Product: Dragonheart: A New Beginning (2000)
Rating: 4.0
Direct-to-video "sequel" changes focus to target the young
After watching "Rising Sun" last night I had the luck to spot "Dragonheart: A New Beginning" on the Sci-fi channel. I've always been a fan of Dragons, and the original Dragonheart made such an impact on me that I just had to see this sequel, no matter the fact that it was billed as a 'family movie'....The original Dragonheart was a masterpiece of a comedic tragedy; it dealt with issues like fun, friendship, love and spirituality, yet it also covered racial violence, genocide, guilt, sacrifice, and death. The end is a tear-jerker for a lot of people.By contrast, "Dragonheart: A New Beginning" comes across as a movie that would be suitable for kids as young as 7-8 if they're not frightened by no-gore violence and characters getting put in "scary" situations. When I say no-gore violence I am specifically referring to the only "battle" seen in the movie where the only blood you see is on the tip of one spear. There are also a couple kung-fu fights. But, while there are a lot of bodies, you don't see any blood!Being a family movie, everything is naturally light-hearted and never too serious because most of the action is predictable. However, this comes back to bite it in the climax of the movie as some of the characters act way out of character.The main human character is Geoff (a stable boy at a monastery) who discovers and "makes friends with" the young nave dragon Drake."Dragonheart: A New Beginning" comes in at 85 minutes in contrast to the 103 minutes of the original, and unfortunately you will notice it - there is not enough real character development between Drake and Geoff to show us why they would care for each other in the way that they do at the end. Up until the end, the relationship between the two is strictly kid/pet, with Geoff being cocky and self-centered and taking advantage of his close friendship to the nave dragon to advance himself, which the bad guy plays on. Eventually, the desires of the bad guy are revealed and Geoff ends up `saving' Drake from a deadly situation which Geoff got him into in the first place, and Drake saves him while they both escape.After their escape from the bad guy and directly up to the final confrontation is a long scene in which the secondary characters escape from their predicament and uncover another facet of the bad guy's plot. While the scene itself is decently done and doesn't need to be cut, it overwhelms the escape scene. It would have been much better for the entire movie if the escape scene beforehand had been expanded to show the forging of a true friendship between Geoff and Drake. As it is, in the climax when Drake makes his `fatal choice' between good and evil there is no indication that their kid/pet relationship has changed.A couple people have commented on "bad acting" but I have to disagree. If you look at how the actors show their emotions and believe in their characters it's easy to ignore any technical problems and forget that they're actors - a big plus.On the other hand, imperfect directing, scripting and editing have led to some nasty plot holes and characters getting out of character in moments that make you want to scream "WHY DOESN'T S/HE...?!". One example of a minor plot hole is when Drake discovers the typical knight/dragon relationship (i.e. dragonslaying) and the entire issue is swept under the rug. While we as the audience feel sorry for Drake as being the last of his kind and feel anger or guilt towards the activities which killed his race, we never really see Drake respond to the issue, which is a let-down for those of us interested in seeing the movie deal with more serious issues. Drake also gets FAR TOO LITTLE AIRTIME, making him seem to be a very two-dimensional character in contrast with the beautiful performance of Draco in the first film.On the technical side, the design of the dragon is very good, the locations and costumes are decently medieval, and the choreography is amazing for a direct-to-video film. Drake is well-animated most of the time, though his CGI never totally blends with the live-action characters in the way that Draco's did, and some additional CGI in the end seems below Drake's level of refinement.Overall, the movie's light-hearted tone and musical score, simplistic structure, predictability, transparent characters and surreal childish CGI dragon, not to mention the plot holes that keep it from standing up to the criticisms of adults, lead this movie to be a solid 4/5 star contender with the younger audience in general, 5/5 for being the only good dragon film for kids too young to handle the original Dragonheart, and a 3/5 for everyone else.Personally, I liked it. :)