Dawn of the Dragonslayer (2011) User Reviews

A surprising disappointment

[siderite · 5/10 · 12 July 2013]

There are many ways for a film to fail, but most of the time it is all about bad story or bad acting or both. This film has decent actors and a rather acceptable story. However the direction and script are abysmal, making the viewing experience feel like mild torture. Poor Anne Black (the writer and director - ouch), she probably has the passion, but not the skill.

The story itself is more of a fairy tale, the sort of "man of the people rises against all odds and defeats evil". There is a girl involved, a competing pretender to her graces, a confused father, a wise woman and, more interesting, magic and a dragon. What does the film do with all this? A nauseating script, with bad dialogue, ridiculous action scenes and implausible situations that are only shadowed by the bad CGI.

It is unclear to me how one can screw up a fairy tale: we know the script from when we're young. The actors were not brilliant, but they were decent. The CGI was cheap, but there was a dragon in the film. So how does one make a complete mess of something like that?

Needs Development

[maxyla · 4/10 · 12 February 2012]

Dawn of the Dragon Slayer's main perk is the film itself--the images it captures. Some of this is just because of the moody, green, secluded landscape itself, but I loved the lighting in the scenes by the fire, and the way the castle was actually somewhat dark, as it would have been in a time without electricity. The appearance felt pretty real to me.

I think it also deserves credit for not being your completely typical, war against good and evil fantasy movie. It was predictable, yes, and still somewhat typical, but it could have been worse.

Now, I can sum up my main--'main' being the key word--issues with Dawn of the Dragon Slayer in one word: underdeveloped. It seemed like no aspect of the film dove beneath the surface. So many ideas could have become these intricate, detailed marvels... but they were just ideas. So, a paladin can walk through dragon fire and kill a dragon, right? Well... that's basically all we find out about them. We don't get to see how Will becomes one. It just happens, and some special clothing gives him a bit of an advantage or something. Kate is a conjurer, and yet we see her conjure twice--maybe thrice?--for a collective twenty-five seconds.

The characters needed work, too. I'd seen them all before: Will, the country boy seeking revenge; Kate, the constrained princess who falls in love with the country boy; Rogan, the upper-class bully who's after the country boy's girl; Baron Sterling, the bitter father; you get the gist.

(On a random side note, I had to give the film two tries because the heavy music and chanting at the beginning gave me a headache. Did that have anything to do with the rest of the story?)

And the names. Seriously. You write a fantasy movie, and you name the main characters Will and Kate? Will... and Kate. Go ahead and pick a name that has been used in a fourth of all the fictional stories out there, but not more than that!

If Anne K. Black were to take a year or so on remodeling Dawn of the Dragon Slayer, I would see it. Until then, though, this will be a film that I only watch when I'm in desperate need of fantasy, romance, beautiful scenery, and don't care about the quality of anything but the latter.

Sorry, what?...

[Duddu · 3/10 · 9 March 2012]

(First, I'm going to state that I am a well-educated person, with refined tastes. This is not meant to be perceived as a brag, but should rather help you trust me instead. Furthermore, I will let you know that -secondly- I created this account out of frustration caused by the other reviews. I just HAD to share my 2 cents with the rest of the world, in the hopes that -who knows?- perhaps I could save somebody 2 hours (or so) of his or her life. And last, but not least, I'm not alone in this opinion. So, here goes...)

I'm sorry, but it's more than obvious that my fellow reviewers and I have been watching two different movies altogether. Please, let me know whether there's another movie with the same title released within the same time period that I may actually enjoy. Otherwise this must be the ultimate proof that tastes are indeed, very different (which is kind of sad, since the other reviewers seem to be pretty clever people). Because, let me tell you, the one I watched can barely be called a movie whatsoever. In fact, what I've seen is this:

• a shallow script that left me with the impression that the writers had absolutely no idea about what they wanted to do with the story, where to move things, or how to tackle the action;

• computer animated graphics that would feel more at home in a B-rated video game (the "texture feel" of the dragon felt way different compared to the surrounding scenery - and a beautiful one that was, kudos to the guys that took care of that part, which is one of the reasons I gave this thing a grade above zero, another being that it seems they paid some effort in order to do this movie, too bad they couldn't pull it off eventually);

• terrible, terrible acting for the most part, except perhaps for the female roles (+1 to the final grade), dubbed by dubious fight motion choices and pre-high-school dialogue lines.

