MovieChat Forums > D-War (2007) Discussion > You're wrong...deal with it, D-War hater...

You're wrong...deal with it, D-War haters

posted 17 years ago by charliemarlow2004
104 replies | jump to latest

1. This was an action movie made primarily for children. From reports on this message board alone, it clearly succeeded at that level.
2. Some of the "problems" are not problems if you know much about other belief systems. For instance, reincarnation does not need to be the way you have seen it in other movies, where people are somehow related to their previous life. People can be born in a completely different place and in different circumstances.
3. This movie was 5th place for the weekend. It made only slightly less than the No. 4 movie. At this time of year, not many movies make big opening-weekend money. The Brave One, with the big name star Jodie Foster, made $13.5 million to D-Wars' 5.04 million.
4. Telling a foreign story through an American setting and in Hollywood style deserves a lot of credit for creativity, let alone nerve. This may be looked back on as the beginning of a new kind of Hollywood movie. This is not a rip off of a foreign movie, but a new approach entirely.
5. I wonder how anyone could have sat through the action scenes in Los Angeles, knowing they were going to go out and tell everyone it was boring and poorly done. Was there any sense of guilt?
6. Does anyone go to the movies for fun? This movie was fun, despite some hiccups with lead acting. Admit it.
7. It appears that some Americans or Brits or Aussies living in Korea are trahing the movie out of spite for Korea. Why not move to some place else and make less money but be in a setting more to your liking?
8. A person can point out the flaws in a movie without the vitriol noticeable on this board.
9. If you haven't seen this movie, you may be interested in seeing it now because of the bizarre attacks on it. If you go hoping to see an action movie, you won't be disappointed.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] KorreltjeZout 17 years ago

Good acting and intelligent plots are soooo overrated.

[–] ihatepickingausername 16 years ago

I figure right here is as good a place to post this rant as any:

You sir, are correct, and might I add, for the win.

I mean, people get a lot of flack on these boards for posting messages that are negative. I myself am one of those people (who gets it, not gives it; I firmly believe that both sides always need to be heard).

So when I read a simple opinion like the one above, I am reminded that there is one kind of group that's worse -- far worse -- than people who come to message boards with negative opinions. And that is: those people who believe that which they are a fan of believes it to be the most intelligent of the artform (and thus espousing their own pseudo-intellectual snobbery), but that everything should be "that intelligent".

I'm not defending all stupid movies/tv shows. Of course, in every form of entertainment, there's 90% bad and 10% good. But there are genuinely stupid movies out there that are a great and fun, and that I've had a fabulous time watching them.

I hope I have as much fun watching D-War as I did watching Shoot 'Em Up and Crank.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] MalReynolds 17 years ago

I saw it, I liked it. It wasn't earth shattering, but it was nowhere near as heavy handed as the absymal Transformers, loaded with a lot more action (and random explosions!). It was a great diversion.

And that is how I saved them and became KING Dumbass!!!

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] ayf_1983 17 years ago

Nah, the haters were right. This was bad.

[–] cmmayo-1 17 years ago

Of course, if a movie comes out with aliens that have magical powers, Docta is completely torn.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] draconic_chronicler 17 years ago

Believe it or not, much of the Asian world believes in dragons, and probably more of them think something like this film is more possible than the idiotic "dungeons and dragons in space" (with all of its cliche' film rip offs) that was Star Wars.

[–] pkstr11 16 years ago

Star Wars had dragons?

[–] Griezz 16 years ago

Technically, the Star Wars Universe has "dragons", although they are only slightly referred to on screen.

Remember the scene in "Star Wars: A New Hope" when the Tusken Raiders were chased off from Luke's landspeeder by an eerie shriek? Even though it was only a sound that was made by the approaching Ben Kenobi, that sound was the cry of a "Krayt Dragon".

As far as I remember, the only time that we ever actually see Krayt Dragons is in the video game "Knight os the Old Republic"; they have a cameo in the Tatooine mission.

[–] Nizzemancer-1 16 years ago

The Krayt Dragons are more like huge frickin lizards, they don't spit fire and *beep* like that, and they don't use underdeveloped wings to lift their several tons heavy frame. They eat stuff that get to close to their territory, they don't chase it across town like some madman. That's about it, they don't have a greater sense of intelligence and tactics either.

One Krayt Dragon is shown in Knights of the old republic, and they are hunted in Star Wars Galaxies, normally by groups (due to the fact that there are several in one location and they could kill you in one bite if you were unlucky) but some people were skilled/well equipped enough to hunt them alone.

(there I've said it, no need to flame me for not mentioning you SWG-commandos!)

