Review of Dragonslayer (1981) by Paul J — 10 May 2015

An underrated fantasy with such absolute darkness and misery. It is as bleak as fantasy gets and still remains the best Dragon movie ever made. The story is more about the end of an era, than anything else: the last dragon and the last sorcerer.

Magic is being replaced by religion. (The Emperor from Return of the Jedi gets a supporting role as a Holy man). The special effects also hold up surprisingly well, thanks to legendary FX wizards Tippet and Muren who both worked on Star Wars.

Director Robbins was apparently a friend of Spielberg and that's how he got the job to write and direct. However, the film turned out much darker than was anticipated (after all, he was inspired by Alien and Jaws).

He wanted to make the dragon terrifying. Disney was not pleased and the film had a rocky reception. Today though, it is widely respected among fantasy fans (Del Toro is a major believer) and in our day and age of overblown CGI, the animatronics and stop-motion FX look surprisingly real.

Personally, I'd take this dragon over The Hobbit's Smaug any day. The only compromise the film made is in its Mark Hamil-like star who is miscast. Thankfully though, it has a couple strong female parts that overshadow the hero.

Not to mention, Alex North's final epic score (which he partly pilfered from the unused 2001: A Space Odyssey score).