The general feeling, besides "Jees, who's going to give me all this time back?" was that I've already seen everything this movie (I keep calling it that out of respect for the people who really tried to make something of it, except that they failed by a long shot) had to offer, just WAY better. I hope that other people finally see it for what it really is, a failed effort and a general waste of time, otherwise I may start to think that there's something wrong with me and the people who share my opinion about this... movie, people whom I generally call at least smart.

What a good surprise

[chiffry · 4 March 2012]

This is the first review I leave on IMDb, but I thought this movie deserved it. Not that it's better than any other I've seen, but because the current punctuation (around 3 stars) is undeserved. First of all, I believe this movie has been released pretty much straight away into DVD/Blueray. That tells you something - it is not a blockbuster, so don't expect it! I can only guess that people rating it very low were expecting to watch a big Hollywood production. Well, it's not, but it's so nice to know that movies can still be made without famous stars or big bucks. I started watching and thought "well, here's something to watch on a Sunday afternoon when there's nothing else". I was wrong. I have actually paid to go to the cinema and watch overrated movies that were much worse than this one. The acting is good, the main character - an almost unknown actor - delivers good quality acting. The storyline is good, and the special effects considering this is a low budget movie are great! The scenery is beautiful and I was expecting the dragon to be awful, but it was another little good surprise. Come on people, give it a chance, you'll enjoy it.

This Movie Good For Insomnia

[vasilev-consigliare · 3/10 · 5 February 2012]

I am really sorry to say it (title). But, it's true, I sleep earlier than usual cause of this movie. When I look a cover of this movie and storyline, I think it's good movie, but unfortunately it's awful.

I have some comment with "jengiscan2000" one member who criticism before me. Too much drama than action, when it's comes to some action, its like low cost movie. If the production house not enough budget to make a great storyline movie, maybe try some film like paranormal activity, or something about exorcism. I am glad that I am not seen this movie in cinema.

The Actor is good, The place is really great but the action is really bad. some action as example, when Will Shepherd use a sword and get battle with his opponent, its not like some battle but like a training.

Nice but boring

[ragwaine · 4/10 · 9 November 2013]

As a fantasy movie that I had only ever heard of on Netflix I didn't expect this to be great. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the cinematography and the acting. Unfortunately it put me to sleep. There was some action at the beginning and the end but overall it just wasn't very exciting.

I'm not sure where this was filmed but the scenery was absolutely amazing, mountains, waterfalls, rolling hills. The strange thing is that there are probably only 9 or 10 people in the entire movie. No village scenes or big armies clashing, or other scenes that are common to fantasy movies.

Crap movie

[m-rodermond · 1/10 · 2 June 2019]

Annoying bad lead actor. Poor cgi. Basic story. Overall bad acting. Not worth your time.

Total BS

[conradfernandez · 1/10 · 1 April 2012]

This must be the worst movie of the year. There are only a handful of people "acting" in this movie. The main actor (Richard McWilliams) can't talk and can't act properly.... (in fact, he can't run either). The ending was just HORRIBLE.

Less said about the dragon, the better.

The only saving grace is Nicola Posener. She is very beautiful and for that I gave it a 1..... if she wasn't in it, then it would have got... well, IMDb does not allow rates less than 1. So I would have definitely been in a fix. Thanks to Nicola Posener, I did not have a hard time rating this piece of crap.

AVOID like the plague!!!

What is less than 1? 0? that's still too much.......

[jengiscan2000 · 1/10 · 9 May 2012]

My first review of this 'film' was deleted because someone complained about it! Having read it back again and finding nothing other than my scathing viewpoint of the film on show I can only think it was one of the reviewers who praised it so highly. Written by someone connected with the production maybe? So here with some editing is the review..........................

