While essentially correct - besides there not being a Dragon Kingdom - the above blurb fails to mention a fairly major point.
When I popped the DVD in, I was a little surprised to see the title screen come up as The Dark Kingdom.
Not necessarily a sign of a bad film but it did set off a small alarm bell. But not half as much as what happened next. You see, the traditional opening prologue was accompanied by clips from what looked suspiciously like a previous film before we immediately get dumped into a story .well in progress.
Tuns out that Dragon Kingdom is the second film in a series.
I can't help feeling that this is the sort of information that should have been on the DVD cover. How hard would it have been to slap a simple "Part II" on there? Christ knows you had time and space for a lot of other stuff that fools nobody.
I would also have been less annoyed when the action cut off with a lot unresolved. Because this is film 2 in a 3-part series.
Moving on past all that, does Dragon Kingdom/Dark Kingdom/whatever stand up on it's own merits?
Well it does suffer from being low-budget and while some of the actors do a decent job certain others made me wince every time they opened their gob. Special effects are a bit hit and miss too. Monsters look less impressive when it's obviously a bloke in baggy trousers on a pair of stilts.
Also, aren't knights supposed to have horses? Couldn't afford them either.
My main problem is that to all intents and purposes I'd just switched on a film that was already an hour plus in so I'd missed a lot of important stuff - character introductions, back story, why they needed to get travelling in the first place.
The thing is, for a No Horse Fantasy ( a term I just made up for this whole film genre) Dragon Kingdom isn't horrendous. Not great but not without some OK bits. So if you do decide to check it out make sure you watch the first film -Knights Of The Damned - beforehand.
Or maybe you ought to wait for the inevitable £7.99 three-disc collection.
Verdict: Approach with caution and don't expect too much.
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