Released: June 2017
Director: Patrick Syversen
Rated PG-13
Run Time: 98 Minutes
Distributor: Universal Home Video
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Cast:
Patrick Stewart: Drago
Tom Rhys Harries: Edric
Jessamine-Bliss Bell: Meghan
Tamzin Merchant: Queen Rhonu
Andre Eriksen: Thorgrim
Can you believe that it’s been over 20 years since the original Dragonheart hit theaters? I can scarcely believe it myself. The film, starring Dennis Quaid, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, and Sean Connery as Draco, hit theaters in 1996 to fairly mixed reviews. The film definitely has its fans, and I can count myself among them. Why? Because dragons are fucking awesome, that’s why. Dragonheart hit the right amount of excitement, epic battle sequences, fantastic visual effects, acting and a musical score that I can honestly say is one of the finest soundtracks ever created. But the film also allowed the audiences to connect with Draco on an emotional level. The writing was sharp and witty and Sean Connery’s performance outshone all others. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that there was a sequel: Dragonheart: A New Beginning. The less said about that direct-to-video sequel, the better. That really should have been the end of it, and it was until 2014. Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer’s Curse was released on home video. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a terrible movie. For a direct-to-video sequel, it had a surprising amount of production values attached to it. The visual effects were actually quite decent. It’s not what I would call a great film, but it was passable, plus, it had Ben Kingsley as the voice of the dragon. How could you go wrong? Three years later, we get ANOTHER film: Battle for the Heartfire. Oh…..dear.
The film starts with the birth of twins Edric and Meghan. Due to their grandfather’s bond with Drago, the twins are born with scales. Edric has scales on his back, and Meghan on her face. It turns out that these two share a bond with Drago and exhibit special powers of their own. Edric has super-strength and Meghan can manipulate fire. After the death of their father, the twins are split up. Years later, King Gareth is on his death bed when Drago appears. Gareth passes away and when Drago doesn’t, he begins to feel a connection to at least one of the twins. Discovering Edric, the king’s guards tell him that he’s the rightful heir. At the same time, Meghan returns with an army of Vikings to claim HER right as queen. Truthfully, the story here isn’t awful. The idea of twin siblings having these amazing powers is actually interesting, but the execution was just plain sloppy. It feels more convoluted than it needs to be. Part of what made the original film work was its simplicity in its story-telling. Here, they’re trying too hard and failing. Dragonheart is at its best when it is simple.
The acting? Oh, lord. It ranges exactly between “not trying at all” and “barely trying.” I don’t know what the director was doing to try to coax a passable performance out of his actors, but he failed miserably. The acting here is something that I would have expected from a kindergarten class play. No, strike that, kindergarten students are better. Tom Rhys Harries doesn’t even look like he wants to be there. He’s like, “it’s a paycheck.” Jessemine-Bliss Bell does a better job, but she’s still not convincing. The villain of the movie? A wannabe-viking who is also a wannabe-king. Andre Eriksen’s performance is simply non-existent. He’s just there to snarl and sneer. The vikings in this movie are an absolute joke. They’re not even threatening. I’m sorry, my 3.5-year old nephew wearing a toy viking hat is more menacing. The direction by Patrick Syversen is truly abominable. No one here is remotely interesting. The only interesting character is Drago, who is a CGI creation. Thankfully, he’s voiced by the legendary Patrick Stewart, but even he’s hamstrung by a completely shit screenplay.
If the acting is bad and the story is forgettable, how does the action fare? I’m sorry: Action? What action? I know that the movie’s crew was working on a very small budget, but they could have at least made more of an effort into crafting the fight scenes. There’s nothing here that’s even worth mentioning. At least Dragonheart 3 had something resembling a sword-fight. Here, it’s just throwing punches at people or hurling fire at somebody. Not even Drago gets in on the action and HE’S a fucking dragon. Dragonheart 2 had better action and explosions, too. Dragonheart 4 is a joke. It has to be.
Well, some of the visual effects are SOMEWHAT competent. The dragon looks okay, but he’s not as impressive as the previous film. Some of the locations are pretty interesting as they did film in front of an actual castle, so they’ve got that going for them. Honestly, I thought that Dragonheart 2 had a very cheap feeling about the whole thing, but this film takes cheap to a whole new level. The sets, the costumes and the character designs are all, quite frankly, shite, as my Irish friends would put it. Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire is an absolute mess on nearly every level. I don’t have a clue as to why Universal thinks that we needed more Dragonheart movies. One was good enough, but FOUR? This is a poor attempt at a cash-grab from a franchise that really didn’t need to be one. In my honest opinion, Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire is a goddamn catastrophe. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from a direct-to-video sequel, but I’ve seen DTV sequels that are better than this. Dragonheart 3 was one of them. Don’t bother with this one, whatsoever.
Final Recommendation: Burn this with dragon-fire. 3/10.