Practically a remake.
After an excellent opening film and a relatively poor sequel, we have the first prequel to “Dragon Heart”. Set in the Full Middle Ages, a time when dragons supposedly existed (it is a fantasy version of the medieval world, as you can see, and also due to the large amount of fantastic and unrealistic elements, in the scenery and costumes), the script tells how a would-be knight makes the acquaintance of a dragon in the lands beyond Hadrian's Wall. With that ally, and the friendship of a friar and a courageous Pictish warrior, he will try to defeat the oppressive forces of Britannia: a tyrannical feudal noble and an evil sorcerer.
Dragons, castles, evil sorcery, relatively uncivilized tribal peoples, amidst what remains of the legacy of the vanished Roman Empire. A recipe that works very well, even if it is completely invented, and gives us a very wrong idea of what the Middle Ages really were. But that's something I'm willing to forgive. What is not forgivable is the fact that the script recycles the story of the first film again, in its essential points: we have a very noble and decent knight, accompanied by a beautiful girl and a dragon, fighting a tyrant , and again the old story of sharing the heart. At its core, this film is almost a remake of the first film... but the magic of the original has been lost somewhere.
The film has some good actors. Right at the top, I would highlight the excellent vocal performance of Ben Kingsley. The actor, a veteran full of British nobility and chivalry, is impeccable in the task of voicing the dragon. A deep, dense, warm voice, but with soul and emotion. Julian Morris was also very good at his job, and establishes a good relationship with... the fictional CGI dragon, invisible to his eyes. Tamzin Merchant does not disappoint, in a character that is quite predictable and cliché, and that reminds us a bit of a tribal version of Princess Xena. Jonjo O'Neill is not bad, but he does what other actors have done much better than him: giving life to an arrogant and tyrannical medieval villain. The rest of the cast makes a welcome point of support, but doesn't have the time or chance to shine.
The film was produced by Raffaella, daughter of Dino de Laurentiis, producer of two films that I like a lot (“Blue Velvet” and “Serpico”) and a huge amount of films that I hate (“Conan”, in its various versions, “Dune”, the clear original, “Barbarella”, “Flash”, etc.); so when I saw her name associated with this movie I feared the worst. The film, however, offers us good cinematography and quite satisfactory CGI effects, considering that it is not a particularly well-off production. There's a lot of action and adventure here. Less happy was the soundtrack, which seeks to match the original film, ending up just copying it.
