Dir. Hyung-rae Shim
Writ. Hyung-rae Shim
Act. Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Foster

When you talk about science fiction movies and the best thing you can say is, "Wow, that was a really good Sci-Fi Channel movie…" you know that you have just wasted two hours of your life. While this movie is not horrible, like Primeval, the monster movie that is Dragon Wars is a sooped up Godzilla movie with decent special effects and but with the same crappy story.

Ethan, played by Jason Behr (The Grudge,) is a reporter investigating the destruction of a resort for a national news company and discovers that the tragedy may have to do with an ancient Korean legend about snakes and dragons. Which is convenient because he is actually a reincarnated warrior who job is to protect the Wie Jie or Way-Jie-yo or Kim Jong-il, a something that is usually in a woman that has to be killed on her 20th birthday and fed to a good snake that becomes a good dragon, However, a bad snake wants to eat it, and by association her, so he or she or it, can dominate the world. The reincarnated woman who has a thingy in her is Sarah, played by Amanda Brooks (Flightplan.)

The only good thing about this movie, and the only reason why it's better than or equal to a high-end Sci Fi channel premier movie is that the movie has pretty good special effects. The computer generated Los Angeles looked real and so the destruction was awesome. So its special effects were worth the money they spent on it.

However, the story was ludicrous and the entire monster sequence in LA was straight out of a bad Godzilla movie. The Army was inept and the bad guys were always ahead and the monster could never be destroyed by anything conventional or man-made. However, a powerful trinket could melt the entire army and stunned the bad snake for at least 5 seconds. There is some kind of a love interest but I couldn't stop giggling at the other parts of the story to notice.

I could comment on the acting, but why? The only actor of note was Robert Forster (Lucky Number Slevin) as Jack a reincarnated Yoda type character who was only around long enough to look like a statue an say some criptic message or morph in and out as a cab driver or doctor or any other character that required a quick get out of jail card. As for the others, the only thing I can say was Amanda Brooks was sort of hot, kind of.

Again the whole "just as good as a Sci Fi channel movie" really best describes the movie with a little better acting a pretty good special effects. I can't imagine how I would recommend this movie as a rental on some snowy winter night, but if your choice is this and Primeval, I guess you could rent this. All though I would probably choose a good 80's movie like The Last Starfighter or Ice Pirates, but that is my choice. You go ahead a decide for your self.

Brian - the Naked Gun