A Era dos Dragões

I thought the basic idea to remake Moby Dick in a slightly steam-punk version with dragons was intriguing enough. Sure, this is probably not gonna be a film for the ages, but it could be entertaining for ninety minutes.

But it's just horrible. Oh so horrible. The acting is some of the worst I have ever seen, if I account for the fact that they did indeed use professional actors. Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones have never been praised for their craft when playing the shallow roles they've played before. Here now, they are cast in character roles and that is a disaster. Jones tries to summon some gravitas by constantly suckling on this wee pipe of his and it looked ridiculous. The other male actors are underwhelming at best. They seem to have been selected because they all resemble other (more talented) actors.

The female lead was clearly cast based on "Who was the hottest chick that showed up?" Her acting is the worst.

The screenplay is just clown shoes. But the real highlight of this thing is the "ship". It looks like a carrack without sails, but wheels instead. It moves forward by means of ... erm, nobody knows. At the very least, they should have lamp-shaded it. But no.

This thing is only a 2/10 because the dragon special effects are somewhat decent. Somewhat. Otherwise it would be a 1/10.

I don't understand all the hate and the 1/10 for this movie. Sure it won't be my movie of the year, or i can't say i was amaze by it, but i was sure entertained. The special effect are better than what i expected for a movie i came across randomly without any theatre release. The chicks is hot and i like her character just like Ishmael. People complain about the acting, maybe its cause i watched the movie in french(dubbed) but it was very correct, nothing to complain on this...

Basically i watched this at late night whitout expecting much and i was entertain and liked it. I saw way worse movie with bigger budget, and even winning Oscars...(ahem... hurtlocker...)

Agreeable retelling in which Captain Ahab commands a surly ship of dragon hunters through sheer ruthlessness and ego . So-so rendition about Herman Melville novel with passable acting from the cast . In this re-imagining , Ahab is revealed initially not as a bitter and revengeful madman but a strange and weird man . This saga features the survivor of a lost ship who relates the tale of a white dragon and the captain Ahab's obsession with desires for vendetta upon the greatest animal . It starts in a village , where arrives a novice named Ishmael (Corey Silver) who signs aboard the dragon ship Pequod . Here shows up the classic personages from the vintage novel : Ishmael (Corey Sevier) , Stubb (Vinnie Jones ) , Flask (Bagby), Queequeg (Kepa Kruse) , Starbuck (David Morgan), Peter Coffin (McKay Daines) . Exception for Rachel (Sofia Pernas), Ahab's adopted daughter, is a fictitious character . As Captain Ahab (Danny Glover) drives the crew deeper into the heart of darkness. He has a self-destructive obsession to hunt the white dragon . Ahab consecrates his life to hunt it full of hating and vengeance . Soon enough , Ahab aware about the great white dragon and claiming vendetta on the beast that scarred him , no matter what the cost to himself , his crew or ship .

Yet another take on of Melville's classic battle of wills story . The picture is a fine adaptation of the famous novel well scripted/adapted and ably realized . This impressive adaptation based on Herman Melville's 1851 classic novel is vividly brought to screen , though it has some flaws , gaps and failures . Dealing with the interactions between captain Ahab and his crew , freely based on the novel Moby-Dick written by prestigious author Herman Melville , that results to be one of the most thrilling and moving see sagas ever written . Here replacing the attractive tale of life on the high seas for snowy and wood landscapes and in particular on board a dragon-hunt ship named 'Pequod' . Danny Glover gives an acceptable acting as Ahab , reflecting his deep determination to seek avenge . Writers McKay Daines , Gil Aglaure, Anne K. Black wrote screenplay and story that was partially faith to the novel by stamping this movie with thought-provoking dialogs and colorful images . Enjoyable recounting , including quite a few moments that click make this especial movie more than watchable . The FX experts created a great dragon made by means of ordinary computer generator. Cameraman/filmaker Ryan Little uses appropriate color cinematography and splendidly conveys the bleaker qualities of the chase . The motion picture was professional but regularly directed by Ryan Little , though with no originality . He's a nice director working usually for television . Ryan was presented with a Student Emmy at the 1999 Academy of Television Arts & Science College Television Awards, for "Best Dramatic Film": The Last Good War . Little has directed a few but decent movies such as ¨Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy¨ , ¨House of fears¨ , ¨Forever strong¨, ¨Age of the dragons¨ and ¨"Saints and Soldiers : Airbone creed" that is the sequel to the award-winning ¨Saints and soldiers¨ and the third part titled ¨Saints and soldiers : the void¨ .