This is a stinker from beginning to end. An extremely badly written script.The two leads were good actors but the rest must have trained at the ham school of dramatic arts, one character, I couldn't understand a word he said throughout the entire film. Most reviewers have mentioned the scenery as if it was a master stroke of production design, you point a camera at hills, mountains and the sea, it usually looks amazing! What's Will doing now?.....Oh he is walking through the country side and now? Oh he is still walking and some more walking and finally he is upgraded to a horse and he is riding now, yes riding some more and a little bit more riding. This all takes place in a land with a population of 10 or maybe 12, 2 die early on.The villain I am sure I saw him in tights in a pantomime somewhere this Christmas...you know what I just can not be bothered to expend any more time and energy on this. I am going to go and play SKYRIM instead......Do not say I didn't warn you.

Very good for a B-flick

[blanknamedstuff · 6/10 · 16 January 2012]

Live action movies with the word "dragon" in the title have a long history of being disappointing budget films. This is not one of the rare exceptions but for what it is, it's entertaining.

The scenery and sets are very well done. The dialogue is natural and the actors pull it off well. The costumes are pretty good too with a few minor issues. For example - when Kate is helping Will put on the livery it looks and sounds like she's using a snap rather than a button.

The plot is obvious and predictable but that is to be expected in a B-flick. Also expect the dragon to look unfinished. The shape and color of it look great but the texture is too cartoonish, the shadows are wrong, etc. and the actors' eye lines are a bit off in spots.

All in all it's definitely worth watching one time but I won't be putting it in my collection.

My God, it's cheap !

[braniki · 1/10 · 14 March 2012]

I wan't expecting much of this direct to video epic. Did I have to be so much disappointed yet ?

And I was for sure. This film is not only poorly produced and directed, the whole plot is uninteresting from beginning to end. None of the cast (no more than 11 actors) shows the slightest charisma or even talent. The chicken seen early on in the film seems more appealing than the two young heroes of this sad excuse for a film.

As for the dragon parts : 10 minutes of decent special effects hardly make the 97 minutes of total boredom worth while.

Please, go back to the 1981 Disney classic "Dragonslayer" instead, even if it's for the 50th time. That was a good film ! Now, you are warned !

Surprisingly Good

[muffspam · 10/10 · 23 February 2012]

I don't review movies, but I felt compelled to review this one due to the low rating it received overall.

With that being said, I felt this was a very good movie. I didn't expect much before watching it, low budget, nerdy, etc… You get all that, but it was put together in a very pleasing fashion. The acting was above par (Nicola Posener) and quite believable if you were to place yourself in that world/time period.

The only thing that this movie could have done better would have been the CG on the dragon, but hey its low budget. I didn't bother me, it's still a good story.

Overall, if you need a movie to watch and are at all interested in the fantasy genre, check this movie out.

This film seems to be love-it-or-hate-it, with few people in between.

[snakepaws · 6/10 · 29 November 2012]

For those interested in a fantasy epic akin to Lord of the Rings, with huge battles and action sequences, you may want to give this one a pass and stop reading here. If you don't mind a medieval romance film with a hint of fantasy and a dragon, then this might be for you.

The writing is good, and the sets and wardrobe are also well done. The filming locations in Ireland are breathtaking. The actors and actresses suit their roles, and the chemistry between the leads is fantastic. Their on-screen relationship blossoms naturally, without feeling forced.

Despite what some people on here may groan about with regard to the special effects, the dragon is actually quite good. It doesn't have that typical "SyFy Original" feel to it. But it doesn't have that Hollywood-budget finesse either.

You can tell this was a passion-film, with all persons involved working to make a quality film they could be proud to release with the budget and equipment they had to work with. The IMDb score does not reflect the true quality of Dawn of the Dragonslayer. My rating of 7/10 is based on this film alone, and not my feelings for it when compared to other films.

