Strong and Moving!
Excellent, a Must See
I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.
View MoreIt's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
View MoreThis movie has way too many shots of the same thing that makes the action sequences feel like a turtle running a 5k marathon. So many scenes should have been cut out entirely. Imagine watching the dragons fighting(doing somersaults around each other, then cut back to princess looking on, see dragons flying not really attacking each other, cut back to more looks of worry from princess, back and forth of this pointless dragon fights and worry looks for what seemed like way too long until finally i caved and just had to skip fwd a bit more until it was over. Bad directing is the key to why this movie sucked. The acting was alright i guess, some actors better then others. On the jacket it states "A Visually Spectacular(imo outright lie...unless they meant spectacularly awful), Fantasy Adventure(yeah its that) from the director of Catwoman(uh -oh catwoman sucked too)." That is supposed to be some thing good? (That made me laugh.) I mean the CGI is from 2008, it should be better then stingray like dragons that clearly don't blend into the background and looks real. Jurassic Park had better CGI then this and that was made back in 1993(so visually spectacular???? yeeeeah-right.) Costumes were meh.... I see they tried but it looks like a low budget webisode project and i've seen better webisode shows with much better wardrobe.My thinking is why did they even bother making this? Yeah, i only stuck around because Amy Acker(Angel) was a main lead.If your looking for a drinking game maybe watch this with friends and drink every time they say "dragons" or "princess", and you will be drunk real quick.
View MoreCompared to the many other movies in the same genre, that have tried and failed most often horribly, then "The Dragon Chronicles: Fire & Ice" actually managed to pull it off quite nicely. As a fan of the fantasy genre for over 25 years, then it is rare that a movie comes along that really manages to impress. "The Dragon Chronicles: Fire & Ice" managed to do so. So thumbs up on that account.The story in the movie was straight forward and rather generic for this particular genre. The story is about a kingdom that is threatened by an awakened dragon, and it is up to an unlikely hero to overcome his past and step out of his father's shadow to overcome the dragon and bring peace to the troubled kingdom.Yeah, fairly much a straight out of the textbook plot line there, given, but still, it is so very cliché that it actually worked out and was rather enjoyable and entertaining. The characters in the movie were fairly stereotypical as well, but again, it worked out nicely.What impressed me the most about this movie was the CGI effects. The dragons were really nicely made and quite impressive, despite the fact that they looked like manta rays in a way. The effects were nice and actually looked rather good. However, their breath weapons could have been a bit more buffed up; as I am sure a creature of such magnitude and size would pack a more potent blast of fire (or cold).As for the acting, then they had some great actors and actresses to the cast list, and people did good jobs with their given roles. I must admit that especially John Rhys-Davies impressed me here in this movie; his grizzled appearance and distinctive voice was just so right for that role. I will say that Arnold Vosloo also did a great job with the role he was cast for.If you enjoy a great tale of sword and sorcery (and dragons), then you should definitely check out "The Dragon Chronicles: Fire & Ice", it might just surprise you the way it did me. How this movie managed to score such a low rating is beyond my comprehension, but then again, of course, we are all different people with different likes, dislikes and tastes. I enjoyed this movie tremendously, and can warmly recommend it to fans of the fantasy genre (such as Dungeons & Dragons).
View MoreThis was a cheapie DVD from the supermarket checkout bin. It stars Amy Acker (Fred from Angel), Arnold Vosloo (Imhotep from the Mummy movies), John Rhys-Davies (from any fantasy movie which will stand still long enough for him to get into costume and nip in front of the camera), a chap called Tim Wisdom who I've never heard of before and never expect to hear of again given his achievements in this movie, and a couple of dozen people whose names end in -escu (which also applies to most of the crew).Intrepid princess Amy Acker gets stuck into finding a way of defending the kingdom from a fire-breathing dragon. Which involves setting an ice-breathing dragon onto it. Which, as it turns out, isn't actually that great an idea.Thing is, there's actually some potential here. Acker is OK, Vosloo is always fun, Rhys-Davies does his usual thing (Brian Blessed-lite), and the assorted -escus manage to be in the right place at the right time. More importantly, it looks good. The cinematographer plainly knows what he's up to, and the film is very attractively photographed. And despite a less than generous budget, the CGI dragons (clearly based on stingrays) are, for the most part, well animated and well integrated into the background plates, far more so than is usually the case for this sort of movie.But everything is massively let down by the script. Every plot development is either signalled well in advance or else is hugely predictable. There are constant exhortations to the princess to stay where she is, remain out of danger etc., and she takes no notice of any of them. By about the 10th time she has ignored all advice and rushed into peril, they even make a story point out of it.The -escus all swordfight by rushing at their opponent brandishing their swords over their head - clearly they all had the same swordfighting teacher, and he was crap.And regrettably the showdown scrap between the dragons is also crap - well animated, but nothing actually happens. And it doesn't happen A LOT. In fact you wonder whether it's ever going to stop not happening. And then factor in endless riding across the same hill, field, and bit of forest....In the end, though it's the script which lets it down.
View MoreI was looking forward for this movie. It had a quite good promo... The night the movie was aired I took my high hopes and sat in front of the TV. After 10 minutes I realized that it was an average or even below average movie, lot worse than other Sci-Fi or fantasy movies I was accustomed. The movie had good actors, both Romanians and Americans, but the acting was bad, the graphic was bad and the dragons were UGLY, they looked like some sea animals only things that differed the "dragons" from the sea animals were the ice on their skin and the fact that they breathe fire.Fire and Ice had a lot of mistakes... To take only one for example: after someone was killed with a sword, the same sword was cleaned, no trace of blood! The villains were stabbed, but they did not bleed!!! Like some freaking aliens!!! I guess this movie was intended for children under 12 years, or else I cannot explain a lot of things... What I said until now was " the negative points" but even though the movie had a lot of mistakes I have to rate it 8 because it was a bold decision making this type of movie in a country that doesn't appreciate the Fantasy genre. Also the producers showed that they know how to choose a good plot, but they will have to learn how to make a better movie.It was indeed a below average movie in an international context, but for Romania it was a step forward. Finally they proved that Media Pro can make more movies, for different genres, not only soap-operas. I am quite proud that the Romanians took this step and even though they still have a lot to learn, I hope that some day they will make better movies, with less mistakes. I recommend Fire and Ice to any other Romanian, sick tired with all those gypsy movies, and even to other people who wants to know how this movie looks from the perspective of a country without experience in making this type of movies. Please note: do not be harsh with Media Pro, it is their first movie made from the areas of Sci-Fi/fantasy.
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