Age Of The Dragons (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

The first time I saw a movie adaptation for Moby Dick was starring Gregory Peck as Ahab. As an adaptation, it was fair, Gregory Peck the only savior in his presentation of the obsessed and mad Ahab. My most memorable scene was when Ahab was caught to his obsession, the great white whale, and in death still bidding the sailors to pursue the creature.This is the second time I have watched 'Age of the Dragon', and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Danny Glover did a wonderful job of portraying the vengeance-crazed Ahab who hunts the white dragon. Some people have accused him of over-acting, but his performance didn't jump on that particular hot-button for me. Well, not so much that it made me roll my eyes and turn it off, unlike Jeremy Irons in Dungeons & Dragons (and almost everything else I've seen him in).They utilized back-flashes and teasers to introduce the viewer to the taint of guilt that eats at Ahab's sanity. The scenes were reminiscent of what a person with a haunted past sees moments before they are able to shut down the memory. To be so tortured when he supposedly faced-off with the white dragon made me curious as to whether or not the tales that are told of his courage were wrong and kept me intrigued to figure out more of this madman's story.The sets and culture were believable, and it was a breath of fresh air to watch a fantasy-take on this classic novel. So often fantasy movies are cheese and corn, but not so with 'Age of the Dragon'. The writing and acting did not come across as campy, and believe me when I say I have turned off many fantasy movies after only the first 20 seconds. In 'Age of the Dragon' I believed the characters, their passions, and their agonies. I especially enjoyed the friendship between QuiQuay and Ishmael.If I ever find this on BluRay, I will add it to my collection of enjoyable dragon/fantasy movies along with Reign of Fire and DragonHeart. I'm still uncertain if I want to add DragonHeart: A New Beginning, Dragon Wars and Eragon or not, because the camp and cliche on those can be a bit much after a time. I will need to watch them again before making a decision.But that is the source of a different review.

I am not a person who likes these types of movies. That said, the person said it was much better and clearer than the one they had seen when it first was out. So I would say, well satisfied.

I get the feeling that there is a group of Hollywood celebrities got together and decided that they weren't giving the appearance of being cultured enough so this concept which started at some party somewhere; perhaps with Sarah Gilbert in attendance that if they read one classic book they will be more of a cultured Renaissance actor above the common breed of Hollywood BoJack Horsemen. Between Samuel Jackson acting like Ahab in Kong, Leonardo DiCaprio's being labelled a Renaissance man for reading Moby Dick and Will Smith / Shamalan talking about its influences in that After Earth *cough* film. I guess they chose Melville because he is the least controversial, least boring and most comprehensible (Heller anyone?) of the available American authors; I doubt any one of them would get through 1/5th of Bleak House.If you haven't guessed by now, I hated this film.It is a direct translation of Moby Dick except the whale is now a Dragon, and instead of a boat you have land-crawlers. But the translation was taken too literally and doesn't execute well making the whole effort trite and just adds one more member of the acting community to the "look how deep I am, I read a book" club. The "boat" had standard boat discipline where the captain's word is law but that exists for a reason at sea; because the sea is DEADLY. It isn't the case on land, not even with Dragons flying around. If your land-crawler breaks down you don't all drown. So that aspect was just absurd. The name of the material "Vitriol" is a direct reference to the revenge theme of Moby Dick and in the context of the world makes absolutely no sense unless Ahab was the one who invented and coined the term for the process by which "Dragon Oil" is refined and used it would not carry such a name in the world. I can see the committee meetings to come up with that name; let's call it something more realistic but just as lame "Illuminarium". That would have made more in world sense. The boat has anchors, they serve no purpose on a jillion ton land-crawler made of SOLID IRON; but they are there because there are anchors on a boat in the book so it must be in the land-crawler too, see? Also so that the dwindling crew can have a reason to go on the deck, uh I mean outside. Literal translation; lame. I could go on... but why?The set piece, the land-crawler, was a nice piece of work and was a practical set; that adds enormous value to the movie but not enough. The CGI dragons; meh, that is par for Hollywood *shrug*. The weather and environments were well executed. The acting was very good, I liked all the actors except one. Danny Glover, when he made his first speaking appearance it just sucked all the energy out of the watching. The reveal of the burns; that they had been building up to in several scenes made me laugh out loud. I'm glad I was at home more glad I didn't pay a direct charge to see this, let amazon pay on my behalf. The makeup work was so lazy. Then they make it worse by showing his body in a later scene, it looked like chocolate spread caked on or maybe the makeup artist just got sick after eating a bunch of chocolate cake; it was a terrible and lazy job. His acting was poor too; he did not compare to other renderings of Ahab the revenge mad sailor. I really felt the other actors in this movie but his delivery was just poor and it was made worse by as the movie progresses the burn makeup was thinned out so much as to be pointless, I guess he got tired of putting it on so the lighting director just said; forget it we'll keep him in the shadows. The writing fell apart during the bandit scene and got worse as the story progressed to the end in the reveal of the truth of the characters history and the outcome of the survivors. The ending just didn't have any impact because I was too occupied with pitying the effort to translate this to a land setting to really feel for the characters because Ahab felt like he was reciting lines from a book and not portraying a man possessed by madness. When Ricardo Montaban did it it was amazing but here...But hey, they're all in the league of cultured book readers now.

Watched this twice. The actors did great and the steel land-ship was weird enough to be really interesting. This is about storyline - this is an in-depth look at human psychology, the tale of revenge turning someone into a nutter. The characters were good. It wasn't until halfway through I realised this was a Moby Dick with dragons, this factor only makes the movie more intriguing. Well adapted. Especially as there's a limited budget in play. They make a good movie despite the lack of props and effects and cash.

First of all, Sofia Pernas is stunning.Second of all, Danny Glover is getting old, but he still can act. His acting carried the movie, in my opinion. The movie is slow paced and somewhat boring but not bad overall. If you're into the Mythica or other fantasy movies, this is a decent deviation.

i gave it three stars cause moby dick is a great story and the re-telling in a dragon world was ok. other then that i got the sense that i was watching a play....an off off off broadway play. the acting was just like in a play where the dialogue is overemphasized. i have to say glovers performance was not very compelling....maybe he was so happy to be asked and he just tried to hard. if you have nothing to do its good enough for a watch.

I grew up reading and watching many takes on Captain Ahab. I love dragons so this rendition was very interesting and the acting was good. Video quality is great as well.

A different spin on Moby Dick. Danny Glover turns in an incredible performance.

Not the worst dragon movie I've ever seen. Interesting twist on the tale of Moby Dick. Weird steampunk "land ship" contraption in an otherwise medieval setting. Lovely winter scenery, filmed on location in the snowy Utah mountains. Rather slow in parts, with not a lot of action. Handsome young lead actor.

Enjoyed this movie. Action; suspense; love; dragons; what more can you want.

Enjoyed the movie.

Fiery flying dinosaurs ravage the land, but one man wants revenge and to clear his name.Scarred from an encounter in his youth, by a great flying beast that killed his sister. The prize is the fluid from the beast.A precious commodity men are willing to die for. His hand picked team set off to find the lair of the terrible flying lizard. Many hazards along the way, unscrupulous characters want the prize and anything else they can steal.Steady paced and not to many surprises (none) makes it a middle of the road film propped up by Danny Glover.

This film as supposed to be an epic tale parallel to Moby Dick. It's not Danny Glover over acts. The sets are dreadful The vehicle they drive looks like a 10 year old's idea of a tank if they had never seen one. Watch it with friends if you need a good laugh other than that run the other way.