The cry Obi-wan makes is never specified as being the call of a krayt dragon, he just says that the sandpeople are scared easily but will soon return in greater numbers.

Light travels faster than sound,
that's why people seem bright,
until you hear them.

[–] theleadsinger 16 years ago

Actually, Obi-Wan's cry is indeed referred to as a Krayt Dragon's. It's in all of the Encyclopedias (which are fully liscenced works - canonical). It's simply not called that on-screen. But remember, Star Wars canon only consists of a small part of actual on-screen time. Most of the Star Wars canon takes places in books, video games, media tie-ins, etc.

So yes. Obi-Wan did indeed imitate a Krayt Dragon.

[–] TheEmulator23 16 years ago

fctiger----- You are absolutely right. People hate America for all sorts of reasons and yes lot's of your reasons are valid, we think we are the police of the world and we are not! I imagine we are just scared of the other 5.7 billion people in the world and what could happen if we were to fight all out nuclear war. Try watching the Documentaries called "Why We Fight" and "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara" to find out some truth's about the United States. This is how not to make a movie. I personally don't give two craps about who makes a film, in fact some of my favorites of all time are foreign films. ("Downfall" "Twilight Samurai" "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," are just a few.) But the rest of world no matter what they say, watch what comes out of Hollywood! Granted it isn't always good, but when it comes to making movies, just about all want to come work for the big studios. It's where the money is, it's that simple. Where do think most of the studios make their money nowadays? Only about 1/3 of the money made actually comes from the United States. For example "Titanic" the highest grossing film of all time at 1.8 billion dollars, only 600 million actually came from America, that means 1.2 billion of the worldwide gross came from those so called countries that hate us! It's a double standard, you hate us, yet you watch our movies and support our capitalist country. I mean how do you explain everyone knowing who Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt are? Back to this so-called "MOVIE."
If this movie was made by Steven Speilberg (although he wouldn't put his name or his eyes anywhere near this garbage) I would still hate it. I only give this a 2, because there were a couple decent CG effects, but just a couple.
No matter that this came out of South Korea, I don't care where it came from or who made this, it is terrible. I guess I can understand watching this and laughing about the absurdity and laughable qualities of this film, but to honestly think this is a GOOD film is just plain sad. I mean c'mon really? There is no way that this is actually good! I will admit I enjoyed this in a pathetic kind of way. 2/10 because only Uwe Boll's movies are actual 1/10's. (Well UWE's and the Sci-Fi channels' original movies are 1's too! If you really want to laugh try watching "DinoCroc, or S.S. Doomtrooper, or "Lake Placid 2!" Yes those are real movies, and they are the ultimate in trash.

[–] clammy42 16 years ago

Yes, remember that big asteroid creature that almost ate the millenium falcon?, that was kind of dragonish. There were those dinosaur looking things that jar jar binks' species rode on to war as well as the creatures that anakin fights in the arena. That pod-racer bookie guy was like an annoying little whelp with a beak (maybe he was more insectish). Jar Jar himself was like some sort of mini dragon abortion gone bad that survived (well at least some sort of cross between a bipedal reptile and a dog). Dragons don't all have to look like the european style dragons that are portrayed in fantasy stories.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] yol1986 16 years ago

i am korean...and are you saying that korean people really believe in dragons??? well...i doubt it. but, more importantly, does it matter? no, i don't think so. both d-war and star wars are fantasy films: it doesn't matter whether the characters in those movies exist in reality or not. what matters to the viewers is whether or not the story is coherent, acting is compelling, and visual is entertaining. the screenplay of this movie is really bad, and acting is terrible. visually entertaining? i don't know. some say yes, and some say no. i'd say "sometimes", but not overall. it's very uneven throught the movie.

[–] ilnbnblm 16 years ago

It's totally a disaster if we take it as A movie!
I rated it 3 just for the beautiful Chinese dragon.

[–] ModerateGeek 16 years ago

"But Transformers had good acting, likeable characters, and a better handled plot, and better special effects, it was an all around much better, even great film "

the only thing i can agree with is the

"...better special effects." oh and slightly better acting.

Apart from that Transformers also sucked, I'll admit it's way better than d-day though.(at least the chick looked way better:P)

as for calling Transformers a "great film", now thats just sad.

[–] blizzrock13 15 years ago

quote: But Transformers had good acting, likeable characters, and a better handled plot, and better special effects, it was an all around much better, even great film

Transformers had terrible acting, gut wrenching characters,and a plot that very VERY subpar. The script was one of the worst things ever written. And I've watched Uwe Boll movies. Quite a few of them.

