Dragon Wars (2007)

	Also Known As: D-War
	Year of first release: 2007
	Director: Hyung-rae Shim
	Actors: Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster
	Country: ROK
	Genre: Action, Fantasy, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 09.12.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Young reporter Ethan Kendrick (Behr) is destined to protect Sarah (Brooks) in the middle of a war between giant serpents for the right to ascend to Heaven.
Review: What the hell is this movie?!? The first Korean movie to be widely distributed in the USA in 30 years! Directed by a Korean but with a 100% American cast. 38 million dollars of budget. Based on an old Korean legend. I remember reading some bad things about it, and was expecting something in the style of the Asylum production (Sharknado, Supergator vs. Dinocroc, Snakes on a Train), i.e. bad actors, stupid story, poor dialogs and a minimum amount of cheap special effects. After watching the movie, the closest comparison that comes to my mind is actually ... Pacific Rim! This is not flattering for Guillermo del Toro, but Dragon Wars is the same mix of amazing combat scenes and very bad story and dialogs. The digital effects are better in Pacific Rim, but they are displayed with such generosity in Dragon Wars! It must be one of the movies with the most digital shots ever. I have seen people on Internet wondering how they could get those visuals for only 38 million dollars. The reactions are quite extreme about this movie: some love it, many find it awful, but hopefully others manage to appreciate it for its generosity and for what it is. My feeling about it is clear: although the storytelling and editing is extremely poor (so many ellipses...), I was not bored for one second and was truly amazed by the display of ideas when it comes to combat scenes: giant snakes, armies of armored soldiers mounting some bipedal reptiles, huge frog-like beasts equipped with missile-launchers (looking a bit like the amphibian beasts used for a similar purpose in Star Wars Episode I), helicopters chasing some flying reptiles (this is taken from Avatar), and an original dragon design.  My process for rating is the same as for Pacific Rim: 9/10 for the combats and 3/10 for the storytelling gives an average 6/10, that I push up one more point because of the pleasant surprise it gave me.
Rating: 7 /10