Age of the Dragons

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Age of the Dragons
Age of the Dragons.jpg
Directed by Ryan Little
Written byGil Aglaure
Anne K. Black
McKay Daines
Produced byGil Aglaure
Devin Carter
McKay Daines
Steven A. Lee
Joe Pia
Peter Urie
Fred Huet
Starring Danny Glover
Vinnie Jones
Edited byJohn Lyde
Music byJ. Bateman
Distributed byKOAN
Metrodome Distribution
Release date
  • March 4, 2011 (2011-03-04)(United Kingdom)
[1]
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million
Box office$1 million

Age of the Dragons is a 2011 fantasy film directed by Ryan Little and starring Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones. A fantasy-themed reimagining of Herman Melville's classic 1851 novel, Moby Dick , it was released in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2011.

Contents

Plot

Harpooner Ishmael (Corey Sevier) joins Ahab (Danny Glover) and his crew on the Pequod, in this instance an armored land boat that hunts for dragons. The seven-strong crew ostensibly seeks the precious "vitriol", a highly explosive liquid substance found inside the fire-breathing winged creatures, which powers the mythical realm they live in. Ishmael joins their quest, and soon learns that in fact, Ahab's mission is one of revenge on a particular great white dragon that decades ago scarred and injured him, and killed his sister. Forced to hide from the sunlight due to the burn wounds on his body, Ahab now tries to kill all dragons, and especially the white one. Conflict arises through a romantic entanglement between Ishmael and Ahab's adopted daughter Rachel (Sofia Pernas), which causes hostility from the jealous hothead Flask (Larry Bagby). In the white dragon's lair, Ahab's secrets are revealed and Rachel must choose between following him on his dark quest or escaping to a new life with Ishmael. She chooses the latter and in a final confrontation, Ahab's spear, which was tied to his foot, becomes entangled in the White Dragon's neck. The creature flies off with a screaming Ahab, until he is slammed against a rock pillar and silenced. The white dragon flies off into the distance, with Ahab's body clinging on to it.

Cast

Development

The film was originally going to be called Dragon Fire. [2] On February 3, 2010 it was announced that Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones had joined the cast, and that filming would begin in Utah the following week. The film's budget was around $5 million, [3] and was the first film developed by distribution company Metrodome. A video from the set was revealed on March 5, 2010. [4] Several of the scenes were filmed at Castle Amphitheater in Provo, Utah behind the Utah State Hospital. Other filming locations included Stone Five Studios in the Riverwoods Business Park. Glover was quoted as saying "This is a great idea ... it's going to be fun." [5] The trailer for the film was released on October 15, 2010.

The dragons in the film have back legs only and on the ground use their wings as front legs like pterosaurs did.[ citation needed ]

Reception

The film received almost universal negative reviews in the British press. The Guardian (1 star out of 5) wrote: "A textbook lesson in how not to adapt a literary classic – though it's so spectacularly bad, it could well achieve mythical status of its own . . . The deadly serious tone just makes it funnier; there's not a whale in sight but this movie blows." [6] The Observer stated "This crude picture, shot in snow-covered Utah, where the Pequod becomes a battle engine on large wooden wheels, is unamusingly ridiculous." [7] Variety added "Generic dialogue and dull incident. Shoddy CGI indicates a production budget that's fatally inadequate for the task at hand." [8] Little White Lies (1 star out of 5) stated "While ropey CG monsters, half-baked stabs at drama, awkwardly-choreographed action sequences and wooden acting are all part of the fun, neither the script, nor Little's direction revel enough in camp or B-movie thrills to give Age of the Dragons true schlock value . . . This pittance fails to make Age of the Dragons anything more than disposable. Expect to find it wedged among the 'Two for £10' DVDs in a year's time, tantalising you with the promise of a so-bad-it's-good quickie. But beware: here be dragons." [9]

Related Research Articles

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Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, Moby-Dick was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a "Great American Novel" was established only in the 20th century, after the 1919 centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world" and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". Its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael", is among world literature's most famous.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queequeg</span> Fictional character from the novel Moby-Dick

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<i>Pequod</i> (<i>Moby-Dick</i>) Fictional ship from the novel Moby-Dick

Pequod is a fictional 19th-century Nantucket whaling ship that appears in the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by American author Herman Melville. Pequod and her crew, commanded by Captain Ahab, are central to the story, which, after the initial chapters, takes place almost entirely aboard the ship during a three-year whaling expedition in the Atlantic, Indian and South Pacific oceans. Most of the characters in the novel are part of Pequod's crew.

