Movie Review: Mythica: The Iron Crown

Mythica: The Iron Crown a.k.a Mythica 4: The Iron Crown
Arrowstorm Entertainment, Camera 40 Productions, Mainstay Productions USA, 2016. 

Dwarf Hammerhead's plans to get Iron Crown to become king of the dwarfs. Maybe he could use the mercenaries Thorsten (James Gaisford), Caia-Bekk (Ashley Santos) and Rezzik (Jasen Wade) to gain it. Meanwhile Admiral Borlund Hess' (Eve Mauro) battle-wagon is carrying slave girls and a piece of Dark Spore. Marek (Melanie Stone) and her remaining friends Dagen (Jake Stormoen) and Thane (Adam Johnson) ambush the wagon and catch the Dark Spore. But that's not all! As a bonus the heroes get a new friend Zombie Girl (Paris Warner) who was a snobby princess but is now more tolerable as undead.

Thane

Marek and Dagen

Zombie Girl

The Admiral's air pirates chase the heroes with zeppelin. Szorlok (Matthew Mercer) sends demon warriors after them. Suddenly the heroes are being chased by everyone, in fantasy Mad Max style. The road goes toward Goddess Ana-Sett's temple that is guarded by very much Stargate's Jaffa-like dude. There may be a way to get Teela (Nicola Posener) back.

Thorsten, Caia-Bekk and Rezzik

Admiral Borlund Hess

The fourth movie is a lighter episode between two dark Mythica's. Even the ending song is light medieval rock. The fantasy introduces steampunk wagon and flying machines. It is stylistically a bit of touch with the other films, but it still quite entertaining. The Admiral and her maniac crew are funny in a campy way. The action sequences look again nice and the aerial scenes are impressive for the budget. The highlights include the epic battle of wizard Gojun Pye (Kevin Sorbo) and Szorlok. In the end the game pieces are set for the dark finale of the fifth film.

The Guardian (Chris Rueckert)

Szorlok

Teela

Rating: Good

Starring: Melanie Stone, Adam Johnson, Jake Stormoen, Nicola Posener, Christopher Robin Miller, Paris Warner, James Gaisford, Ashley Santos, Jasen Wade, Kurt Knight, Kaza Marie Ayersman, Maloree Johnson, Benjamin Alexander, Paul D. Hunt, Andrew Dee Jones, Maclain Nelson, Chris Rueckert, Eve Mauro, Matthew Mercer, Kevin Sorbo
Director: John Lyde

Movie Review: Age of the Dragons

Age of the Dragons a.k.a The White Dragons a.k.a Curse of the Dragon a.k.a Dragon Fire

Koan, Metrodome Cosmic Pictures, Incentive Films, Cinedome, Dragon Quest Productions, Outpost Studios, USA, 2011.

DVD cover says that the movie is adaptation of Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" with dragons! Let's see how this fares.

Young Ahab (Raphael Cruz) was a hunter who met his match one day when White Dragon killed his sister (Yanique Bland). Ahab gets burned badly and swears revenge.

White Dragon

Ishmael (Corey Sevier) and Queequeg (Kepa Kruse) want to hunt dragons with Ahab. Dragon vitriol is a valuable as lamp oil. Starbuck (David Morgan) and Stubb (Vinnie Jones) challenge Ishmael for harpooning contest. Stubb is the most experienced hunter of the Ahab's crew and Starbuck is devoutly religious. Ahab's adopted daughter Rachel (Sofia Pernas) manages the business side of the vitriol hunting but she can also fight. Old geezer (Wayne Brennan) predicts that they will die.

Ishmael and Queequeg

Starbuck and Stubb

Rachel

The ship Pequod is in this version steampunk-style armoured personnel carrier. Ahab (Danny Glover) is also follower of the slit goggle (or Inuit snow goggle) fashion trend likewise Rammstein, Lee Marvin in "Death Hunt" and Lords of Death- gang in "Big Trouble in Little China." As Danny Glover had only little time available for this movie, a stunt double was used for the scenes where Ahab appears masked. Also Vinnie Jones has very limited screen time.

Pequod

Some examples of slit goggles in popular culture

Ahab promises a triple reward for the man who first spots the White Dragon. The men have to swear to hunt the White Dragon until death. Raw dragon vitriol is dangerous substance and explodes with contact of air and it also glows in the dark (the stuff almost certainly contains white phosphorus). Wretched cook Flask (Larry Bagby) is responsible for the vitriol extraction. The purpose of the hunting trip is not to earn money, but to satisfy Ahab's revenge. Then follow mutiny, betrayals and dark revelations.

