-excellent special effects.

My biggest moan about the film is the dreadful soundtrack. Not only was it drab and boring, believe it or not - don't know if you noticed - the damn thing stopped about 10 minutes before the end of the movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, the movie was obviously made to cash in on the DTV-likers who heard how bad Reign of Fire was, but it shows alot about the movie market these days when the supposed DTV clunker is actually 5 times better than the movie it was made to cash in on, doesn't it?

Rent it, catch it on Cable (I saw it on Sci-fi UK)....it'll engross you for an hour or so, and you'll walk away wondering, as I did, why it wasn't given a bit more of a budget - it certainly deserved it...

Do I hear the words "Big Budget Remake", anyone......?