DVD Review: The Dragonphoenix Chronicles

"In an age of darkness, the mighty Dragonphoenix Empire rules the world of Erebos with an iron fist. Dragar, a mighty warrior from the North, is a slave taking part in brutal pit fights for the pleasure of the empire's noblemen. His body is there, but his mind is back at his homeland and the beloved wife he left behind. 
 Dragar manages to escape captivity and takes Valeria the spoiled daughter of a General as a hostage.The General sets up a man hunt to brign her back. The way back home will be filled with dangers and difficulties for Dragar and valeria. He will have to face the past. the present and the dark future which lies ahead but he shall be...Indomitable."  

  The last bit of that blurb makes more sense when you realsie that the original title of this film was "The Dragonphonix Chronicles: Indomitable"
 Don't ask me why they cut the last bit off. When foreign films are repackaged for Anglosphere markets, that sort of thing tends to happen. It's not even the most cynical example I've ever seen.

 "Dragonphonix Chronicles" proudly proclaims itself as the Greek fantasy film, based on a the Greek comic series of the same name., so as soon as I saw this dvd on sale I was intrigued.

 I also wanted to see what a Dragonphoenix looked like.

\Sadly there are no dragonphonixes to be found in this movie. We don't get any regular dragons, phoenixes, hydras, chimerae, gorgons or cyclops either.  What we do get is a low-budget film which just happens to have some fantasy elements.
 Come to think of it, for the first hour or so, there is almost no "fantasy" in evidence. It's only when somebody pulls out a decidedly steampunk blaster rifle that you remember that you're not in our world anymore.
 Later on you do get some more magical action and at that point the film does pick up a bit.
 
Up to that point "Dragonphoenix Chronicles" is ...nothing special. There's some OK bits and nothing very much wrong with it, just not much to get excited about.

 "Hero" Dragar is a bonafide badass but he's not easy to relate too. A bit too one-note. That note being "Surly".
 Normally you'd expect hostage Valeria to warm to her captor and she does. You just can't work out why.  He's a hostile sod right the way through to the closing credits.
 Then again,in a development that surprises nobody, the General's daughter isn't as keen to be rescued as you'd expect. That doesn't make her more interesting though.
  So you end up watching two people you aren't rooting for running away from some other people you aren't invested in either.

 The ending ups the bloodshed and magic but by that point I was watching throiugh a sense of obligation.

To sum up: A film that disappointed me somewhat. If  "Dragonphoenix Chronicles" was a cheesier film I'd have had fun mocking it. If it was a more action-packed film, I'd have got more into it. And if it had a dragonphoenix in it, I'd have clapped and cheered.

 Not recommended.

That's all folks.