I think zero budget fantasy films are among the worst of all cinematic sub-genres. There are very few ways in which you can convincingly portray a fantastic world on a limited budget, and in these amateurish effort you tend to get non-acting cast members wandering around in the woods, wearing what appear to be Halloween costumes, and occasionally engaging with some extremely tacky special effects.

That's exactly the case in this near-plot less piece of drivel about a group of characters who embark on a journey to defeat a dragon which has been terrorising the land. If you're a fan of dragon attacks, you'll be disappointed here by the almost entire absence of scaly foes, apart from a couple of minutes of appalling CGI. Instead what we get are people wandering around the woods while the camera shakes and there's the occasional fight scene.

This is appalling stuff indeed; there are no recognisable cast members here, just members of a local theatre troupe; at least AGE OF DRAGONS had Danny Glover in the cast and that IN THE NAME OF THE KING had Jason Statham. If there's a script, I didn't notice it.

Since this is a story about a man who is a Dragon Hunter in a world of Orcs, Elves, and Dragons you would think this is a Fantasy. However, as a fantasy film, it pretty well sucks. The Dragon is only in the movie for a few minutes and the orcs you see are just a band of five, dispatched in seconds, and the special effects for them are quite weak, they're just men in masks. The Dragon, on the other hand, is a pretty decent CGI for a low budget flick from 2009.

Realising the budget wouldn't be so large the writer and director, Stephen Shimek, decided to make it about the journey of brothers Darius and Kendrick, played strongly by Erik Denton and Maclain Nelson respectively, to get to the Castle Okarda to train the last Dragon Hunter. On the way, they form alliances with a band of soldiers who accompany them on their mission.

As a drama, it's an above-average film with some really nice camera shots. I particularly liked the way Shimek created the love scene between Darius and the Elfin Raya, portrayed elegantly by Kelly Stables. There's a nice chemistry between the pair and as they move in for their first kiss a rain shower starts, and you know what the rain drop hitting the leaf really represents.

The actors have above average acting skills and give the most to their roles.

The only things that irked me were the amount of time the journey took; they walked a lot... and must have passed the same tree at least three times, this slowed the film down quite a bit... not to the point of boredom, but close. Then there was the swordplay when the Hunter was training. It would've been advisable to bring in an expert to show them how to wield a sword correctly.

This is not a fast action-packed movie it's a slow meander through the fantasy realm and therefore not for everyone. I enjoyed it, though I wouldn't rush to watch it again... or ever.

If there's nothing else to watch and you can't get out the house for some reason, then this could pass the time quite well.

I went into this movie not expecting anything. I knew nothing about it aside from the link here and decided to give it a blind watch. It started out kinda shaky but it turned out to be quite good. Don't get me wrong this is no blockbuster. I don't know what the budget was or how long it took to make and it seemed like they probably had to have some really good friends to pull of the cgi that it had as the dragon was quite well done. The interactions WITH said dragon were a lil iffy but on the whole the effects team did quite well. Friends or talented upstarts lookin to get their names on somethin, I dunno but they did a very competent job.

Im not sure if I got used to it or they stopped somewhere around the halfway mark but the overly shaky "fight cam" effect was no where near as bad later in the movie as it was during the initial fight scene with the orcs. It wasn't "gritty camera man chasin the action" style either it was "omg the camera guys got the palsy and is shaking uncontrollably" But it seemed to be only that initial scene... either that or I got used to it for the remainder.

The acting was overall good. There were no moments when I really was taken out of the scene by bad lines or bad acting. The overly dramatic "NOOOOOOO!" scene was over the top and should be easy to spot if you watch the movie and a lot of it wasn't overly believable I mean I know it was a training montage but it came across more like "trained for a week and is now a badass" type thing.

Anyway no MAJOR gripes. Only thing I could really complain about is its too short so it lacked any real depth that coulda made it all the better. I can see this expanded some remade with a good budget and with more character development and itd be fantastic.

All in a good lil movie and very surprising. And Kelly Stables doesn't hurt either... very easy on the eyes =D