Age of the Dragons

This adaption of Melville's Moby Dick is neither great nor terrible, it's OK. It's set in a medieval like world, where people hunt dragons for their vitriol (fire juice?) that helps run its machines and lamps. CGI dragons, boats that run on roads, and the usual crappy script. The acting is OK (Glover was a little over the top, Vinnie Jones was surprisingly OK), the story was predictable, the pace was slow at times but not too bad. All in all, a mediocre movie about dragons. Not as thrilling as Reign of Fire, but not as horrible as Dungeons and Dragons. I would say it's slightly worse than Eragon, if that's any indication. You won't claw your eyes out at the end, but you won't watch this again. Strictly for dragon lovers.

there were few reasons for why I decided to watch the movie (Despite warnings from my clever friends, who I should listen in the first place).

Reason #1: I like 2 actors who took part in this movie, they are Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones. They're not biggest actors in the world but they are likable fellows who certainly know how to entertain audience.

Reason #2: I like steam-punk and fantasy genres and the movie was promising to mix those two.

Reason #3: I think that Moby-Dick is one of those literature classics that is hard to dislike or hard to be unknown for almost anyone, even the most uneducated people, so it is always interesting when another version of the story occurs on the screens.

So I had 3 great reasons to watch the movie. Favorite actors, favorite genre and the masterpiece, on which the story is based.

I don't know how they managed to screw this, but EVERYTHING in this movie went wrong right from the start.

Actors who knew how to act had nothing to work with. Main character was screaming and begging for overacting and Danny didn't deny him the pleasure. Jones tried to act (his biggest mistake) but that's not what we love him for, so he failed. Other actors weren't actors at all. Maybe they have diplomas, but they didn't act. Oh... and the chick... well, the chick was hot.

The movie is steam-punk without steam, and it's fantasy, only because there are dragons. I can understand how the vagon/ship thing moved though. It was this vitriom (or something) that made it move but they never say a thing about it. The screen was absolutely stripped off by fantasy elements as well. The action was almost non-existent, landscape and surroundings were cheap and the world didn't have anything that makes you dig deeper into the particular universe's lore. Well... at least the chick was hot.

While the plot was based on Moby-Dick, it was stripped away from most interesting points, lowered down to some stupid cheap revenge-story and all the weight of explaining the meaning of the book was thrown at Glover's back. The old man just can't carry that much. Well, the bright side of this was the fact that the chick was hot.

What else can we tell about hour and half of my lost life? That this movie will hardly please anyone, except guys who were paid for making it.

I was going to give this movie 2 stars, instead of one, for only reason: The chick was hot... BUT... God damn it... We didn't even see her naked...

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.

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".

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...)