Recent Reviews for Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Recent Reviews
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MCT:July 18, 2008I'm a massive fan of the books and have always wanted this series to be made into movies. I didn't expect that animation was going to be the way to go, and while I can honestly say the movie stayed fairly true to the book, in the end I was a bit disappointed. The combination of CGI and cell-animation didn't really blend together as well as other movies have achieved (eg: Titan A.E.), the voice characterisations were mediocre, and the animation itself was a little jerky/shakey in parts. In the end, it looked like it was put together in a rush, turning what could've been an extremely good movie into an ok one.
The other thing I found confusing was the target audience - it's been put together like a kids show, but there's enough violence and blood in it that any parent would have to think twice about letting young kiddies watch it.
If you're not familiar with the story then you may actually enjoy it, if you can overlook some of the technical faults. Fans of the series will have mixed reactions I expect. I can only hope someone sees the potential of this and decides to make a live action film out of it. -
MCT:July 11, 2008This was actually quite good. Interesting melding of anime/realisitic scenery/RP combat in many of the scenes. Most appealing for D&D gamers...
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MCT:June 21, 2008This movie made me sad, as I wasn't as good (even though it's anmiated) as it should have been. I'm a big fan of the book series and this movie did the series no justice. Although it was nice toi see the characters animated after reading and beeing a fan for over 20 years. Would love to see Peter jacskon get ahold of this and see what magic he could do.
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MCT:June 12, 2008Amateurish crap that murders a story that wasn't that great to begin with. Maybe the sequel will be better, much like the books.
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MCT:May 31, 2008I am a big fan of the books and the authors of the books, but I just don't think the poeple making the movie did as good a job as they could have. The movie just seemed rushed and it left ou may key part of the book. However, it was good to see how it kind of would look like if it were just a movie. It was still dissapointing with how much was left out.
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MCT:May 10, 2008I haven't read the books in nearly 20 years, so I'm not sure how accurate the story was, but it seemed to match with your standard Dungeons & Dragons style. It has some of the worst animation I've seen in quite a while - unacceptable in this high tech age. I had such high hopes for it as it has a great cast and a huge fan base, but alas... It seems to me that they spent too much on the actors and not enough on the animation. The film also seems to be targeted at a much younger audience than it should have been. Most Dragonlance fans are in there 30s now, so they really missed the mark on this one.
Young kids might enjoy it, but if you are a fan of the books, you'll surely be disappointed. -
MCT:April 29, 2008
I just couldn't get into this. Very traditional (read boring) and simplistic design. Annoying plot and even more annoying dialogue. Watch a Bakshi flick instead.
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MCT:March 20, 2008
One of the first good D&D movies . Animation is not the best , but decent story. If you like D&D rent it at least once .
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MCT:February 29, 2008
Furtively put your hand up if you ever played D&D. Chances are, if you were into the game or read any of the books then you'll be familiar with this storyline and to their credit, they've done a fairly decent job bringing it to the screen - it's certainly better than either of the live action movies. There's a slight jarring of animation styles, with CGI'ed beasties sharing the screen with more traditional hand drawn work but it doesn't particularly spoil things. Good character work from the voiceover artists also lend the film a bit of extra appeal. My thoughts aside, I'm not sure if this film will be a critical hit (see what I did there?). Give it a go, you might enjoy it. If not, roll a D20 and move along...
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MCT:February 26, 2008The story is great, the old school animation sucked royally and the cgi they used on mostly the dragons and some landscapes, magic, etc is beautiful. too bad they had to ruin the Dragonlance this way. Had high expectations for it, it's still worth watching if you're a lover of the Dragonlance books or graphic novels. I'd recommend owning a copy of this or just rent it.
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MCT:February 21, 2008Why is this the first I'm hearing about this movie? It must be an animated feature straight to DVD?
...Yup. Oh well, I still want to see it. Maybe it won't be as bad as I'm expecting. -
MCT:February 17, 2008
I'll give this a 3 only because I loved the book. That was great.