[–] drunkbobby21 16 years ago

i agree

[–] richard_94086 16 years ago

One country's masterpiece is another country's piece of crap. Good thing we don't live in Korea where this movie affected so many oppressed people but over here we dismiss it immediatley as crap. We're so fortunate to have the likes of Spielberg and Bay to keep the likes of us entertained.

[–] ransax 13 years ago

I hope you're trolling... I honestly do.

[–] sdnjrjnds 10 years ago

Okay, let's have it your way. Lots of users defending D-War saying we should judge it based on it being a Korean movie not against Holywood standards. Sure.

It sucks. There are several Korean movies that aren't just better than this piece of crap but as good as or better than Hollywood movies, some even in the same vein, such as . . .

The Host (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0901487/)
Oldboy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/)
I Saw the Devil (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588170/)
Mother (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1216496/)
The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0901487/)
Thirst (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0762073/)

By any standard, this movie Dragon Wars: D-War is a bad movie. It's awful. It's only enjoyable with the Rifftrax commentary. The haters are objectively correct. You have bad taste, D-War fans. Deal with it.

[–] Bawklopton 17 years ago

There wasn't any action in this movie until the last 15 minutes. Most people will not enjoy this movie if they are looking for action.

[–] kindeyes 17 years ago

Huh? Action is described as movement...hate to tell ya..there was action thruout this movie..
The early bird might get the worm,
But the 2nd mouse gets the cheese!
Kindeyes

[–] edu_consulting03 17 years ago

1) watched any Youtube lately?
2) well, like, yeah; those people should have looked up 'reincarnation in Asia' on Wikipedia and made necessary adjustments to their world views before going to see the movie. duh!
3) therefore all of the people who went to see it, paid good money, were bitterly disappointed, and told their friends not to bother must not mean anything...because there were so many of them? and waterworld was clearly much better than people think, as evidenced by the budget..? hello? let us know how it's doing in 3 weeks.
4) that was a joke, I assume. if not please Google 'Hollywood remakes of Hong Kong movies' or 'Hollywood remakes of foreign...[anything]'
5) because they were related to the guy? because they owe him money? absolutely inexplicable comment
6) it was fun for everyone, methinks, but for starkly different reasons. i personally laughed my ass off the whole way through and felt ten years younger afterwards
7) and the 'americans' in america are trashing it because...? they should also love korea or leave it? [whoops they aren't there...ummm...]
8) the vitriol is for the knee-jerk nationalist bigotry, not the movie or its director, neither of which anyone actually cares about. it's the tone and rhetoric of the defenses of this movie that infuriates people
9) but be sure to download a pirated version for free
10)'The positive reaction among the Korean population is widely attributed to the film's appeal to Korean nationalism. At the end of the film in its Korean print, director Shim delivers the message "D-War and I will succeed in the world market without fail," accompanied by the Korean folk anthem, "Arirang". Korean film critic Kim Bong-sok said, "They want it to be successful in the U.S. because it's Korean, not because it's good," and called the film "immature and poorly made." Other reactions from Korean critics have been similar.'
11) does the name 'Dr. Hwang' ring any bells at this point?

[–] fctiger 17 years ago

This is what I don't get and this is for EVERY Korean who feels DWAR is getting a bad rap here....and every other place that has internet access in the world I guess. This is my question:

Should we judge the movie, based on the movie itself or because its a movie that came from Korea?

Because it sounds like from SOME Koreans on the boards, we should judge it because its Korea's first big (but not only) fantasy film and that people should put that into context when they are watching it. Sorry, but the world doesn't work that way. People see plenty of films from other countries every year and very few look up the history of the film and the director's former body of work to think how the movie SHOULD be viewed. They go, they watch, they either like it, love it, hate it or somewhere inbetween.

NO ONE cares about who made the film or where it came from unless you are Korean, a avid movie fan or Korean resident. That's it!! The other 99.3% of the world will watch it (god, I hope the ENTIRE world doesn't get it, what did they do???) and will simply decide on those factors, how it made them feel separately. When you have to have a huuuge list of how to view a film in order to enjoy it, that tells me the filmmaker didn't do his job. Its just like when you read a story or see a movie and after you are done, you have to fill so much of the plot in your head to make it all connect or make sense to you, its like you are making another draft of the book or film. People shouldn't have to do that. A good film doesn't need a long line of excuses, disclaimers or somehow trying to prove they are racist against a country so they obviously hate this film!!! BTW, that's got to be the biggest line of CRAP I have ever heard. America isn't winning the popularity contest anymore as 'most coolest', but people still don't have a problem seeing the 200+ movies that come to their country or LOVING films like Spiderman and Pirates of the Carribean, do they? The entire world still jumps in line when Spielberg got a new movie out even though they think America is the new devil, so do you HONESTLY think people are trashing this film because of some odd hatred against Korea, which sorry to say, is a blip to most of the world outside of Asia.

