Dragon Nest: Le Réveil du dragon

The storyline in "Dragon Nest: Warriors' Dawn" was actually surprisingly good and entertaining, especially for one whom has been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 30 years.

The characters were well-rounded and nicely fleshed out, although not everyone obviously had an equally big part in the storyline, or equally much on-screen time. The animated movie had lots of likeable characters that you instantly take a liking to.

The CGI was good for most parts, though sometimes it felt like it lacked some natural blending as the characters popped out like a sore thumb in contrast to the background.

It had a nicely paced storyline with a good combination of action and character development.

Unfortunately, I watched it with an English dubbing which actually was quite alright. And that was a surprise for me, as English dubs usually tend to kill the atmosphere for an Asian produced animation.

I loved this movie from start to finish, the ending I won't reveal but I will say it reminded me of those tingly World of Warcraft trailers I would love so much as a young adult. This movie is like a mixture of all the stuff I loved growing up with as a kid, a teenager & young adult into one immensely epic film. It has an amazing story line, fantastic characters especially Liya and actually had me sitting there saying out loud during the film, "I love this movie" Thank you to anyone involved in making this movie. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Final Fantasy styled animation with Lord of the Rings size battles. In my opinion it's like epic Gaming, Animation and a movie all got rolled into one epic ride !! I love this movie so much, thank you again.

Great movie real great direction. Its really difficult to make a movie out of an anime and even more difficult to make a movie out of an anime game why the lore of-course. We all know movies like dragon ball evolution and Last Airbender. But this movie is superb its trimed neither to fast nor to slow. neither mushy or hard on eyes. It has emotion a bit of laughter and definitely no fan service unlike game.Every character is unique and you can watch it with your kid. You will love liya and lambart and their love story better than twilight. its not very famous because its an Asian movie not backed by any big media houses like pixar or Disney. but its on par even better than some .

MUST WATCH!

This is the best Chinese animation movie I've seen. I watch what is coming out of the mainland and in animation it has been bad. Same with live action, but sometimes we get movies like Kung Fu Hustle which was amazing. Where are all the great HK movies? Why don't the mainland movie makers watch more international films and understand that good plot is essential to a good movie. But Dragon Nest might be the movie that proves the mainland can make movies now. This movie feels like it came from a game, but Song Yuefeng, the director, took his skills to add feelings and fun to the action. This is a director to watch out of China. I now want to see the sequel.

Building a movie from online multiplayer games is not easy. These games are known for social interaction or accessible gameplay, not strong narrative. Dragon Nest animation resorts to utilizing mediocre antics from many other games or movies, then put it in one predictable story and weak animation. It's a dull journey and what few sparks it has, mainly from vista or music, can't save it from mediocrity.

Story is very basic, cue in your typical hero-in-training, alliance with other race, some comedy reliefs and potential romantic angle, then you'll have the 101 good versus evil plot. It's a dreary development with just about everything one would expect not to see again in fantasy genre. Granted, this sort of plot has been used many times and it can be to great effect, but Dragon Nest merely stacks them without novelty and hope for the best.

Animation isn't its strong suit, the visual looks pedestrian as though it's from last gen video games. Sometimes the audio sounds out of place as the mixing stutters on some parts, dubbing is the usual sloppy mess, especially for supporting chars. There's a bit inconsistency with details as well, shadows or texture don't sync well into the scenes. Frankly, these kinds of problems shouldn't happen on feature length animation of today's technology.

If there are some redeeming parts, they are the decent soundtracks and design for the world. They manages to draw that fresh fantasy vibe, although much too briefly before the average animation kicks in again. Watching Dragon Nest offers the same level of excitement as grinding in online game, low at best.