Dragon Wars: D-War

An early warning sign that Dragon Wars: D-War might not live up to its 70 Million dollar budget would be that the films subtitle, D-War, is short for, you guessed it, Dragon War, making the actual title of the film one of the most redundant in movie history. As the most expensive Korean film ever produced, Dragon Wars garnered international attention but despite above average special effects, the incoherent plot renders the film nearly impossible to watch. As a young child, Ethan (Jason Behr) is taken aside by a creepy shop owner (Robert Forster) and told a story about dragons (called Imogi) that appear every 500 years. He’s also told that it will be his job to protect a girl linked to a dragon in magical ways. Years later, working as a reporter, Ethan comes across what appears to be a dragon scale and he knows that he must now fulfil his destiny, protect the girl and save the world from certain doom. Dragon Wars: D-War doesn’t so much tell a story as it uses actors as speaking props central to the displaying of the special effect sequences. Characters move in and out of the plot with little regard to narrative continuity, motivated only by the necessity to find a new location for the monsters to destroy. The special features are lacking on this disc, with only an Animatics storyboard, art gallery and the "5,000 Years in the Making” documentary, which features Director Hyung-rae Shim discussing his film, coming off as an ego-centric megalomaniac, especially when you hear of the effort he put into making this mess. Monster movies may not require deep, thoughtful sub-text and intricate plotting but Dragon Wars: D-War makes so little sense that it’s constantly distracting to the viewer. When compared to last year’s exceptional, and modestly budgeted, monster movie The Host (also a South Korean film), Dragon Wars comes off as one of the most massively over-funded train wrecks in movie history.