People DON'T care!! They just want a good movie, regardless of the damn country. I just seen 'Totsi' for the first time last month. Came from South Africa. BRILLIANT film!!! Won best foriegn picture at the Oscars last year. People who went and saw it because they heard it was a good film FIRST, a South African film SECOND!!! Same for this film. Bad, HORRIBLE, unwatchable in some area's FIRST........Korean movie second......wants to burn Mr. Shim's studio down third.....possibly with him in it fourth . Its a bad, bad film, easily one of the worst this year. Every critic in Korea and America has said as much.

Seriously, THINK about it!!

I'm right, you're wrong. Deal with it!

[–] fctiger 17 years ago

Heeeeeey!!

I just realized the OP used part of my signature below as his/her title!!!

Niiiiiiice, I like it!!!

I'm right, you're wrong. Deal with it! <---you're going places, maybe I should get you tradmarked!

[–] teacher_tom516 17 years ago

Well said as always fctiger, agree with all of the above...

"Bad, HORRIBLE, unwatchable in some area's FIRST........Korean movie second......wants to burn Mr. Shim's studio down third.....possibly with him in it fourth " - yup that's the logical progression!

Tom516

"It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons."
- Pierre Rissient

[–] NestorT 16 years ago

We should judge the movie within its own merits; not neccessarily from whatever country or what of said countrymen supports it. Remember, it was Shim who immediatly sparked the flame that this movie and himself will represet Korea and be a success worldwide. Sounds like propaganda to me! Almost like a dictatorship...that if we who do not like the movie should be shot? Give me a freakin' break. Shim's ego must be really big that I bet his ego was greatly bruised when it failed in the US Box Office.

Shim fueled the fire of most of his countrymen to fanatically support this movie even though they know it is a crappy movie to begin with. But, they want to because the sort of believe in him and pretty much there is nothing out there worldwide to represent them. Shim seems egomaniacal, IMHO. Or, at least, from folks who spoken of him...

Yes, please judge the film only and state your opinions.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] rick-deckard45 17 years ago

an opinion can't be 'wrong', bud.

[–] bkim1974 17 years ago

1. Even childrens' movie can have decent acting and plot.

3. Yes 5th place... made about 5 mill on 2275 screens.. I say that's a total box office failure. Not to mention the what the movie cost to make.

4.A new approach that has failed miserably. Shim should hire a director..

5.The actions scenes were good

6. Sitting through the dialogue made me want to back to the time I was kicked in the nuts at gym class in high school.

7. I'm a big Korean fan of Korean movies.. even buy original Korean DVDs to add to my collection. D-War is an embarrassment to Korean filmaking. Why should I support D-War because it's Korean?

8. The movie has many flaws..

9. Save your 10 bucks...

And please don't call me a porn loving commie orphan bastard traitor to Korea just because I hate D-War. In case you are wondering every criticism against D-War is met by such response...

[–] bkim1974 17 years ago

I spent some time in yahoo Korea gaging how internet users feel about D-War. Now as a CAVEEAT the following sampling does not reflect how most Korean feel, just some crazy NATIONALIST internet addicts who have nothing else to do..(or maybe not..)

- D-War is a great accomplishment for Korean cinema and Koreans overall.. I don't understand why people are dissing this movie. They must be a bunch of commie bastart traitors..

- Do you think its easy taking money from these American fools? Director Shim is a patriot for bringing US dollars to Korea. Long live director Shim!!

-The people who criticize D-War are a bunch of Japanophiles who would love nothing more than bring down Korea in any way..

- D-War is the first Korean movie to be released wide in the US. We should support it no matter what...

It's a small sampling but the pro D-War argument runs among the same lines..

Of course there are just as many D-War hating people but their arguemnts are pretty consistent to mine..

[–] wmattifo 16 years ago

I don't care about politics or race. This is a horrible movie.

[–] alphakry 16 years ago

My mouth has been open in awe at how horrible this movie for the entire 1.5hr running time.

Acting: 1/10
Story: 1/10
CG: 7/10 (the only thing this movie had going for it)
Execution: 0/10

This movie is an prime example of how bad modern film can be.

[–] trym814 16 years ago

Maybe this movie was a "Great accomplisment" for korea, but its an awful movie.

