Dragon Crusaders
I happen to watch a lot of The Asylum films, and in particular the sword and sandals type, so i was entertained by Dragon Crusaders. Mark Atkins’ The Asylum Hard Knocks alumni, provides for his two weeks of shooting what he can, and has an idea of putting together an unusual script and directing a film based on it.
Knights discover pirates pillaging a village and decide to intervene (on the side of the villagers, not the pirates). They help themselves to the Pirate’s yacht; they’re mistakenly hexed by a witch. One by one, they turn gradually into flying, winged gargoyle-like creatures. The curse can be undone if they kill the wicked sorcerer and his dragons.
The one thing Atkins can be proud of is his cinematography skills. This film has the aesthetics of taking place during medieval times. Even just the color palette does the trick. That doesn’t mean that his other artistic skills such as writing, directing, and editing are not the reasons why Dragon Crusaders was made well.
Early in the film, the audience sees a pirate ship which is clearly a modern sailboat disguised in tattered canvas sails. However, Adkins manages to keep the vessel in the peripheral background and out of focus even from the deck of the naval vessel in the film. If you do not focus on what is happening too closely, you can miss it (though I suppose many will).
There are areas in which the acting is inadequate that helps to make the dialogues appear bland (the parts of the film where wannabe Shakespeare English was used could be omitted). This is in part due to the casting of stunt people and riders, which actually works fairly well for this particular movie. Don’t get me wrong, the acting is nowhere near horrible and is very easy to watch.
Considering how little time they had to shoot, the fight choreography has been well executed but the effects just aren’t sufficient. No great sword impacts in Dragon Crusaders, and when they do try it the use of CGI for blood spray effects is too excessive (particularly in the beheading scene) (to be honest, who has never pretended to use a sword in childhood?
When you stab someone in the arm and in between the torso, he is definitely dead isn’t he). There are some fight scenes in which it feels as if the performers are just pretending to duke it out rather than utilizing real swords which are rather heavy and made of metal (Look man, we’re filming on a tight budget).
The gargoyles and dragons, though some do the Sci-fi movies, are most probably the best of Asylum’s digital effects of the film so far. The movements of the creatures remind me of how the stop motion monsters of Ray Harryhausen moved slow, steady and without any concern for the laws of real life mechanics. It works perfectly for the environment of the movie.
Dragon Crusaders is rated to be a blockbuster from home video company The Asylum. Given the production cost and timeline of two weeks for shooting alone, one would claim that the film had no chance. However what we have here is a highly entertaining walk through a stunningly Welsh forest with dragons, pirates and gargoyles thrown in for good measure.
The film starts with pirates attacking a small quiet village. While Dragon Crusaders is not for children, it is not for the blood thirsty either, seeing the way blood is depicted as merely a measure to inflict violence. A team of armed men who are holy soldiers, spot the pirates from their position on a hill, and decide to join the fray. An archer is amongst the men who venture in because each of the men have specialized fighting skills.
In the village they fight off the pirates with the assistance of the beautiful but deadly Cecily Fay’s Aerona. Though supposedly petite, Fay applies her sword with deft accuracy and intent. Mark Atkins, the director of the film, stated that she was cast in the movie because he did not want to use stunt actors who ‘fake’ the action. As well as acting, sword fighting and more acting Cecily sings some of the songs that are featured in the film.
Once the pirates are powerless, the holy fighters jump into a small boat and sail over to a pirate ship. On the lower deck lurks a woman called Neem, who blocks everyone that steps onto the boat by turning them into a stone figure. Neem’s character is played by Shinead Byrne with a nostalgic arousing that is admirable. Sharon is a little angel and quite suited to the role of a helpless girl in need of rescuing. The focus of the story now becomes the search for a way to untangle the spell.
The film was shot mainly outside in Wales, practically on two still cameras, Canon 5D, with fitted lenses for the shoot. Mark Atkins said the cameras allow for extreme portability, much more than a traditional video digital camera. Besides the outdoor forest views, there are some images made in a real 13th century castle for a number of indoor and outdoor shoots.
Upon the further advancement of the movie, it is evident that powerful dragons surround the wizard whom the group intends to reach so as to lift the curse with a solemn and stoic warrior Calvain who is played by Christian Howard to the hilt. Another film that some may find hard to ignore is the fact that Aerona appears to be quite consistently defending the men with her aggressive warfare skills.
This was smart as well as obvious since all the actors who faced Cecily in the film had their movements well controlled. It was Cecily who planned the fight action’s choreography and although her fight sequences are among the best, some cuts were rather even though she directed them herself.
This is a very good low-budget film that has been made with great skill. Acting performance and action in the movie Dragon Crusaders can be easily enjoyed without any s.sas rather tepid periods. True, a lot of fighting is rolling on, but the conversations are relevant and do not pull the movie down. All the actors express strong feelings, speak clearly, and the plot’s overall simplicity does benefit the pacing of the wow Dragon Crusaders.
The filmmaker’s touch most likely provided the film with the watch again charm. This is normally not common for a low budget movie. In a scale of 0 to 10, Dragon Crusaders is rated 7.5, a movie I would definitely buy. In addition to the main movie, there is a 9 minute behind the scenes, short gag reel and trailers of about six other Asylum distributions.
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