The Last Dragonslayer

I watched this with my family, aged six to eighty. We all enjoyed it. Rating it for myself I'd probably give it 7 or 8, as it was witty and warm-hearted and silly and great holiday viewing, but not as action-packed as I'd hope (though I imagine it had 1/20th of the budget of a Harry Potter or whatnot).

But its hard to please a whole family and it really felt like this was something we could all enjoy together, which is rare outside of those big Pixar animated movies.

The girl playing Jennifer was really great and the whole thing had a sort of riotous pantomime air that felt very English. I hope they make more.

Magical barrier stones protect and define Dragonlands. Dragons are dying out and so is magic. The Great Zambini recruits young orphan Jennifer Strange. He runs the employment agency Kazam that has two full time wizards. With magic fading, modern technology is often used as a replacement. Wizards used to do big magic but they've been reduced to fixing smaller problems like plumbing. One day, Zambini disappears and visions appear showing the last dragon soon to be slayed. Brian Spalding the dragonslayer shows Jennifer the sword which is marked with every dragonslayer's name including her. Brian turns to dust and Jennifer becomes the last dragonslayer. She is taken to King Snodd and pushed to take Sir Grifflon as her assistant. She refuses to kill the last dragon despite the public's demand. Everybody wants the dragon killed and take over Dragonlands. The dragon tells her that she has to fulfill the prophecy or else magic shall destroy her kingdom. Gordon shows up to take the assistant job. There's also somebody trying to shoot her with magical arrows. Stuffco is a supermarket conglomerate sponsoring the dragon slaying.

I don't know anything about the books. The concept of marrying the modern world with the magical medieval dragon world seems intriguing. There is also an attempt at social commentary. It does stray a little too far into camp which is not particularly funny and detracts from anything serious. The CGI is functional considering its TV movie use. The set design looks somewhat cheap. Any attempt at elevating the material is often pulled back. The lead Ellise Chappell looks to be a newcomer but she has good charisma. It may be unfair but any material of this nature is always going to be compared to Harry Potter. The comparison is not favorable. This movie struggles to start this franchise and may work better as a series.

I thought The Last Dragonslayer was surprisingly good, considering the ridiculously mediocre average rating. Okay, it's obviously low budget for an effects film, and doesn't have any A-list actors in it, but it has wit and charm aplenty. I would much rather watch this again than a fairly long list of tediously average fare with much bigger budgets. Maybe I'm prejudiced because I'm British and so is this film (yes, I'm looking at you again, Hollywood), but I'm mightily bored of identikit LA feisty/angsty/hormonal teens dressed up with some special effects to let us all know we're watching a fantasy film, and The Last Dragonslayer at least looks and feels different from that. It feels like an adaptation of a children's book, with its bright colour palate, gentle humour and slightly pantomimish characterisation. The acting isn't outstanding, but it's perfectly acceptable for this type of film, and none of the characters jarred me out of the story. If you don't want to watch a 'family' film, then don't watch this; you're liable to slate it unfairly for not being what you want it to be. If, however, you like family films, I see no reason why you wouldn't like this one. It has a good pace as far as I'm concerned, but if you have the attention span of a goldfish and require something to explode every 5 seconds or so, or endless quick-fire dialogue and slick, snappy rejoiners, then maybe give it a miss. I note one reviewer in particular (not naming any names) who had a braindead list of supposedly unanswered questions pertaining to the plot (which is fairly simple and not entirely unpredictable, but that didn't bother me), all of which were, so far as I could see, answered by the conclusion of the film. Ergo, don't be a massive root vegetable and knock plot holes in a film you can't even be bothered to watch! :-)

This was available as a stream on a ROKU channel during the holidays. What a great movie and plot! Lots of subtle humor and it was appropriate for all of the ages in our house. I instantly went online to see if it was available to purchase as a dvd for my collection but sadly it was never released for the US, just the UK. Booo! :(

This movie reminds that feeling of something wonderful is not made of expensive CGI or forced loud epic but of story itself and pure mastery of storyteller. I love everything here - living characters and non-flat humour spiced with bit of absurd, high dynamics and even touching drama. It is kind and not stupid movie, real brilliant among fantasy movies of last years. I strongly recommend it for fans of 10th Kingdom and Terry Pratchett. Also it is reminds me early Harry Potter movies.