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Moby Dick is a musical with a book by Robert Longden, and music and lyrics by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore and George David Weiss, first staged in 1990. The plot follows the anarchic and nubile girls of St. Godley's Academy for Young Ladies who, determined to save the institution from bankruptcy, decide to stage Herman Melville's classic 1851 novel in the school's swimming pool. The musical is a mixture of high camp, music hall-style smut, and wild anachronism overflowing with double entendres; the lead role of headmistress/Captain Ahab is portrayed by a man in drag.

Moby-Dick is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville that describes the voyage of the whaleship Pequod, led by Captain Ahab, who leads his crew on a hunt for the whale Moby Dick. There have been a number of adaptations of Moby-Dick in various media.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flask Glacier</span> Glacier in Antarctica

Flask Glacier, is a gently-sloping glacier, 25 nautical miles long, flowing east from Bruce Plateau to enter Scar Inlet between Daggoo Peak and Spouter Peak in Graham Land, Antarctica. The lower reaches of this glacier were surveyed and photographed by the Falklands Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) in 1947. The entire glacier was photographed by the Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition in 1955–56, and mapped by the FIDS in 1957. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee after the third mate on the Pequod in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; or, The White Whale.

<i>Moby-Dick</i> (opera)

Moby-Dick is an American opera in two acts, with music by Jake Heggie and libretto by Gene Scheer, adapted from Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. The opera received its premiere at Dallas Opera in Dallas, Texas, on 30 April 2010. Heggie dedicated the opera to Stephen Sondheim.

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Moby Dick is a Canadian-German television miniseries based on Herman Melville's 1851 novel of the same name, produced by Tele München Gruppe, with Gate Film, In association with RTH/ORF. Starring William Hurt as Captain Ahab, it was directed by Mike Barker with a screenplay by Nigel Williams. The cast also includes Ethan Hawke as Starbuck, Charlie Cox as Ishmael, Eddie Marsan as Stubb, Gillian Anderson as Ahab's wife, Elizabeth and Donald Sutherland as Father Mapple.

<i>Moby Dick</i> (1998 miniseries)

Moby Dick is a 1998 American television miniseries based on Herman Melville's 1851 novel of the same name. It was filmed in Australia in 1997 and first released in the United States in 1998. The miniseries consisted of two episodes, each running two hours with commercials on March 15 and 16 of 1998 on the USA Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Captain Ahab</span> Fictional character from the novel Moby-Dick

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Father Mapple is a fictional character in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick (1851). A former whaler, he has become a preacher in the New Bedford Whaleman's Chapel. Ishmael, the narrator of the novel, hears Mapple's sermon on the subject of Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale but did not turn against God.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moby Dick (whale)</span> Fictional whale, namesake of the novel Moby-Dick

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"Moby Dick - Rehearsed" is a 1965 Australian TV play based on the 1955 play Moby Dick - Rehearsed by Orson Welles. It was shot in Sydney.

Bulkington is a character in Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. Bulkington is referred to only by his last name and appears only twice, briefly in Chapter 3, "The Spouter Inn", and then in Chapter 23, "The Lee Shore", a short chapter of several hundred words devoted entirely to him.

Pip, short for Pippin, is the African-American cabin-boy on the whaling-ship Pequod in Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby-Dick. When Pip falls overboard he is left stranded in the sea, and rescued only by chance and becomes "mad." The book's narrator, Ishmael, however, thinks that this "madness" gives Pip the power to see the world as it is. Pip is first described as "insignificant," but is the only member of the crew to awaken feelings of humanity in Ahab, the ship's monomaniacal captain.

References

  1. ↑ "Age Of The Dragons". TotalFilm.com. 2011-03-04. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  2. ↑ "Danny Glover Riding Dragon Fire | Movie News | Empire". Empireonline.com. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  3. ↑ "Age of the Dragons Trailer". FilmoFilia. 2010-10-15. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  4. ↑ "Danny Glover Goes Moby Dicking for a White Dragon | Horror Movie, DVD, & Book Reviews, News, Interviews at Dread Central". Dreadcentral.com. 2010-03-05. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  5. ↑ Cody Clark - Daily Herald (2010-02-28). "Here there be dragons: Local film has fresh take on 'Moby Dick' : The Ticket". Heraldextra.com. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  6. ↑ Steve Rose (2011-03-03). "Age of the Dragons – review | Film". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  7. ↑ Philip French (2011-03-06). "Age of the Dragons – review | Film | The Observer". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  8. ↑ Gant, Charles (2011-03-08). "Variety Reviews - Age of the Dragons - Film Reviews - New Int'l. Release - Review by Charles Gant". Variety.com. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  9. ↑ Leader, Michael (2011-03-03). "Age Of The Dragons review". Little White Lies. Archived from the original on 2012-07-19. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
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