Potential is There...

Like everything else in life, people are going to have their opinions either way, so I'm not looking to convince anyone. I would just say that if you watch this film and judge it on a relative scale, it's actually pretty damn good. People need to realize this was shot for... I'm guessing very little. The irony is, if I compare this to a huge budget film like Transformers- well, at least I can follow what's going on with Dawn of the Dragonslayer.

This doesn't mean everyone should like it, but it does mean that the people involved should hold their heads up high because they did so much with so little. The acting is fine- I actually watched this after watching SAGA: The Shadow Cabal or whatever the title is. I saw this film in the similar titles area and it turns out the main character in SAGA is also the lead in this, though he is far more charismatic in this.

There is a pretty good story here. It's not perfect, but it is easy to follow and interesting enough that you will want to follow it. There are certain things within the film that failed to be established well, if at all, which leads to several "wtf!?" moments, but again, judging it against other films on the same level, it's pretty solid.

The effects are functional. They are very good at times and kind of wonky at other times, but nothing that completely pulls you out of the moment. I'm sure with a bigger budget they'd be tighter, but they worked well with what they had. As a result, you're getting a fantasy film that is more character driven and dialogue heavy, and there are a few moments where you're left thinking "oh, that would have been nice to see", especially during the scene where these men try to frame the hero for horse theft and one is apparently killed, but we have no way of knowing that because all we see is the character look up at the clouds when he hears a distant roar. I understand they couldn't afford top show the dragon attack, but even just fading to black with a scream and fire noise would have been effective.

But whatever, I'm not here to gripe. Mainly I'm here to compliment the cast and crew on a solid effort and to say I look forward to future works by them. Hopefully, I can also set expectations at a more reasonable level so that people are not so hard on the film.