Age Of The Dragons (Cinema Review)
review by: Sam Faulkner
An ambitious attempt to re-tell literary classic Moby Dick, Age of the Dragons transplants the story to a fantasy world inhabited by huge dragons, primitive machinery and Vinnie Jones. The script fumbles around in an attempt to explain that the scaly monsters are a source of “vitriol”, the main energy source for the world. The crew of vengeance-driven captain Ahab (Danny Glover) are tasked with collecting the mysterious fluid, but Ahab’s personal vendetta against one infamous dragon threatens to jeopardize the mission and the lives of his companions.
It quickly becomes clear exactly what kind of film we are to expect – in a filthy tavern, complete with flagons of mead and straw on the floor, we are introduced to the immaculately turned out leads (Corey Sevier and Sofia Pernas) gleaming white teeth and all. We are led to believe that a civilisation who have clearly not yet discovered electricity or even carpets have had no trouble finding the formula for extra –whitening toothpaste and triple blade razors. Things go from bad to worse when the crew set sail and their vessel is revealed to be...a cross between the Jawa’s sandcrawler from Star Wars: a New Hope and a child’s tree house. On wheels. With no propulsion system.
OK then....
Of course there’s nothing wrong with a fantasy setting, it’s just the lazy, half-finished designs that are disappointing after some imagination was obviously needed to come up with such a world.
Vinnie Jones raises laughs before he has even said a word, wearing a bizarre leather helmet and smoking a pipe, his presence in the film gives it the feeling of a weird dream you try to wake up from, but can’t. The one redeeming feature here is the performance of Danny Glover – it is unintentionally hilarious, he seems to have a lot of fun as the unhinged Ahab, but sadly the rest of the film doesn’t quite fall into the “so bad it’s good” late-night TV style. Essentially Dungeons and Dragons but with less dragons |
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