Here, the characters were completely flat, the plot focussing more about getting to the climax than building towards it and the story rushed. It reminds me of some of those old anime where they compress 40+ hours of gameplay into a 100 minute narrative of what happened in the game's storyline. I'd recommend this only to fans of the saga. -
MCT:February 13, 2008
Nostalgic Direct-to-DVD effort that combines CGI and more traditional style animation set in the "D&D Universe". Wonderful voice work and nice retro look.
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MCT:February 5, 2008
Horrible animation. Very bad character development and very little depth to the story. I found myself hoping they would all get killed cause I didn't care for them at all. I haven't read the book, but being a fantasy fan, I'm sure the movie was not even close to the book. Not worth a watch.
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MCT:February 3, 2008
A film that has been long awaited for Dragonlance fans. Maybe fans could have waited a little bit longer.
For the fantasy genre, the story is definitely there. It also moves at a really quick pace with a bunch of fade-ins and outs. This works well because it keeps things fresh by moving the characters from setting to setting without leaving them in one place for too long. The bad part about this is that there isn't enough explanation and backgrounds for characters, places, etc. While the film is still easy to pick up and follow the lack of depth makes the film that much more less interesting. Still, the essence of the story is there.
One of the bigger disappointing features of this film is in the visual department. It's not that it is horribly drawn, but the fact that is seems outdated for its time. It truly is a letdown. There are a few aspects of the film that are in CG, like the dragons and draconians, which is nice, but in the end there is still room for improvement. As far as character design goes, it is done quite nicely.
Probably the best part of this film is the voice-over work and it is not just because there are big names involved. The voices actually fit the characters. Kiefer Sutherland, Lucy Lawless, and even Michelle Trachtenberg are all nice selections for their parts. The sound effects aren't too bad either. A few of Raistlin's spells have a nice ring to them.
This may not be the film that fans have been waiting for, but it still is something. If you are a fan of the book, then feel free to watch this at least once. It isn't no Lord of the Rings budget wise, but it isn't no Blood of the Samurai either, budget wise. If you have never seen Blood of the Samurai, consider yourself lucky.
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MCT:January 30, 2008
They're making the Dragonlance Chronicles into movies?! I wanna see 'em! The books are awesome, so I hope the movie doesn't make them look bad.
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MCT:January 27, 2008I was interested, because I have waited to see this movie forever since I read the book. But the trailer looks laughable. I guess we'll see...
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MCT:January 19, 2008
I think if you've read and enjoyed the book you owe it to yourself to see this. It makes the book feel much better. Not that this isn't AWESOME. It's everything you'd want in a film. As long as you didn't want much.
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MCT:January 19, 2008
I barely remember the book although I remember enjoying the book. It was fun fantasy pulp.
The movie is bad. Bad hand drawn animation, bad computer animation, bad dialogue, etc., etc. And most of the enjoyment comes from how bad it is. Really? Where else are you going to find two people yelling at each other in front of a sleeping dragon.
Or, where else are you going to introduced to a female character where the focus starts at her breasts and then pans up to her face (oddly enough you never see that character again throughout the entire movie.)
Outside of fans of the book picking this up for curiousity's sake, I can't see why anybody else would even bother with this. -
MCT:January 18, 2008I'm giving this movie a pass. I have waited for this movie since I was 14 because I loved this story and these characters. For the most part they stay true to that story so for that I gotta love it. Plus the voice talent is well chosen.
Where it falls down is the animation it looks for the most part to be animated like an '80's Saturday morning cartoon and personally I hate the mixture of traditional and computer animation. Choose one or the other, mixing looks like crap.
Still Dragonlance...COOL! -
MCT:January 18, 2008
Not nearly as bad as a lot of fans have been saying. Yes, the book is much better, but this is a 90 minute cartoon.
I thought the voices were great and the plot was fun.