Ahab

A good Moby-Dick adaption has always to be successful in building the impending sense of doom. No wonder many metal bands have found inspiration by it (Mastodon, Ahab, even Led Zeppelin and also numerous bands named Moby Dick). "Age of the Dragons" manages to maintain the dark atmosphere throughout the film. However it does not achieve the furiousity of the finale of "Moby Dick" with Gregory Peck (1956).

Ryan Little directed good WWII movie "Saints and Soldiers" and its sequels. J Bateman's music is good and the cinematography looks nice. Let's say that the first half of the film looks decent. Much of the dialogue is taken from Melville's book, just substituting whale for dragon. Danny Glover's Ahab is suitably obsessed and crazy character. The story's fantasy setting is not unacceptable. Why not, there is also an anime adaptation "Hakugei Densetsu" where the whales are whale-shaped spaceships. Not to mention the Asylym version 2010: Moby Dick. For a Syfy movie this looks seriously made without any satirical humour. However the second half takes a wrong direction with standard adventure cliches, forced love story and disappointing finale. Also Queequeg is made a bit boring character instead of mysterious aboriginal.Thus it fails to be fully satisfactory adaptation of the classic story.

Rating: Average

Starring: Danny Glover, Vinnie Jones, Corey Sevier, Sofia Pernas, Larry Bagby, Kepa Kruse, David Morgan, Raphael Cruz, Yanique Bland, Wayne Brennan, McKay Daines, John Lyde, Scott Chun, Amy Micalizio, Brianne Aglaure, Brandon Anderson, Christian Purser, Ryan Don Devey, Valeria Madsen, Preston Gibbs, Mark Oliphant, Gloria Hansen, Ross Howard, David Turley, Chris Larsen, Nathan Harward, Erik Madsen, Erich Cannon, Savannah Ostler

Director: Ryan Little

Movie Review: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (a.k.a Sherlock V Monsters) 

Starring: Ben Syder, Gareth David-Lloyd, Dominic Keating, William Huw, Elizabeth Arends, David Shackleton, Rachael Evelyn, Neil Williams, Dylan Jones, Chris Coxon, Kate Thomas, Iago McGuire, Richard Sanderson, Thomes Jones, Laith Jawzi, Catriona McDonald, Neill Scullard, Richard Hopkins 

Director: Rachel Lee Goldenberg 

The Asylum, Revolver Entertainment, USA, UK, 2010.

During World War II old Dr. Watson (David Shackleton) tells a previously unknown story he and Sherlock Holmes promised to keep in secret. In 1882 the Royal treasure sloop HMS Coronet is sunk by a tentacled monster. 

Sherlock Holmes (Ben Syder) and Dr. Watson (Gareth David-Lloyd) are invited by Inspector Lestrade (William Huw) to investigate the case. Only one sailor named Stiles (Neil Williams) survived the accident and tells the unbelievable story. Lestrade also tells that Sherlock's brother Thorpe Holmes (Dominic Keating) contacted him. Thorpe was a former policeman who was paralyzed years ago during a robbery.

Sherlock Holmes

Dr. Watson

Inspector Lestrade

In London slums a young man is attacked by a dinosaur. Later Holmes and Watson escape the same dinosaur while walking in the woods. Thorpe and his niece Anesidora Ivory (Elizabeth Arends) come to meet Watson, because Thorpe needs painkillers. The further investigations put the heroes face to face with super villain Spring-Heeled Jack and his plan to destroy London. Also mechanical dragon and an android are introduced into the story.

Holmes and Lestrade wait while Watson climbs

Dinosaur attacks

The cover art itself shows that this is not a regular Sherlock movie. The movie mixes Sherlock Holmes stories with dinosaurs and robots. Just look at how epic the cover picture is (however the cover promises a bit too much, there is only one dinosaur and one dragon).

Epic cover art

As an idea this is not as outrageous as it first seems, because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also wrote the Lost World which had dinosaurs living in South America. Also some plot choices could be justified by H.G. Wells or Jules Verne influences. This was published soon after the big budget Robert Downey Jr. version so as an inside joke, Sherlock's real name is revealed to be Robert.

Anesidora Ivory and Thorpe

Spring-Heeled Jack

This is one of the better Asylum movies, the special effects look also a bit better. Most of the monster scenes occur at night, so dim lighting may help. The movie looks a bit like an episode of British TV-scifi series, Doctor Who for example comes in mind. The lead actors are passable in their roles. However the acting is at some scenes unintentionally hilarious. Also plot holes and illogical events will drive you crazy if you start to think about those. So this is a cheaply made steampunk version of Sherlock Holmes, not a good movie in conventional terms way but entertains and it is slightly better than average low budget scifi/monster movies.

Mechanical dragon attack!

Rating:Good (as a low budget Asylum film) or Bad (as a regular movie)