Techtite's TV Reviews!

"One of the better mini-series or movies on Sci-Fi Channel, though its romance- over- action approach seems a little like an apple among oranges, as it were."

---from the review

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Well, maybe All Fantasies SHOULD end "happily ever after"...! It's clear as soon as you see that dragon-skull vessel under the sea, that this is not a story that ends "happily ever after." But did it have to end unhappily...? Therein lies a major debate online. After all; while all stories deserve to be told as-is as much as possible, shouldn't a good filmmaker know how to make an old story more "accessible" to the masses? Huh...?

Walt Disney knew this, and as a result, his name is now part of fantasy storytelling infamy. His "re-imaginings" of classic fairy tales were often very minor (did you know that until Disney, Snow White's "seven dwarves" had no names, and no real personalities?). However, he would often change the very ending of a fairy tale as well. Remember that accursed woeful tale Maleficent told the shackled Prince Charming, in Sleeping Beauty? Well, believe it or not; that was the original ending! Disney knew how to retell a story to appeal to modern audiences. Should this have as well?

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Dark Kingdom: 

The Dragon King

A Review by Techtite

Ask not if Dark Kingdom is going to be a "sugary sweet" story, given the opening shot. An old boat with a dragon's skull on its bow, deep under the sea, long forgotten. Seeing as how the title is Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King, things don't look too good for said dragon king, do they? Yet seeing as how this is, as promos praise it to be, a story even older than "Lord of the Rings" or "The Chronicles of Narnia," it is a classic fantasy legend that deserves to be told...and here, it is told very well.

The tale goes like this. Once upon a time (so to speak), there was a Queen of Iceland named Brunhild (Kristanna Loken). She is a mighty warrior who has yet to find her true love. Her mystic adviser foresees a man she will meet, after fire comes from the skies, and he will be her soul mate. Soon after, a meteor strikes near Brunhild's camp, which happens to be a short walk from a young blacksmith (Benno Furmann). They meet and fall madly in love. "...and they both live happily ever after," right?

Well, not exactly. Our young blacksmith was found drifting on a piece of wood on the local riverside, with no memory of who he is or what his destiny would be. He loves Brunhild but says he cannot come to her land and fight for her hand in marriage, until he knows his place in the world. Well...all right, then. He finds out he is a long lost prince and he sails to her kingdom and then they live happily ever after, right? Right...?

Well, again...not exactly. The good news is that our heroic blacksmith learns he is in fact Prince Siegfried, which means he can marry a queen such as Brunhild. The bad news is that soon before discovering this, Siegfried defeats a dragon in order to save a nearby kingdom. In the process he discovers untold riches, and with such riches there is a legendary curse. It would appear that curse is greed, because as soon as he sees said treasure, the otherwise "good" King Gunther (Samuel West), will do anything to make sure the vast treasure trove remains in his kingdom. Things get quite complicated --and very downhill for Siegfried-- from there.

Enter Gunther's sister (Alicia Witt), whose eyes are set on Siegfried, and will do anything to become his bride. Gunther's mysterious adviser, Hagen (Julian Sands), offers the "perfect" solution: a magic elixir, that will make the person who drinks it forget his true love and fall madly for whomsoever gave him the potion. The princess needs to merely give Siegfried the drink and he'll forget all about Brunhild and never leave the kingdom, "madly" (however spuriously) in love with Princess what's-her-name. So Siegfried is given the potion in his wine, and is now desperate to marry said Princess. So much for "happily ever after."

Can this story get any more complicated? Sure! See; King Gunther happens to be looking for a bride himself. He has sought far and wide for a queen who is both beautiful and a "challenge" for any man to win the hand of...and he's found her. Wouldn't you know: it's Brunhild. You can imagine her surprise when both he and his future brother-in-law Siegfried come sailing into her kingdom. It's a very shocking moment for Brunhild, to be sure ...particularly when Siegfried acts like they never met!

I will spoil no more of this brilliantly acted and delivered mini-series, although I insist that first shot remains in people's heads, lest they get the wrong idea: the dragon skull Seigfried held as a trophy, sunken at the bottom of the sea. Is it a "spoiler" to say how obvious the tone of the finale is, when seeing this at the start of the story? Of course not...though I will say no more about it. All I can say is to keep an open mind as to what is a "good" story versus what is a "feel good story." This is coming from the biggest diehard fanboy of fairy tales I know of. I'll say no more in this review (...though I'll digress about happy endings and their worth in the "sidebar" at right, for those who are interested!).

So why is this diehard fanboy of the "happy ending" giving this mini-series a hearty thumbs-up? Perhaps it's how the journey is the real reward. While the ending is a bit Shakespearean, the acting in this mini-series is all top-notch, right down to the supporting cast: from Max Von Sydow's role as Siegfried's foster father Eyvind, to Robert Pattinson as the young Prince Giselher (a man so naive he appears to be the only one who could care less about the treasure, and more about "being the hero" someday). The biggest kudos, however, I would give to Kristanna Loken, as the powerful Queen Brunhild. I cannot think of any particular dialog she offers worth quoting, but let me tell you; it is a very hard thing indeed to find a woman who can look sexy, wield a heavy sword, and make both look believable. Mind you; every performance in this tale is perfect, but I felt the need to praise these ones in particular. They gave their roles that little something extra.

In the end, I would say that everyone has their own version of the "true love" story. To me, the love story of The Dragon King is one even more powerful than that so-called love story in James Cameron's Titanic. Is it possible to claim you loved someone when you let them save your sorry butt at sea, while you sat and watched them die? The prepubescent fans of Titanic sure wanted you to think so. Yet The Dragon King is a more mature, seasoned view of what unconditional love truly is. Ask not if the junior high schoolgirls will love this story. Lovers of classic operatic storytelling will love it, and that is all that matters.

---Techtite

The DVD: I should begin with a warning to people who saw the Sci-Fi channel mini-series, and wish to buy this on DVD. Apparently the North American retailers for this originally 170+ mini-series wanted to keep the film nice and neat on one DVD. So they inexplicably chopped off the better quarter of the film for a 130+ minute feature-length film. Mind you; they did a quite similar thing to all three Lord of the Rings movies, only to resell the films later on DVD, as "extended editions."

Perhaps it's just how other retailers overseas are more sure at this DVD being a big hit, so they offer the film as a two-disc uncut special edition. Mind you; these are "region 4" DVDs, so they will not work on most Stateside DVD players, unless you know what you're doing and you know how to 1) change your TV's receiver from NTSC format to PAL format, and 2) you have a "region-free" DVD player that can play back overseas DVDs. If either of the above two parameters sound like they were written in Klingon, I'd recommend settling for the Stateside DVD, which edited or not is still a swell movie, and requires no advanced expertise to play it at all. For everyone else, I provide this order link which, last I checked, allows people Stateside to buy the Australian version of the film; uncut, and undubbed, since it's sold in Australia. Please note that this DVD is given the original title of the min-series ---The Curse of the Ring--- which I suppose Sci-Fi channel felt spoiled the (cough *rubbish* cough) "surprise ending." So be it.

In conclusion I can only say this: while Sci-Fi seems to be the perfect location for fantasy films, will this one be as popular? I don't know. It is not so much the fantasy piece (the fight with the dragon lasts all of one short scene) as it is a romance epic. Whether Sci-Fi fans love such love stories remains to be seen, but if not, they missed out on something really good here.

---Techtite

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