Dragon Wars opens with the revelation of a scaly object in a large crater in some park. CGNN reporter Ethan Kendrick (Jason Behr of Roswell fame) is on the scene, sees the object and suddenly he remembers something. A flashback is triggered to his childhood. He is in an antique shop with his father when a box opens of its own accord and bathes the youngster in bright white light. Jack (Robert Forster), noticing this, sends the father off for herbs after feigning a heart attack, leaving the boy with the stranger (kind of creepy, if you ask me). Jack sits the young Ethan down and proceeds to relate a flashback/legend originating in Korea. This triggers a flashback within a flashback.
The next section of the film takes place in Korea. The story is told through a combination of those in the scene and via Robert Forster voiceover. This is where everything starts to fly off the rails. We are told of good Imoogi and bad Imoogi; the evil Buraki, who is a treacherous Imoogi and has an army of followers; desires to be a celestial dragon; a tattoo-like birthmark; and Joun Ji Yoo (which is pronounced a few different ways throughout the film). We even get a big battle of with Buraki's followers invading a small town in search of the girl who possesses the Joun Ji Yoo. This battle bears a striking similarity to the Battle of Naboo from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace -- creatures with cannons on their back, led by squadrons of warriors in stormtrooper-like armor, battle a small band of underequipped townsfolk.
Back to the present, Ethan heads off hunting for a girl named Sarah. Why? She has the Joun Ji Yoo and the evil Buraki Imoogi is out to get her, of course! He just happens to be the chosen defender of the young woman that he doesn't know. Meanwhile, Sarah has this crazy feeling that something bad is going to happen, although she is at a loss to explain anything. Eventually the two meet up. No sooner are they together than Buraki shows up and is on the warpath through LA. Yes, this is a Korean legend and Korean dragons, but it all takes place in Los Angeles with American characters. Go figure.
Article comments
1 - Tony Youngq
Your review was right on the money. Mr. Shim felt his script was perfect and made NO CHANGES to his first draft.
He has a huge ego and the mindset of a fifth grader. He has no clue as to what has been happening with the fantasy genre since he was ten years old. (And hey, Godzilla had an anti-nuclear energy message, but I'm sure Shim didn't know that.)
I assisted one of the producers on the earlyy stages of this film. There were more inaccuracies, like a reference to the American Minister of Defense. We DON'T HAVE A MINISTER OF DEFENSE.
The actors tried to correct what they could but there was one error I wished they left in.
Originally the Imoogi destroyed Inglewood, not Silverlake.
I thought this would be unintentionally hilarious, but they didn't want that line to be funny.
Tony Young
2 - Tim bagsic
okay okay, so i made a mistake of watching the movie, I thought it was this big battle of fire breathing dragons vs. humans. What a plot eh? Boy was i wrong, the part where the "father of the boy" left him in the hands of a creepy guy because he could get 1k dollars for his stupid dagger left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I almost want to scream "run kid its MJ" Then robert foster started talking about imoogi. "i honestly thought he was talking about food" Instead of focusing in the romance storyline, i found myself laughing the whole time at the ROBOTIC CGI's and how actors just kept popping in the screen with no provocations. Also why do they keep leaving the cameraman/"token black guy" with the enemies. They did it twice and for some reason he manages to survive and go to work the next morning. It is a highly laughable and it doesn't emulate any real attachment to the storyline. I found that the only thing to keep your sanity while watching this movie is to laugh at the story. One last thing, why oh why is there about half a second pause when the bad guys sword would come out of its hilt, its like they want you to see that the sword is actually extending? In the end this movie is reminiscent of a bad martial arts movie with weird dialog and somewhat bad dubbing. I feel bad for jason behr and robert foster. I hope they read the script before they actually agree'd to the movie. Over all this movie ranks 2nd to the lowest in my list, GIGLI being first. I still wonder if i can get a refund and i could get the 90 minutes of my life back.
3 - Tim
This review and the comments thus far are so on the money. I almost became crosseyed when the old guy started talking to the kid about imoogi-this and imoogi-that. I was thinking the hole time (and I mean "hole" because watching this movie can leave a hole in your brain, it is simply that dumb), "what the eff is he talking about man?". And what was that stuff about "the will of heaven".
This thing was totally incomprehensible. And that's putting it kindly. And I thought of Corman also. Somewhere in the pic, I learned over to my friend and said "this reminds me of Plan 9 from Outer Space".
4 - Umm
Wow. I'm really glad I didn't pay money to see that. Being that it was free, there WERE worse things I could have done with my time. And I've seen worse. I was mildly entertained.