The storyline sucked, there were a thousand things unanswered, the acting was disgusting and the only reason i watched this awful movie because it was both free and laughable.

This movie is the epitamy of lame.

[–] hardcrejim 16 years ago

Sorry but you are wrong there, this movie was really bad.

[–] nichtfreundlich 16 years ago

This movie made me hope for a Dino Wars Movie. It was kinda boring until the Monster Army attacked LA but that made up for the boring part, come on US Army versus Dinosaurs whats not to like.

[–] jeff-zhu 16 years ago

1. Yep, this is a child's movie. No blood, no gore, lotsa animal screaming.
2. I dun know about beliefs since this movie didnt convey me at all
3. People like to waste money on new movies. its normal
4. I think the director and producer didnt go far enough for the Western style.
5. The dragons machine war is the best part of the movie.
6-beyond. Nuff said!

[–] prez-9 16 years ago

this movie is too childish.

It was quite boring to me, no gore, no suspence, no scares, no good fighting scenes...

This movie reminds me times when i was young and I was watching Power Rangers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or something like that. The bad guy with the mask and a sword was just like Shredder in TMNT & that voice of him lol. :D
And the creatures with rocketlaunchers on their back were crazy :D

Reign of Fire (2002) - now that is a good dragon movie (Y)

[–] reptilicus2003 16 years ago

The movie lacked any kind of continuity, it made no sense scene to scene, and... Did anyone watch the main character GET SHOT, and stand back up?
"Are you okay?!"
"Yeah."

And then they randomly start driving off, talking about going to mexico? That made no sense. And then, uh-oh, surprise, the dragon minions find them randomly in their car!

Also, somehow the US marines randomly find this cave adn go into it, and the dragon comes up and out and attacks them and they all run screaming?

And why is this called Dragon War? AS far as thats concerned, all I saw was two serpents fighting at the end of the movie for 2 minutes, and one becomes a reindeer looking chinese dragon and flies off like a bitch after stealing the power from the bad serpent, WHO WORKED HIS ASS OFF, to get it.

This movie was terrifying in every sense of the word. None of the scenes made sense, the characters made no sense, their reactions made no sense, nothing in this movie was believable.

[–] jfcauston 16 years ago

Well to be honest there are only so many ways you can polish a turd, so with regards to this movie I won't bother.

[–] martin1205 16 years ago

I'm not responding to this guy, but to all of you.
Yes, this movie is one of the worse I've ever seen. No need to explain why. You all know why :p

Is this movie for children?....No, way too many people die in it.

This guy is trying to make some kind of new godzilla but with more special effects, and less acting. Which was a good idea considering the acting :p

But the special effects were made by his 5-year old son......

If you want action, Don't watch this movie.
If you want lousy acting (cause they're worse than lousy), Don't watch this movie

How the *beep* this this movie get made?..It didn't really look that cheap, and that just makes me cry. Next time this guy wants to make a movie, he should consider giving it to the poor, or maybe some ritual suicide.

I HATE YOU FOR MAKING THIS MOVIE, AND I HATE EVERYONE WHO LIKES IT.
Opinions can be wrong...Not this one though.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] ss_lizardking 16 years ago

When I started reading, I really thought I hated this movie because it was absolute garbage. But I was wrong.

Now I realize I hate Koreans. :P

This is not a children's movie, I would not let my children watch this out of the fear they may go retarded. There is nothing resembling coherent thought in this movie. Movies like this should be kept domestic to Korea, because obviously the point of a movie is not to relay information in the form of entertainment, it is to show random flashes of things that Koreans think are cool, so the rest of the world can wonder what AMAZING and MAGICAL things they are missing.

[–] LickMyLegImOnFire 16 years ago

Movies like this should be kept domestic to Korea, because obviously the point of a movie is not to relay information in the form of entertainment, it is to show random flashes of things that Koreans think are cool, so the rest of the world can wonder what AMAZING and MAGICAL things they are missing.

Most Korean films are actually quite good. This one was exceptionally bad, by anyone's standards. No one in Korea is even arguing against that anymore. They're mostly just whining about how "unfair" and "biased" those meanie-head American critics are, and claiming racism left and right ("They're only bashing D-War because it was made by Koreans, and they HATE us Koreans! Clearly this is a conspiracy!").

Try Oldboy, if no one recommended it to you already. Also try "A Bittersweet Life", "Tale of Two Sisters", "Taegukgi", and a few others ones I can't remember right now. But yeah, Korean movies are normally good.

OH! OH! OH! LICK MY LEG! I'M ON FIIRE!