Age of the Dragons (2011)

Touches You

Thanks for the memories!

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Bitter Captain Ahab obsessively takes his crew in pursuit of the monstrous ceature which has dogged his life.Melville's Moby Dick is here adapted into a land-based pursuit of a dragon rather than a whale, with the characters retaining their names from the novel.This is a really good idea. Unfortunately, it is executed really badly. The script is poor, the peformances aren't great (Danny Glover is in scenery-chewing mode), and the production values - good on first impressions - don't bear close examination. The Pequod, for instance, is clarly far bigger inside than outside.Nice try, but fail.

Reworking of classic novel 'Moby Dick' but this time using dragons as the game or hunt as it were. To be honest this is a really neat little idea, the only problem is its been made poorly which is a shame.I think this could of worked had a little more time and money been invested, the cast are OK I guess...for an action type film. Danny Glover is a little miscast as Ahab perhaps but Vinnie Jones does surprisingly well as does the hero Sevier as Ishmael. Nothing to rave about of course but the cheesiness of it all suits them fine and you know to expect ham.Of course the effects are slightly off-key, CGI is average but shows promise, even the use of old stop motion techniques used by Harryhausen are utilised at one point which almost works (oddly it looked better in the old mythology films of Harryhausen). Then you do have silly things which needed more planning such as the Pequod as a wheeled land tank/ship thingy. This didn't really work as it was way too small looking, it was like the Tardis, small on the outside yet apparently huge on the inside with about eight adults living in it with lots of quarters shown! plus how did it run? petrol? diesel? someone pedaling below? I must also mention my dislike of virtually everyone in action films these days being some kind of martial arts expert and able to defeat multiple enemies without breaking sweat. It really is so over used and in this film its so out of place, what's wrong with some good old fashioned fisticuffs?A nice idea but the execution is weak, worth checking out if you like dragon flicks though...I guess, not much else going for it.3/10

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 have to mention right off that if your walking into this movie expecting a gloriously fanciful and faithful re-telling of Moby Dick, don't be surprised when it disappoints you. Now, if you walked into it expecting a somewhat Moby Dick themed dragon movie, you'll probably be better off. I, personally, had never heard of it before I watched it so I didn't have any expectations at all and I found the whole Moby Dick thing to be an amusing framing device, a fun little side note, in a fairly decent dragon movie. The acting isn't too great but it won't make you rip your eyes out and plug your ears with them, the costuming is pretty decent, and the effects are actually quite good. It's not a great masterpiece but it's a decently entertaining way to kill two hours. If you happen to be into dragons, it's one of the more decent movies that's worth having around to watch once in a while; it's not exactly 'Dragonheart' but it's not nearly as bad as 'Merlin and the War of the Dagons' either. Personally I got a bit of a giggle out of the idea of dragons using vitriol to produce fire (for those who didn't know, vitriol is an old name for sulfuric acid) and the design of the "ship" was pretty neat. All in all, I'm pretty sure the actors involved needed the paycheck more than anything else but it's not too bad and the dragons are pretty damn cool.