Psycho's Movie Reviews #193: Dragonheart: The Sorcerer's Curse (2015)

Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse is a 2015 American–British–Romanian fantasy adventure film directed by Colin Teague and released direct-to-video. The third film in the Dragonheart franchise, it is a prequel to the original film.

Plot

In the 9th century Northern Britain, a druid circle foresees a "falling star" from the constellation Draco, with Brude - one of the druids - summoning a Pict clan known as the "Painted tribe" to slaughter the druids and lead the clans to war against the southern kingdoms over Hadrian's Wall. A druid apprentice called Lorne escapes the druids' slaughter.

Gareth and a group of squires undergo their final tests on the wall's southern side to prove they're ready to be knighted. Gareth proves himself the best fighter but fails to collect enough money from the peasants; disappointed, his superior Sir Horsa refuses to knight him and tells Gareth that he owes him 100 crowns, after which he will give Gareth his knighthood. With nowhere to go, Gareth gets taken in by a peasant couple who couldn't pay him. That night, a meteor falls to Earth on the wall's north side, with Gareth stealing one of the knighted squires' swords and going to find the meteor after the couple told him it would contain riches.

Gareth finds the meteor but bursts open, revealing a dragon with nine eggs. The dragon proceeds to attack the Painted tribe members that also tracked down the meteor, with Gareth saving one of the dragon's eggs despite the warriors badly wounding him. Impressed by Gareth's mercy, the dragon shares its heart with him, saving Gareth's life. Then Brude curses the dragon before claiming the eggs. Lorne rescues Gareth and explains dragons and the bond Gareth now shares with the dragon. Gareth meets the rebel leader Rhonu, her uncle Traevor, and the clans who oppose Brude, hoping Gareth will get the dragon to fight for them. Gareth meets the dragon again, discovering it can now talk. Gareth names it Drago, who says he needs help retrieving the eggs. The group goes to Brude's campsite; Drago fails to rescue the eggs due to the curse rendering him powerless during daylight or by the light of a flame, and he explains his purpose to raise the young dragons he brought as friends to humanity. Gareth's attempt fails, with the painted clan capturing him. Brude intends to kill him but stops upon learning about Gareth's connection with Drago. With Rhonu and Lorne's help, he successfully escapes with the eggs.

Gareth convinces the group to head towards the wall, and Rhonu tells Traevor to gather the clans opposing Brude. Traveling with Rhonu and Lorne, the trio has to journey on foot after accidentally destroying an egg; Drago unsuccessfully tries teaching Gareth how to shadow-jump along the way. Lorne tells Gareth and Rhonu that Brude cast the Sorcerer's Curse on Drago, and Drago will be under Brude's control by the full moon. While attempting to rescue a group of the painted clan's prisoners, Gareth shows bravery, briefly freeing Drago from the curse before Brude recasts it. After Gareth sacrifices one of the dragon eggs and shadow-jumps to safety, the trio escapes Brude and the clan. Before reaching the wall, Gareth confesses to Drago he isn't a knight and that the South has no respect for King Arthur's Old Code; however, Drago still considers Gareth his friend before leaving for Brude's location.

Reaching the gate, Gareth, Lorne, and Rhonu get arrested, and the dragon eggs seized upon learning of the Painted clan heading towards the wall. Drago, now under Brude's control, and the Painted tribe attack at the full moon, but Lorne's magic helps Gareth and Rhonu escape. As Gareth disrupts the sale of the dragon eggs and battles Sir Horsa to protect them, his brave act frees Drago, who then aids both the soldiers and the northern clans led by Traevor. Gareth slays Sir Horsa while Rhonu battles and kills Brude, getting herself wounded fatally. With Brude dead and Drago free, the remainder of the Painted tribe retreats. After the battle, Gareth tends to Rhonu, who gets saved by an unhatched dragon sharing its heart with her. Gareth becomes a knight and the settlement's leader, with peace achieved between the North and South as Hadrian's Wall is renamed the Dragon's Gate. Gareth and Rhonu express their love for each other, and the baby dragon that saved Rhonu begins hatching.

Production

Development

Long rumoured and speculated upon by fans of the previous two films, a third instalment in the Dragonheart franchise was announced during the summer of 2014 to have been green-lit by Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The budget for the CGI effects work for Drago alone was $7,000,000.

Raffaella De Laurentiis, who produced the two previous movies in the franchise, Dragonheart and Dragonheart: A New Beginning, reprised her role in development as a producer for the third instalment. Her stepson Matthew Feitshans is a screenwriter and development executive regarding storytelling and was chosen as the writer for the film. In addition, this was the first film that he wrote for.

Casting

Julian Morris was chosen for the main lead character Gareth.

Filming

The filming began around 2013 with filming locations taking place in Romania.

Music

The score was composed by Mark McKenzie, who previously composed the score for Dragonheart: A New Beginning. The score contains the original theme by Randy Edelman from the first movie.

All tracks are written by Mark McKenzie.

Release/Reception/Box Office

It was released for a Digital HD release and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Spain, Portugal and France on February 10, 2015. It was also released in India on February 17, 2015 in English and included a Hindiaudio dub track. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on February 24, 2015, which also comes with Latin Spanish and European French audio dub tracks. In the United Kingdom, it was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 30, 2015. As of February 10, the film has been available for viewing on Netflix in the United States. A Japanese DVD and Blu-ray release was released on June 3, 2015, and it contained the original English audio with Japanese subtitles and a Japanese audio dub track.