My teenage daughters laughed at this poor film

[CliffordSavage · 1/10 · 18 June 2012]

What better way to enjoy Fathers day than sit with the family and watch a movie......... how disappointing that I can't get back the two hours I wasted watching this when a girlie film,which I generally see too many of and fancied an action movie instead, would have been so much better. at one point I went to get some snacks so I could miss some of the action (I use that term loosely) when my daughter jokingly said you don't get out of it that easy I'll pause it till you get back.They also thought the chicken was the best bit. The script was very poor and predictable and honestly i think it was kept simple so as not to confuse the filming. I have seen some great movies with very few characters but the plot and script are usually enough to carry it in this case neither could.I grew up in the 70's and 80's therefore recognise dated graphic technology but to be honest not the worst part of the film. The fight scenes had poor choreography and lacked energy I honestly could do better. I nearly laughed my socks off when I saw the dragon poo and there is definitely something wrong in someones filming judgement to include let alone think about using this. Now the good bits ..... there is some very nice scenery/ location shots... Two actors stood out Nicola Posener she is beautiful and did well with what script she had and Philip Brodie he has the attributes to make a good baddie( if you can say that) I understand this is a B movie not sure we saw that written on the DVD when we spent our hard earned cash on it so being a B movie the budget for it would have been small .... curious how much was spent? If I was serious about making a movie (please don't say anyone did this for a course or degree) I would attempt something I could achieve and not market it as anything other than what it is i.e. something my mum might be proud of. I at the end of all this I might even keep the DVD as a trophy to terrible movies that others like to write good reviews about I hear that there's another on the way it could become a cult movie ..... if so only because it was so bad or if Nicola appears in more or appears in less!!

One of the worst dragon movies out there

[TheLittleSongbird · 2/10 · 20 September 2013]

There are only two redeeming qualities here, some good scenery and Nicole Posner's beauty. The rest is trash, with some really dire acting going on. Richard McWilliams' inexperience comes through loud and clear, he is stiff throughout and acts and sounds intoxicated and bored. The special effects look unfinished and cheap, the dragon in particular looks as though it was lifted out of a very badly rendered cartoon. It is also not very menacing and doesn't have much of a personality, while the music is heavy-handed and lacking in any kind of imagination. The photography and editing is repetitive and in the final battle amateurishly frenzied, speaking of the final battle, that was unexciting in the extreme and almost anti-climatic. There was a decent idea somewhere, but that never comes through in the storytelling which is so predictable and tedious it borders on painful. It is definitely best not to take the dialogue too seriously, because constantly it is horrendously stilted and banal with unintentional cheesiness. There's nothing interesting about the characters, the whole movie is riddled with clichés and the characters themselves are just flat and annoying. The amateurish direction doesn't help in the slightest either. Overall, apart from the scenery and Posner Dawn of the Dragonslayer was just awful. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Boring despite the dragon

[Vartiainen · 2/10 · 14 July 2015]

You'd think that if you have an honest to gods dragon in your film you would have at least a little bit of excitement. You'd be wrong. Dawn of the Dragonslayer has a decent basic setup. Boy loses father to a dragon, goes questing, meets a girl, meets evil people (because it's never solely about the monster), prepares to meet the dragon, et cetera, et cetera. Clichéd, but workable.

Once again it's the execution that ruins the film. First of all, they've actually used their budget somewhat decently. Sure the castle looks more ruins than something you'd actually live in, but they can be forgiven that little fact. And the dragon actually looks pretty good, given the budget limit. It's obviously CGI, but it has some neat design choices going for it.

Unfortunately the actors are bland and/or horrible, the dialogues don't allow the characters to have any chemistry, the characters themselves are merely archetypes interacting with one another, the plot crawls forward with the pace of a snail, the ending resolution is the most predictable one and the various villains are not smarmy enough for me to care.

Dawn of the Dragonslayer is not a bad film because it's offensive or anything. It's bad because it has no soul, no creative spark behind it. It's an empty retold husk of a tale with nothing new or original.

Plot of Man From Snowy River in medieval times with a dragon

[gedor67 · 4/10 · 7 February 2012]

I agree with the earlier post that compared this to Snowy River, except the black stallion is a dragon. Everything is the same, boys father is killed, comes down from mountain, works for lowlander. Even winning respect from father by saving runaway daughter. Girls mother was in love with two men as close as brothers. Everything is the same. Even when the boy comes for the daughter and what he thinks is his he tells the father, "I'll be taking what's mine", same phrase as in Snowy River.

Wow. Might as well been shot in Australia, except there are no castles there.

I don't know where to start

[dave_kent9 · 4/10 · 30 January 2012]

I could spend hours writing reasons this film failed, but I'm sure most other reviewers can take care of that so I'll try to point out as many good features as possible, but there's only a few.

