“A dumb guilty pleasure Kaiju movie”

Dir: Shin Hyung-Rae
Prod: Sung-Ho Choi, James B. Kang, Taesung Jeong
Writ: Shin Hyung-Rae
Cast: Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Craig Robinson, Elizabeth Peña, Robert Forster

Dragon Wars, or internationally known as D-War, is a South Korean Kaiju movie about a reporter from Los Angeles named Ethan who believes there is a girl he must save from an evil dragon. This dragon is apparently the spirit of a young woman from the 16th century named Yuh Yi Joo. Ethan believes the spirit now resides in a girl named Sarah Daniels, and he must save her before the evil dragon rises again and destroys the world.

That’s the plot. Yup, just as I described it, the plot is nonsensical from the very first act. However, there are some enjoyable moments, particularly from Craig Robinson. What is he doing in this movie? Despite that, he brings some humor, which mostly works for a film like this. It’s a shame, though, because some of the humor falls into very stereotypical, cliché movie tropes. There’s also a magical old man played by Robert Forster, who seems to have fun with his character in a film that’s so bad it’s good, making him a highlight of the movie.

As for the battle scenes, well, the poster is a bit misleading. The battle between the good and bad dragons only appears on the poster. In the movie itself, the actual fight between the two dragons doesn’t happen until the final act. Honestly, it’s kind of disappointing because the poster shows the battle taking place in the city, but the actual fight scene (SPOILERS) happens in a castle, which feels lackluster and loses its potential to be an exciting battle in LA. What we get instead is a military vs. an army of dragons, which feels like a letdown compared to the marketing.

There are some redeeming qualities, though. The music by Steve Jablonsky is surprisingly good. People often compare this to the first Transformers movie, as both films are set in Los Angeles, and there’s a scene in both movies that ends with war in the city. Additionally, the CGI, considering this is a Korean movie from 2007 with only a $35 million budget, is impressive. The movie looks visually great, but sadly, the script is at a Z-movie level while the CGI feels like something out of a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster, which is part of what makes the film so bad it’s almost entertaining.

Overall, I think this movie is bad, but it’s just a very bad Kaiju film. It’s a guilty pleasure with some enjoyment to be had from the music, action sequences, and CGI.

My Rating: C-