Dragonslayer

What does everyone think of this? or more importantly...Does anyone remember it??

I think it's a pretty great movie..and the Dragon still holds up today. I think it's one of the most realistic looking dragons ever done, compliments of ILM. Their first foray into special effects outside of SW.

 

I have that film. I like it and the dragon is still one of the best dragons on film to this day. ILM did a fine job.

It is also the best dragon movie hands down for the time being.

Reign of Fire had potential, but falls short, with there being only one male dragon, unless they can change sex in case there are no males. And Dragonheart was decent, but the dragon wasn't hardcore enough for me.

 

I agree with everything you said. It's pretty good even after what...25 years now. I just popped it in a little while ago..I own it too. It's good stuff....and like you said...still the best "dragon" movie out there. just goes to show....sometimes you can't beat models,puppets, and good old fashioned special effects.

 

I own Dragonslayer on dvd. I thought the Dragon for the time was somewhat realistic. The movie is very outdated though. I also don't think it should have won the award that year for VFX. Dragonheart was OK and Reign of Fire could definitely have been much better. It's my own opinion but I have to say that dragon movies don't do too well on the big screen. If they ever get around to making The Hobbitt it'll be interesting to see how they do visually as well as story.

 

I don't think that Dragonslayer is outdated, it's just vintage.

Whoever did the effects for the hungarian horntail in Goblet of Fire did a good job with that dragon. I'm also hoping they eventually get the ball rolling on the Hobbit, because Smaug is cool.

 

I always thought of REIGH OF FIRE as a quasi-sequel to DRAGONSLAYER since they were both released by the same company. DRAGONSLAYER was released as a Disney film. REIGN OF FIRE was released as a Touchstone film.

The dragons look identical, and I always got the feeling that the kid disturbing the dragon at the beginning of REIGN OF FIRE was actually disturbing the same site from DRAGONSLAYER with a building on top of it in present times.

Maybe Galen didn't get ALL the babies.

 

I love this flick. Despite a couple of moments where you can clearly see Vermithrax is a puppet it is the ebest dragon ever put on film. The musical score is top notch, and the characters are fun.
I was not fooled though, I thought she was in fact a she from the beginning. Not the dragon, the girl who was kept in hiding as a boy from the lottery.
There is a political story at work here. The King is a politician, the scheming, lier type of politician. Once things go out of control, he then supports what he previously denounced. Religion is attacked as a thing that does not work, but as magic (paganism) fades a corrupt politician takes credit, and someone praises God for the victory though neither deserved that credit.

I forget where I read it, but vermithrax is scaled to be something just beyond 55 feet long with a 100 foot wingspan. if anyone has any other information about that I'd love to hear it.

There are a couple of model kits you can get from Timeslip Creations of Vermithrax:

[image=http://www.timeslipcreations.com/images/Vermithrax_01.jpg]

[image=http://www.timeslipcreations.com/images/Vermithrax_II_01.jpg]

Yes, they are expensive.

The cover of Cinefex:

[image=http://www.cinefex.com/backissues/number6.jpg]

And of course, it has Sir Ian!

Unclean beast! Get thee down! Be thou consumed by the fires that made thee!

 

i almost bought that movie yesterday but realized i needed to eat food instead.

dkt

 

It was a huge deal over here they had a competiton running in one of the sunday papers, you had to follow weekly clues to get to a treasure hunt, which was on a certain day (you had to discover through the clues the site) the prize was a replica of the crystal used in the film.

I loved the film always have

 

I love when he says "Vermithrax" (spelling?) into the cave, and you hear it echo.

 

I saw this in the theater when I ten and it has been in my top ten ever since. I bought it on DVD as soon as it came out and even managed to work some scenes from it into my Masters Degree Graduate Project:

Nine minute educational movie I made a few years back where I used Vermithrax and Sir Ian as metaphors for the rational and irrational parts of our brain (but only in a quick scene).

Funny though, I was just looking up this movie on Netflix and it has a severe love/hate relationship. I had to fire off a full-frontal assault to counter-attack the excess of negative reviews. They got what they had coming. If you feel the need to defend Dragonslayer, defend it there as well.

 

Could you summarize your docu? My internet speed makes it difficult to view.

I found an interesting interview with "Galen" and a special effects guy.

The Vermithrax Pejorative Story
Behind the Scenes at the Making of Dragonslayer

Of importance:

Since interviewing a dragon could be hazardous to our health, we tried the special-effects men instead.
Vermithrax was designed by David Bunnett and Phil Tippett.

"Designing a dragon isn't just a matter of sticking wings on a dinosaur," they told WEIRD WORLDS.
"Vermithrax is 40 feet long, with a wingspan of 90 feet. But she had to look light enough to fly. So most of
her weight is at the head, neck, and shoulders. The rest of her is pretty streamlined."

I just had to correct myself on that point.

Peter compares Galen to Luke Skywalker:

"Galen is a lot like Luke Skywalker. They're
both young men with a longing for adventure. They both have mentors who die and then come back. Luke
has Obi Wan, and Galen has the old magician. They both take on a dangerous enemy to rescue a girl in
distress."

That's basically true, and symbolically true. In one instance the Death Star is a large dragon with fire breath that Luke must slay. In another instance Vader is the Dragon where the Death Star is his lair. Also, the Death Star is a maze which can be found in mythology, much like the lair of Vermithrax. One important difference, though both characters go on a Hero's Journey, Galen does not share the aspect of "refusal of the call" as Luke does.
Otherwise as he mentions they both have a mentor who dies and comes back. They are both given a magic talisman; Luke a lightsaber, Galen an amulet.
Also, in the myth of Perseus and Medusa the hero recieves a magic shield and a hat of invisability. Luke gets a Stormtrooper outfit whic allows him to walk among the enemy, Galen gets a "magic" shield from Valarian.

There are many others, all from hero myths. Boushh(male) is unmasked as Leia, Valarian is unmasked as her true self as well. Luke is hunted by the Empire and Darth Vader, Galen is hunted by the Kingdom and Tyrian. Tyrian bares one other resemblance to Vader, he is a slave to The System. Tyrian even goes so far as to disobey the King when asked to save the King's daughter in favor of The System, "That's just it your Majesty, my first duty is to the Kingdom." His similarity to Vader ends there, Tyrian has no redemption.

 

For some reason I got an urge to watch Dragonslayer again about three months ago. I hadn't seen it in years, and I had never really liked it (even as a kid) but I wanted to give it another chance.

Like everyone said, I was really impressed by the Dragon. That's early 80's technology there and it holds up surprising well. On the whole I liked it better than I remembered. I'd still put it couple of notches below "Clash of the Titans", "Krull", "Legend" and other similar early to mid 80's "Sword & sorcery" movies. It's technically proficient, just not as entertaining as those films IMO.