The scenery of some of the shots are actually quite nice, and could be added to a wilderness type documentary. Not sure who was in charge of that, but seems like they were able to capture some of the beautiful sites of Ireland.

The special effects were a lot better then most budget movies, there must have been a sale on CGI dragons, cause it was quite good.

That's about it. I think kids would really enjoy this, if they can stay focused long enough. There's very little action and even less dragon.

That's about all of the good.

The movie's plot was missing something, something big. It just didn't hold together. The continuity was mostly on the lacking side, not just in the director's view, but in the editor's chair as well. There's so much more to complain about, like characters loosing their accents etc.

My biggest hatred for this film, is the final battle scene...I was in shock, with how bad it was, and it's still bothering me to be honest.

Maybe you'll enjoy this film more then I did. Hope some one does.

This movie makes Uwe Boll look like Steven Spielberg

[h-hoeg · 1/10 · 23 January 2013]

Probably the worst movie I have ever seen.

Acting: worse then elementary school drama. How do these people get actually hired as actors. The lead role guy Richard McWilliams had same expression for everything: sadness, excitement, fear, anger, confusion SAME FACE and body language, I mean wow...

Action: Sword fights were a complete joke. Soccer players fake hurt and fall more realistically then these "actors"

Scenes: Among many bad scenes.. the girl training this guy to become paladin by holding the horse by a rope and he was slowly riding around her in circles.. seriously..

I want my 101min back..

Worth watching as a DVD rental, though it will not be a theater blockbuster.

[ecjfla44-266-462514 · 7/10 · 15 January 2012]

This movie got better as it went along. Not being bogged down with big name actors went a long way towards making it a decent film. It was realistic enough to get he feel it seemed to be going for, it was in places a bit to "clean" but not too much. Richard McWilliams, played the part of the reluctant hero very well, and Ian Cullen made a believable desperate lord. Nicola Posener as Kate did a wonderful job, not a ravishing beauty, but a lovely young girl fit for the part. The scenery was very nice, shot on location is Ireland this was nice and gave the film the gritty realism it needed. The dragon was well done, and all in all not the worst dragon I have seen in a film. The character of Rogan Ap Cynan, the handsome yet scheming and treacherous lord, played by Philip Brodie was done well enough to make you enjoy his role in the movie as well as his exit. All in all the acting was good, the story held my attention, the action was believable and not over the top. It has all the elements needed for a story of this type, with deceit, envy, rage, loyalty and passion. It also has something missing in a lot of films of this genre, a plot, and it lacked something included far too often in films these days, gratuitous nudity and language. I would recommend this as a good, worth watching DVD rental, though it will not be a theater blockbuster.

Worst sword fight EVERRRR...

[TarantinosLoveChild · 2/10 · 10 October 2012]

The lowest rating is 1 (awful) which this film IS NOT... I give it a 2 rating as it's a margin better than awful.

The dragon itself was a "pretty" looking dragon but the effects spoilt it. As one other reviewer mentions it looks like a low budget video game style of graphics were used.

The acting was horrible and cringe-worthy. The final sword fight was like watching two teenagers practising a school-play in their back garden... "This is the part were you fall down..."

But the overall feel of this film was drawn out and uninteresting. There should have been a message from the writer to begin with to advise the viewer not to bother engaging with the story as it'll be wasted brain cells.

Compare Apples to Apples.

[rnewcomb · 9/10 · 13 June 2012]

I have never seen people be more hard on a film! For it being an indie film this hits all the points I was looking for. I really enjoyed it, and my wife unexpectedly did so as well. I'm not offering excuses for them, but you have to compare Apples to Apples. One reviewer mentioned the classic "Dragonslayer" from the 80's, which was a really good movie - but the budgets were night and day differences. Dragonslayer had an $18mil. budget and that was in 81'. I've seen a ton of movies that were hard to watch and this was def. not one of them. This hit on all the places they needed to. Writing, acting, and the VFX for good. If you are a fantasy fan, allow yourself to get drawn in and you'll enjoy the film. If you are expecting Dragonslayer, you may not get what you wanted. I gives this a two thumbs up and looking forward to what else they bring in the future.

