DVD Reviews

Dragonslayer

In 1993, a little film called Jurassic Park gave the world their first glimpse at a REAL, on screen dinosaur. Special effects had hit another benchmark. Flashback now to 1981, and the release of Dragonslayer. This little film presented the first REAL Dragon ever seen on the screen and the effects of the time were top notch. Today, they still hold up not too badly. A young wizard's apprentice gets unwittingly recruited to slay a monstrous Dragon that plagues a certain Kingdom. Well thought out and presented, this is a great little fable.

Picture quality is slightly soft and generally grainy making the film appear rather dated. The graininess is becomes very apparent in the darker sequences. Although the colours appeared accurate and well reproduced, they seemed slightly subdued. Of course, this may simply be to enhance the tone of the story line. Black level was uneven and splotchy (sorry, couldn't find a more technical description) but acceptable. As a comparison, this is a great improvement over the VHS Pan and Scan that many were forced to view.

The 5.1 soundtrack has a very nicely cleaned up musical score and sound effects. Rears were too quiet for my liking as there was a lot of opportunities for ambient effects. Sound was mostly geared to the front 3 speakers. Good stereo imaging, non the less, tracking the frontal action accurately. Vocals were acceptable but sounded very dated.

A still frame, no music or sound accompanied main menu has unanimated transitions to still frame secondary menus. Plop. Here's your menu. No extras, either, by the way. Bad menu and design and marketing plan. No cookie. I can only theorize that Paramount shoved this one out on the market in an attempt to capitalize on the mythical fantasy films that have become the rage in theatres lately (ala Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc). Hopefully, a more fitting special edition will be re-released in the near future.

This isn't a classic tale in the mythical line but does tell a great story with involving detail. The world that is created for the film is very well done and well presented. On a side note, I wasn't keen on the musical score. It seemed rather chaotic and misplaced and the film was deserving of better. Worth a look for certain and a very tempting buy at less than $20.00 retail.

Review By Joey Chill