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Lefler’s Dragonheart: A New Beginning (or Dragonheart 2),
is a fantasy movie set sometime in the Middle Ages, and is a sequel
to 1997’s
Dragonheart. The original probably owed its modest success to
stars Dennis Quaid and Sean Connery, who shows up in voice only as a
CGI dragon. It took 3 years, but Doug Lefler’s sequel finally made
it out alive – only to go directly to video. “Uh oh” is right,
Dougie.
Dragonheart 2
stars Christopher Masterson (TV’s “Malcolm
in the Middle”) as Geoffrey, a lowly stable boy who works in a
monastery and dreams of becoming a knight one day. (Right away you
know the fantasy movie clichés will be coming fast and furious, so
strap in!) The king, of course, is under the spell of a charming
knight name Osric (Harry Van Gorkum) who, as all charming knights
with a twinkle of evil in their eyes are want to do, really wants to
take over the kingdom. Our lowly stable boy gets the chance he’s
been waiting for when he accidentally discovers a young dragon name
Drake (the voice of Robby Benson) living underneath the monastery.
As Drake and Geoffrey’s friendship grows in secret, a wandering
Chinese man (Henry O) arrives in town with a young female charge,
Lian (Rona Figueroa). The two outsiders are seeking a dragon in
order to stop it before it turns evil. And if Drake is that dragon,
then they must kill it…
Dragonheart 2’s producers made the right
choice by sending this turkey directly to video, where it will sit
on a Blockbuster shelf somewhere waiting for some poor, unsuspecting
chump to pick it up, intrigued by its boxcover. My memory of the
1997 original is somewhat muddled, but I do remember that the movie
was not particularly very good. A 3-star movie, perhaps, mostly on
the basis that I remember enjoying Quaid’s turn as a noble knight
and the CGI dragon back then had the benefit of a slightly larger
budget than its sequel. Oh, and it also starred the always
delightful Dina Meyers, who looked terrific twirling a sword.
While Dragonheart 2 tries its hardest to
make the most of its miniscule budget, it’s just not all that good
of a movie. The script by Shari Goodhartz, while harkening back to a
lot of mythology set up by the original, proves to be too childish
and prone to goofy situations and weak dialogue. The action in
Dragonheart 2, including swordfights and fisticuffs, are of the
“don’t take us seriously” variety, which means there’s no real
danger to any of the characters, thus no tension. Even the lead
villain, played by Harry Van Gorkum, is not all that “evil” until
the very end, when he shows his true colors. The word “cartoonish”
comes to mind when describing all the characters.
Dragonheart 2 really tries to be a movie
for kids and has no intentions of being anything else. The film has
no bloody bone in its body, and everything is very simple in writing
and execution. This also explains the presence of a “young” dragon
that looks, well, like a baby dragon (if there was ever such a thing
as dragons, and thus baby dragons, to begin with). Drake the dragon
is lovable, with small, unthreatening horns and a soft, comforting
voice courtesy of Robby Benson. Besides fart jokes involving Drake,
there’s also plenty of snot gags. Yes, folks, this movie was not
made for Mr. and Mrs. College Professors, but rather their kids.
There are some major factual goofs, but those
seem trivial when considering the movie’s concept concerns a
dragon. But for those interested, here are some of them: Henry
O’s character, Kwan, is supposed to be Chinese, but anyone with any
knowledge of Asian culture knows “Kwan” is a Korean name. Besides
that, both Kwan and Lian, strangers in a strange land, speaks
perfect English. How nice, saves money on translators, I suppose.
And true to stereotype, the tiny bundle name Lian is a powerhouse
martial artist, kicking ass left and right, and the old Kwan is a
wise sage. Could you get anymore cliché?
There’s really nothing here that would occupy
an adult’s attention for any lengthy period. Everything is geared
for the PG audience, even the embarrassing subplot about friendship,
losing focus about what’s important, blah blah blah. Adults love to
preach to kids about these things, but I doubt if the kids will be
listening, since they’ll probably be too busy going ga-ga over Drake
the CGI dragon.
It’s a good thing kids don’t know the
difference between a shoddy CGI dragon and a decent one.
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