More of a review of reviewers!

[rawiri42 · 7/10 · 27 August 2012]

OK, I've just about had it with egotistical prats who wave their so- called credentials around and rubbish sincere efforts to entertain them! Yes, I realise that I am probably "using" Dawn Of The Dragonslayer to vent my spleen over many reviews that appear on IMDb hyper-criticising low-budget movies that, if push came to shove, they couldn't anywhere-near match even if they had the best screenwriter in the world!

Dawn Of The Dragonslayer is one such movie. Yet some idiot who claims (NOT to brag he/she/it says!) that it is a well-educated person with refined tastes and yet didn't seem to realise that people DO have different tastes (thank God) and we aren't all like itself. I am only glad that I didn't read "it's" review before watching the movie because I might have allowed it to put me off and missed a damned good effort to entertain me. Yes, I watch movies to be entertained - not tested to the extremities of my deductive powers. I get more than enough of that in real life (and yes, I DO have one!).

Actually, the only reason I looked at the reviews was because I felt that this movie was grossly underrated and wanted to know why. Now, unlike the overcritical reviewer I have no desire to blow any trumpets other than on behalf of the folk who put all their efforts into producing a couple of hours (more or less) of fun for people with nothing better to do than watch movies. However, just so that my co- reviewer doesn't run away with the idea that I am some sort of simpleton who is easily pleased, let me say that I have university degrees including one in film production and my IQ is officially in "genius' level (for what that's worth!). Until my retirement, I operated my own independent studio (mostly making docos - not dramas) and so I do know a little bit about the industry. My protagonist clearly does not!

As I say, when I sit down to watch a movie, I do it to relax and be entertained. Having so said though, whilst I honestly don't enjoy highly convoluted political or crime dramas that require lots of attention simply to figure out what's happening, I don't get onto IMDb and slate them because, even though I may not enjoy the genres, I CAN see the skills that go into making them. Dawn of the Dragonslayer is a fantasy so who's to say whether it is believable or not? Both lead roles are, I felt, very well handled by young novice actors who seemed to me to be well-directed. Sure, there wasn't much new about the story - but who cares? IT WAS FUN!! And, as I say, I watch movies for fun! End of story!

If the "knockers" are so dissatisfied, why don't they put their money where their mouths are and make a better movie. Then we can see what their fellow-critics have to say about THEIR efforts! Now that could be fun too!

An okay movie...if you squint.

[firefairy723 · 2/10 · 20 July 2013]

I know it's possible to make a good movie with a low budget--take "American Graffiti" for instance...which is why this movie is so disappointing. Forget the really poor SFX (which are really distracting). Where this film failed was in story and character development. I had a very hard time connecting with the main character, despite his tragic back story. If this movie had spent as much screen time developing the characters as it did on traveling and landscape shots, it would have done a lot better. I can live with low budgets and poor SFX--what I can't live with is shoddily-developed characters and dry, predictable plots. This movie's only saving grace is that it didn't resort to deus ex machina and that the main character earned the climax. Otherwise it would have not even been worth 1/10 stars.

Too much medevil melodrama, not enough dragonslaying.

[lordzedd-3 · 2/10 · 6 January 2020]

First, I don't want to sound sexiest but this dragon slaying movie isn't much of a dragon slaying movie. The world is very inconsistent. One minute dragons are unkillable, then the lord of the so called castle says dragons don't exist, then dragons are killable but only by Paladins, then they're only animals who we can kill by standing in an open area looking like idiots. But to the movie's credit the dragon is impressive, the CG is cool, the blending is excellent and the design is pretty scary but the main villain is sidelined and gets VERY little screentime compared to the stupid secondary characters like the other farm hands even though we see no farm and see 1 goat and 1 chicken through the whole movie in the land where Sterling lives, earlier we saw 3 goats to the farmland where our hero comes from. Also, our hero is always getting his butt kicked, he pouts , he broods but does he train to kill a dragon, no. Besides that the characters are so flat unlikable jerks with no redeeming qualities that you don't care. This movie has so much promise but is ruined by daytime drama nonsense which is stereotypical of a woman director who knows nothing of fantasy or fantasy realms.