The animation did NOT look as bad as 80's animation, go rent some if you don't believe me. Kinda reminded me of the 90's Gargoyles animation.
But the CGI sucked bad, what were they thinking???
Oh, well. As a LONG time dragonlance fan I am pleased with this step in the right direction! -
MCT:January 17, 2008When I was ten years old, I loved the Dragonlance books. I devoured those motherfuckers and I didn't care that they were cheesy, derivative fantasy pulp; to me they were like gifts from a really badass God.
Today I learned that they made a movie out of the first one and I knew it would suck right off the bat, especially when I read that the animation style was a blend of 80s cartoon and CGI and that Kiefer Fucking Sutherland was doing Raistlin's voice. But no, I was curious. I had to watch it. And while I concede that maybe the books aren't as great as I remembered them, they certainly did not deserve this treatment.
The first matter of business is the voice acting, which is by far the shittiest I've ever heard in an animation. Tanis's voice actor sounds like he is experiencing the most depressing time of his life (and really, I wouldn't be surprised if this was it). Raistlin, voiced as mentioned above by Kiefer Fucking Sutherland, sounds completely bizarre. I love the way he pronounces the spells too - he sounds like a schizoid speaking fake Hebrew. Everyone else is so boring that I've forgotten what they sound like already.
Second issue: the animation. Sure, I can appreciate that this was done on a shoestring budget (they probably spent all their money on Kiefer Fucking Sutherland), but there is no excuse for this bastardization of the cartoon image. Someone thought it would be a great idea to mimic the familiar 80s style of action cartooning; that is to say, cheap and styleless and done primarily in Korea. Think Thundercats or He-Man or basically anything made in that era. The characters all look like they have cerebral palsy, with their stiff-gaited walking and unmoving faces. Their expressions are truly terrifying, frozen into surreal masks that depict no emotions I've ever seen in real life.
I guess this was okay twenty years ago, but it obviously doesn't cut the mustard these days, so that same genius had the AWESOME idea to put CGI in the movie. Hideous fucking CGI. The result is this laughable cocktail of shit and lose, so ugly and sterile that it is unapproachable at any angle.
We all know that just because something is made on the cheap doesn't necessarily make it bad, but sadly, the final nail in the coffin: Dragonlance is just a poorly-done movie. It's unbalanced, cheesy, trite and directed with all the skill of an elementary school pageant. I love how the camera randomly zooms in on characters' faces for no reason at all; it really heightens the dramatic effect. Ugh, I can hardly bring myself to be sarcastically appreciative of this movie.
But in a sick sort of way, I actually am a little. It did have two subtle benefits:
a) It's good that Dragonlance is getting more exposure, even if it's in this form. Hopefully this will serve as a stepping stone to a badass live-action movie. What am I saying? There will never be one, and even if there is, it'll probably suck too. Fuck that.
b) I laughed so hard at this movie I woke up my dogs and brother.
So yeah. Uh. Do yourself a favor and skip this one unless you are so blindly devoted to the series that you can see past how shitty this movie is. In which case...I kind of envy you. -
MCT:January 17, 2008
I loved these books growing up, so I checked it out. It was really cool seeing some scenes come to life, but at the same time the story lost all it's heart and the characters weren't developed in the least.
I was counting down until the film ended, which is never a good thing. A huge disappointment! -
MCT:January 16, 2008
1990s animation poorly blended with CG and a highly condensed plot that would leave a lot to be desired for anyone that hasn't read the books. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though.
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MCT:January 16, 2008
Well, I hadn't read the novel since middle school so I didn't remember much of it. It's amazing to me now how much of it feels like a rip-off of The Lord of the Rings. The 2D animation often looks and feels shoddy, and there is some inexplicable reason why they decided every dragon type creature in the film would be 3D, but I don't know what it is. And it isn't even good 3D. And how they got Kiefer to play Raistlin... well, who knows. All that said, it was a passable time waster, and scores a little extra interest to anyone who read the novel as a youth and wondered what it might be like as a film.
