Psycho's Movie Reviews #192: Dragonheart: A New Beginning (2000)

Dragonheart: A New Beginning is a 2000 fantasy action-adventure drama film directed by Doug Lefler, starring Robby Benson, Christopher Masterson, Harry Van Gorkum, and Rona Figueroa. The film is a direct-to-video sequel to the 1996 film Dragonheart.

Plot

A year before his death, Sir Bowen visits the cave of his long-dead dragon friend Draco and finds an egg. He entrusts it to the monastery of his friend Brother Gilbert. Aware of a prophecy stating "a dragon's heart could doom mankind when a two-tailed comet blazed across the night sky," the Friars pledge to hide the dragon until the comet passes, with Friar Peter protecting and teaching him for 20 years. The dragon's care soon falls upon a young and grumpy monk named Mansel.

Geoff, an orphaned stable boy who dreams of becoming a knight like Bowen, lives at the monastery doing menial chores. Meanwhile, the king makes a man named Osric his chief adviser. Osric pledges to ensure the Old Code continues but secretly corrupts it while poisoning the king, plotting to take the throne. Two Chinese citizens from the Hebei Province: Master Kwan and his son, enter the kingdom and ask Friar Peter if he knows anything about dragons. According to the stars, a new dragon was born, and the comet arrives in eight days; they want to prevent the prophecy and confirm if the dragon has a pure heart. Geoff tricks Mansel into doing manual labor and finds the hidden dragon, Drake. Geoff is initially afraid but realizes Drake is equally scared, and they become fast friends. Friar Peter dies suddenly the following day, and Drake goes outside for the first time.

Four days before the comet, the two Chinese learn of Drake's existence. Some knights surprise Geoff, and he discovers the Chinese son is Lian, China's empress in disguise. The knights threaten Geoff, forcing Drake to take his first flight to rescue him, revealing himself to the kingdom. Osric names Geoff and Drake as the kingdom's protectors against the Teregoths and takes Geoff under his wing. After testing Drake's purity, Master Kwan begins teaching him to use his dragon abilities, including exhaling ice breath, a rare skill that few dragons master. Lian reveals to Geoff that a rogue dragon, Griffin, betrayed the dragon's honor code and led a rebellion until virtuous dragons captured him and took his heart, placing it in an amulet. Fearing that all dragons were like Griffin, the Chinese emperor Kuo-fan ordered all Eastern dragons killed, so Drake is now the world's last dragon.

On the prophesized day, Kwan and Lian are captured and jailed. Osric takes Geoff and Drake to battle a group of Teregoths at a border house. Osric fakes a fatal blow and asks Drake to give him half his heart, but Geoff realizes the deception and stops Drake. Osric tries holding Geoff hostage but fails. Drake rallies an escape and masters fire breathing to save Geoff. Kwan, Lian, and Mansel escape the castle dungeon, heal the king, and confront Osric, who recognizes Lian and the amulet. Kwan discerns Osric's true identity and orders the amulet burned. Osric recovers and throws a knife at Lian to punish her for her ancestor's sins, but Kwan intervenes and dies.

Geoff and Drake arrive as Osric claims to have exposed the Old Code's true meaning as a way to control the weak. Osric reveals one dragon escaped Bowen's wrath, fled to the East, and sought revenge before the noble dragons stopped him and cursed him to live as a human as punishment. He cuts his chest open with Lian's knife and takes the heart as the comet appears, revealing himself as Griffin and making Lian realize the prophecy was about him. Resuming his dragon form, Griffin asks Drake to join him in humanity's conquest. Recalling how Griffin would've cost him his soul hadn't Geoff intervened, Drake refuses and challenges Griffin. After a short but fierce fight between the dragons, Drake masters ice breath and freezes Griffin to death; Griffin falls and shatters before the comet passes. An ice shard stabs and kills Geoff, so Drake offers part of his heart, reviving Geoff. The Old Code is restored; Lian returns to her royal duties for a time; and Mansel is awarded guardianship of Brother Gilbert's scrolls, finally gaining the desired life of prayer and devotion. Geoff and Drake become brothers, finally getting the family they ever truly wanted.

Production

Mark McKenzie composed the score with orchestrations done by him, Patrick Russ, and Warren Sherk. At producer De Laurentiis's request, McKenzie incorporated Randy Edelman's Dragonheart theme from the first film in some tracks; using it as a guideline, McKenzie wrote themes that would easily transition with it.

Release

The film-critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 40% positive reviews, based on five critics.

Budget $11,400,000

My Review

This actually is a worthy sequel to "Dragonheart". OK it misses the magical atmosphere, good special effects and cast but it still is a movie worth seeing.

Good things about the movie are the nicely choreographed fight sequence's and the pretty solid and satisfying end fight. Also the movie provides some successful comical moments.

Still there are some major flaws in the movie. The story itself about the prophecy is quite weak and silly and it's hard to tell at times who are exactly the bad guys, due to some poor casting and bad story telling. Some of the scene's were also edited poorly together. The special effects are far from the best ever but also far from the worst. They look acceptable enough.

Robby Benson (best know for voicing the beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast".) wasn't exactly the best choice to voice Drake, he's boring and makes some of the dialog sound silly. Overall the acting is pretty solid by the rest of the cast, of unknown actors.

I can definitely say "Dragonheart: A New Beginning" is a kid's movie. I'm REALLY shocked that this film even got made, not because it was that bad or anything, but I just can't imagine that there is much of a demand for this kind of movie. But, I guess it got made somehow. There are a some cool things in this film, but nothing really great.

You can't talk about this movie without mentioning the special effects because the whole movie is a special effect. The Dragon looked ok, but quite cartoony at times. The special effects in the first instalment blow away the special effects in this one, but they're still kind of cool at times.

The story is ok, but again, nothing spectacular. The story is a little thin, but for a kid's movie that's kind of typical. The characters aren't anything terribly interesting or great, but they're cool I guess. I had never heard of any of the actors, but they all seemed to do an ok job.

All in all, this is an ok film, but definitely not anything to go out of your way to see. If you REALLY liked "Dragonheart", then you'll probably want to see this film. But even then, it depends on WHY you liked "Dragonheart", if you liked the film for it's incredible special effects only, then you probably won't like "Dragonheart: A New Beginning". On the other hand if you liked "Dragonheart" for it's story, then you may like this film. 6.4/10