After its digital release, the film received mixed but generally positive reception, with reviews noting impressive CGI for a direct-to-video release, the film being a vast improvement over Dragonheart 2, and being on par with the original film.

Box office $2,140,832

My Review

Entertaining fantasy movie with thrills , emotion and state-of-art special effects bringing the fabulous dragon to life .¨Dragonheart 3 The Sorcerer's Curse¨ by Colin Teague boasts a passable cast cast as Ben Kingsley , Julian Morris , Tamzin Merchant , Roger Ashton-Griffiths , Christopher Fairnbank , Jake Curran , all of them get together to battle and protect themselves from a ruthless sorcerer : Jonjo O'Neill . Spellbound Dragon picture with overwhelming fights and sensational scenarios . This film blends witchcraft and wizardry , adventures , battles and is extremely fun and amusing . It is set in the 10th century , A.D. When aspiring knight Gareth (Julian Morris) goes in search of a fallen comet rumoured to contain gold, he is shocked to instead encounter a set of dragon eggs guarded by dragon Drago. Then , Gareth spontaneously meets a dragon named Drago (voice by Ben Kingsley) and joins forces a brave warrior girl (Tamzin Merchant) , and a young monk , Lorne (Jassa Ahluwalia) , to vanquish the evil sorcerer . All of them unite a free-breathing dragon to fight a villain knight , Sir Horsa (Dominic Mafham) , as well as must work together to defeat an evil sorcerer (Jonjo O'Neill) and stop his reign of terror. They inspire the people to fight for their freedom and taking on a tyrannical ruler. Along the way, Gareth learns the true meaning of being a knight and the sense of life .

This is a medium-budget film in which there's some slow spots but the enjoyable relationship between Garth and Drago make for a fun pairing . The plot is well known and similar to other entries , after Drago saves Gareth's life the two become intricately bonded, as their lives there now share with one heart, joins forces to protect a nest filled with dragon eggs, from there, Garth and Drago have to save the entire kingdom from the rule of the ominous sorcerer . The huge dragon does seem , well , real , thanks to the splendid work carried out by digital effects team . This fantasy movie packs noisy action , witchery , fantastic events , sorcery , impressive battles and a little bit of humour . Likable performance by Julian Morris and Jojo O'Neill as the villainous , evil-hearted sorcerer .The story has many familiar dragon motifs found throughout Western culture , in particular Saint George and the Dragon, in which maiden sacrifices were made to appease a harassing dragon. Saint George's tale also includes a sacrificial lottery resulting in the surprise condemnation of a princess , Saint George is also frequently depicted with a magic blessed lance or a sword . Smart screenplay by Matthew Feitshans, dealing with fantasy medieval , dragons , necromancy , fantastic kingdoms and many other things . Entertaining and fun movie with acceptable special effects bringing the dragon to life . Work on dragons made by CG sometimes seem authentic , but is also noted its computer realization . It is entertaining and funny and with decent computer generator special effects bringing the dragon to life . The movie was produced in enough by Raffaella De Laurentiis (Dino's daughter) . Decent musical score by Mark McKenzie , though he takes sounds from excellent and memorable Randy Edelman's soundtrack . As well as a colorful and glimmering cinematography by David Luther . The motion picture was professionally directed by Colin Teague . It's a family film , a fantasy action-adventure for the ages , but is specially appointed to kids .

The picture belongs to Fantasy/Dragon sub-genre ; other important films dealing with Dragons are the following ones : The original ¨Dragonheart¨ by Rob Cohen with Dennis Quaid , Dina Meyer , Jason Isaacs and Julie Christie ; the sequel ¨Dragonheart, a new beginning¨ 2000 by Doug Lelfer , a regular follow-up with little budget and average FX , including unlikely premise from the first part to be continued in a similar plot , there is also a last dragon and a young knight that dreams of becoming a brave knight in shining armour with Chris Marterson , voice by Robby Benson , Figueroa and Harry Von Gorkum ; ¨Dragonheart 3 The sorcerer's curse¨ 2015 by Colin Teague ; ¨Dragonheart 4 Battle for the heartfire¨ 2017 by Patrick Syversen with Patrick Stewart , Andre Eriksen , Tom Rhys ;¨Dragom Storm¨ (2004) by Stephen Furst with Maxwell Caufield , Angel Boris , Tony Amendola and John Rhys Davies ; and other latter day movies and belonging to this Dragons sub-genre are ¨Reign of fire¨ (2002) by Rob Bowman with Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey , Izabella Scorupco , and Gerard Butler ; ¨Eragon¨ (2006) by Stephen Fangmeier with Edward Speleers , Robert Carlyle , Sienna Gullory and John Malkovich.

This was really well done. Gives you everything it should as a Arthurian fantasy movie. It had its corny moments, but that is what gives these movies their charm. You can easily miss the expertly interwoven story by simply focusing on the action scenes or the dragon magic. There is also a realistic amount of blood and killing. The atmosphere of late Roman Britannia is captured perfectly. You see the greedy senselessness of the Roman legions. You see the spirituality of the Druids. You see the poverty of the Romanized Britons. You see the anger and resentment that lies between the Picts and the Southerners. The storyline is straightforward but it also has good depth and character development. The only issue I had was that, with so many night scenes, they could've been lit more. It was hard on my eyes. 7.3/10