Review of Dragonslayer (1981) by Brad T — 03 Jul 2015

While it's certainly no classic, Dragonslayer is exactly the kind of film that delivers on its promise - an imaginative fantasy spectacle with both a magical visual palette and the ability to evoke the Dark Ages through the medium of fantasy.

The story does go a little bit off the track sometimes, but it's focused enough that the magic doesn't get lost. The performances were convincing enough, and although characters weren't always interesting, their performances were.

Everything about the film seems to echo the fantastical side of the Dark Ages, though it also seems to reflect on those times as an era of superstition and lunacy, and it does this very well. The visuals are impressive, with a fully fleshed-out medieval world right before the viewer.

Along with that, the film presents a wide array of special effects that, though they seem a little outdated by today's standards, still manage to impress. In fact, the film's dragon exemplifies the kind of beast that people in the Dark Ages would have feared.

On the whole, the film is a very entertaining show of superstition, and that is the most important of the film's strengths because it outweighs all the flaws.