DragonHeart Review

Okay I am jumping back into the fantasy genre with a film that was released in the mid-90s. Now, is this an absolutely perfect film, no. To be honest, no movie is perfect. Every film has its flaws, even the Oscar-winning ones. They are made by people, and people make mistakes. It's a part of life, but it is my job as well as your job to truly appreciate or not appreciate the vision, and the story that a film presents. Now sometimes the mistakes can overshadow the story, but I digress. Anyway, today I will be talking about a film that does have a lot of heart, and it is ironically called DragonHeart, directed by Rob Cohen. So let the mania begin once again. Let's fly right into DragonHeart.

DragonHeart was released in 1996 and stars Dennis Quaid, David Thewlis, the late Pete Postlethwaite, Dina Meyer, and of course the voice of Sean Connery. So, this is basically how to the story goes, Quaid stars as Bowen, a knight of the old code, who's job is to train Einon, the son of an evil king who slaughters innocent people. Einon will one day be king, and Bowen tries to teach the old ways of King Arthur in order for him to be a good and better king than his own father. Einon actually gets his chance after his father is killed in battle. However, something happens that puts a small damper on things. Einon accidentally gets shoved by a young girl causing him to stab himself in the heart. So, Bowen takes Einon back to the castle where his mother, the queen, tries to figure out how to save him. Einon's mother decides to take him to a great and wise dragon voiced by Connery. Apparently dragons have the ability to remove half of their hearts to save the life of a person. Well, guess what, the dragon decides to give Einon half of his heart after making him swear that he will be a good king.
So what do you think happens? Isn't it obvious? Einon is actually no better than his father, and becomes even worse than him. Bowen, however, decides to be naive, and thinks that the dragon's heart is bewitched, causing Einon to become evil. This is definitely not the case, but Bowen makes a vow that he will kill this particular dragon as well as every dragon that ever lived.

Thewlis as King Einon

Twelve years go by, and he succeeds killing all of the other dragons except for the one dragon that gave Einon half of his heart. From this point on, the dragon and Bowen eventually work together to trick the people into thinking there are more dragons than just him. Bowen also runs into a priest (Postlethwaite) who basically treats Bowen like a god, which can get creepy at times, especially when he write poems about him! Then, the motives change, and Bowen decides to lead an army to stop Einon for good, and realizes that Einon has always been an evil king. I really do not want to give away the ending because it would definitely spoil it for you. I will only say that the dragon and Einon are linked together. Hopefully, that makes sense for you. The plot was a little more complex this time because there was a lot more time spanned in this film.

Draco

LIKES

• Connery is awesome in this movie. He brings to life to the CGIed dragon, and really adds depth to its motivations by speaking about why he gave Einon the half heart. 
• Thewlis plays a great villain, and shows how ruthless Einon has always been. You can also tell that he is drunk with power, and is not afraid to shove it around.
• The score is great, especially the piece used in the ending. It almost, ALMOST, makes me shed a tear. 
•  Quaid surprised me in this film. I would say that this is one of the last films where he was actually trying to play a good role. He showed how much love he really had for Einon when he was teaching him, and how heartbroken he was when he found out that Einon never really listened to him. So, from that point on, Bowen was just willing to give up everything that he taught because he felt liked he failed as a mentor.

Quaid as Bowen

DISLIKES

• I didn't mention Postlethwaite's character a lot, part of the reason being was I was sick and tired of typing his last name! But, the more important part was, I cannot stand him in this movie! All he does is recite poetry, and can really be an annoyance and a liability. The only time where I could really stomach him was when he learned how to fight, but that still could not save him. He was just trying too hard to be a deep poet, and he turned into a clown basically. He kind of reminded me of a clown that constantly follows you around trying to make you balloon animals and stuff. Postl... wait you know who I mean, constantly follows Bowen saying, "Should I write you a poem?" "He is the greatest dragon slayer there ever was!" Blah blah blah! So, I am basically saying that I didn't care for the priest.

Postlethwaite....last time I type his name!

• Another actress I didn't like was Dina Meyer. She just seemed like she was over the top a lot, especially when she was arguing with Einon. I didn't feel like her motives were true enough.

OVERALL I give this film a 7/10. It is not the best of the fantasy/adventure genre, but you can really tell that the actors put as much heart as they could into the film. If you like dragons, and action, go ahead and check it out. I don't think you will be disappointed, and go ahead and fast forward through the scenes with Pos...you know who, and figure out just how not important his character is.

Thanks for reading! Keep following me, and I will be back next week with a new review!