"D-War: Dragon Wars" -Maria's Take

That isn't a typo in my title, that is actually the name of the movie. And, for a movie called "Dragon Wars" there was far too much talking and not enough dragon warfare. I'm just sayin' is all.

Okay, so we are fed this story about a girl with a dragon tattoo...I admit I couldn't make it through those books, but I smell plagiarism. Anyway, there is this Korean legend about two warring dragons and a 20 year old girl will save the world if she sacrifices herself to the good dragon.

And then there is about 45 minutes of pointless storyline. What bugged me was so little of the story had motivation. Things happened, coincidentally and circumstantially, and everything just sort of works out. "Daryl" from "The Office" has a brief but weird cameo as a news cameraman who happens to have access to a government database. This is immensely helpful to his reporter friend, Ethan, who was told when he was a little boy that he must find this girl in order to stop the evil dragon. He learns that the girl is named Sarah and she is in Los Angeles. They find each other way too easily and fall instantly in love. Blech.

Sarah is supposed to be 19, but is the most successful 19 year old I have ever seen. I am 22 and feel like a complete slacker compared to her and her lavish lifestyle. Anyway, the character is incredibly bland and I never cared what really happened to her, as long as dragon warfare was involved.

The last 45 minutes of the movie are actually fun. A giant snake-dragon attacks the U.S. Bank building in downtown L.A. and it is actually pretty exciting. We also get the title dragon war (singular I feel compelled to add). Sarah is sacrificed, but not really killed off because it is one of those "see you in another life" type situations.

So many times Zach and I asked aloud, "How did they get there?" or "Who the hell is that guy?" and we had no answer. The visuals were lazy and the sound was all over the place. I hate movies that make me readjust the volume pretty regularly.

This movie had some interesting qualities but the execution was pretty dreadful. It just bugged me that no one was really affected by the idea that DRAGONS were attacking Los Angeles.