Other renditions about this famous novel are the following ones : 1930 rendition by Lloyd Bacon with John Barrymore , this is the first production of "Moby Dick" to have a leading female character , Joan Blondell . ¨Moby Dick (1959)¨ by John Huston , an over-the-top rendition of Herman Melville's high seas saga with a sensational Gregory Peck as unforgettable captain Ahab . It's remade in 1998 TV series by Franc Roddan with Patrick Stewart , Henry Thomas , Bill Hunter and Gregory Peck who takes on the character of Jonah-and-the-whale sermonizing Father Mapple who in classic adaptation was vividly played by Orson Welles . And Miniseries ¨Moby Dick 2011¨ by Mike Binder with William Hurt , Ethan Hawke , Eddie Marsan , Gillian Armstrong . Furthermore , recent lousy rendition full of computer generator FX titled Moby Dick 2010 directed by Trey Stokes starred by Barry Bostwick and Renee O'Connor .

Despite the very low rating this movie had received here on IMDb, I still decided to give it a go. Why? Well because it was a movie with dragons, and I do like fantasy movies and dragons as well, and also because I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for some odd 25 years or so by now, so anything that just remotely smells like something in that genre does spark an interest in me.

I am puzzled at why the movie have scored such a low rating. I found the movie to be rather good. It had a good story, and yeah, it is basically just a re-make of the "Moby Dick" story. But so what? Hollywood have pumped out re-makes of old movies by the dozens these last couple of years, so why not also another re-make of "Moby Dick"? (One that wasn't as bad as the "2010: Moby Dick" movie!) In "Age of the Dragons" you just change the white whale out with a white dragon, and set the story into a fantasy-medieval setting. I found it interesting enough. And also, there was a very great feeling to the environment, as they had really managed to capture the essence of what I believe a fantasy-medieval setting (with dragons) would actually be like (of course, I am leaning much on my Dungeons & Dragons experience here).

The effects in "Age of the Dragons" were great. The dragons looked real and believable, as did the wyverns. However, one thing did jab a thorn in my side. As an avid role-player of the Dungeons & Dragons game, I am accustomed to white dragons breathing intense cold, not fire. So that was sort of something that didn't sit well with me. But of course, I am familiar with the stereotypical mythological approach that all dragons breathe fire, so it was alright. Just would have been cooler (no pun intended) had it been a breath of deadly cold instead.

As for the acting in "Age of the Dragons", well I though people did good jobs, and they had managed to put together a rather good ensemble of actors and actresses actually. The role of Ahab was played by Danny Glover, and I think he actually pulled this off quite nicely. But also, Vinnie Jones (playing Stubb), Corey Sevier (playing Ishmael), Sofia Pernas (playing Rachel), Larry Bagby (playing Flask) and Kepa Kruse (playing Queequeg) did great jobs. I especially enjoyed Kepa Kruse's performance and his somewhat odd character, that really brought some flavor to the movie.

"Age of the Dragons" was also a movie full of visual treats. The town was nice to look at, and it really had that unique touch to it, making it believable as if you were there in fantasy-medieval times. But the scenery once the group ventured out into the wilderness in search of the great white dragon, that was just breathtakingly beautiful. I do love the scenery of snow and snow-clad majestic mountains.

I was a little bit puzzled by Ahab vessel. A huge metallic boat-like vehicle? Alright, sure, great enough idea. But just how was the vessel propelled? What forced the wheels to go round, there was no sign of any type of engine, mechanical or alchemical of any sorts. And also, the vessel looked rather small when seen outside, but inside it seemed to easily fit the entire crew and then some. So in my opinion there was a matter of questionable reason in the dimensions of this odd vessel.

But aside from that, then I found "Age of the Dragons" to be rather interesting and entertaining. And if you do like fantasy movies, then I definitely would recommend this movie, despite it being a re-make of "Moby Dick".

Summary: The movie was bad. Don't watch it unless you really are desperate.

Details: This is a steampunk version of Moby Dick where they follow the dragons in a huge wagon across snow covered mountains to chase and lance dragons.

People love to complain about the special effects in SyFy channel movies. I found it adequate, better than older Science Fiction classics like Forbidden Planet. The acting was not great but that wasn't what killed the movie. It was the script. It was horrible, rank even by SyFy channel's low standards.

You don't need a huge budget to make a wonderful Science Fiction movie if you have a good script. The Man From Earth is an outstanding example. A cast of eleven and no special effects, yet it was marvelous. This had a comparatively huge budget with costumes, sets, scenes, special effects explosions, everything except a decent script.

We all know that SyFy loves to inflict bad movies on its audience. Why it only chooses such rank scripts, I have no idea. But this one should have been rejected even by them. You can't take a classic story that has been done so well by so many and just do a plot less, trash version without being laughed at.