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Review: BARBIE (2023) (Blu-ray)

November 26, 2023

James Plath, Family Home Theater Comedy, Entire Family, Fantasy, PG-13 rated Leave a comment

Grade:  B+/B

Fantasy-Comedy

Rated PG-13

Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, merited a chapter in the 2018 book Shapers of American Childhood, and why wouldn’t she? Barbie was a blank slate. For the first time, girls had a doll that wasn’t a baby who dictated pretend motherhood play. With Barbie, they had a doll who was ostensibly a teen or adult, and that invited them to pretend play in a totally different way. They could be more than nurturing mothers.

Sure, Hasbro coined the term “action figure” to apply to a similar sized doll—G.I. Joe—that would appeal to boys, but that was in 1964. Barbie debuted in 1959, and though Mattel marketed her originally as a “fashion doll” with multiple outfits to buy and rotate, she had moveable arms, legs, and head, same as the army doll. Girls could pose her to ride in her pink convertible or boat, surf at the beach, swim in her pool, shop at the stores, or work behind the desk as a business executive. So yeah, a case can also be made for Barbie being the first action figure.

But through four waves of feminist criticism, Barbie also has come under fire for everything from the unnatural “ideal” shape of her body and what it does to girls’ self-image, to some of the things that the talking Barbies said (“Math is hard”) and early attempts at diversity that still used the same body mold and Caucasian features.

Barbie the live-action film (not to be confused with the 42 animated and streaming TV films) celebrates the iconic nature of the doll and is chock full of allusions to the wardrobe and accessories of Barbies past. The thoughts behind Barbie’s creation—“A doll can help change the world” and  “You can be anything”—celebrate the creator’s intent and Barbie’s iconic status. But that’s offset by the campy Zoolander airheadedness of the various Barbies and Kens. Surprisingly, the criticisms are also taken into account, with plenty of jokes and allusions. The result is a rich assessment of a doll that was an important part of postwar American culture—a clever film that manages to have it both ways. For that, credit co-writers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, as well as Gerwig’s direction.

Barbie, as the world knows by now, stars Margot Robbie as the title character, and Ryan Gosling as Ken, the doll who exists only in relation to Barbie as a kind of accessory.  Almost every other female is also named Barbie to reflect the different models and types that were produced over the decades, and there’s more than one Ken as well. The elevator pitch for this film could have been made between two floors: First Barbie, then Ken has an existential crisis.

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling nail it as the main Barbie and Ken, the forever California beach-culture kids who never age and never seem to change in a sort of utopian alternate reality where all Barbies are successful businesswomen, lawyers, doctors, teachers, and elected officials, while Kens are just arm candy and perpetual beach boys with nothing to do but be “Ken.” That in itself makes for a clever construct of an inverted world.

There’s also something Elf-like about Barbie. Like Will Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf, a wide-eyed, naïve Barbie and Ken leave their highly stylized fantasy world full of bright colors for the industrial look of the real world. The result is a fish-out-of-water comedy. Buddy was on a mission to find his “naughty” father, while Barbie is told by “Weird Barbie” (Kate McKinnon) that she needs to travel to the real world to find the child who’s playing with her in order to get to the bottom of why she’s experiencing sudden concerns about mortality and discovering such human imperfections as cellulite, bad breath, and flat feet. Like Back to the Future, the reason for having to go back might be crucial to the plot, but it’s not the source of pleasure. Juxtapositions between the two worlds are, and Ken’s discovery that in the real world men (rhymes with Ken) are in charge. Suddenly he’s embracing “the patriarchy” and bringing those ideas back to Barbieland.

So far Barbie is the highest grossing film of 2023, and the film’s musical numbers received 11 Grammy nominations. Even if it wasn’t half of the pop-culture “Barbenheimer” phenomenon that saw post-COVID moviegoers flocking to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer because they were released about the same time, odds are that Barbie would have been a tremendous success because it appeals to both Barbie fans and critics. Throw in musical numbers and humor, and it expands the appreciative audience even more. And the soundtrack features Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Fifty Fifty, Gayle, Haim, Ice Spice, Kali, Karol G, Khalid, Sam Smith, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, Pink Pantheress, Tame Impala, the Kid Laroi, and cast members.

Because of its complexity and ideational juggling act, Barbie the movie ends up being as much of a blank slate as the dolls. People will see what they want to see in the film, and that’s almost as phenomenal as Barbie, whose creator, Ruth Handler, also is celebrated. And I mean celebrated. That’s the overall tone of this film, and the music makes it feel like somebody’s birthday—like Barbie’s 64th.

Entire family:  Yes (most of the PG-13 stuff will fly right over their heads)

Run time:  114 min., Color

Studio/Distributor:  Warner Bros.

Aspect ratio:  2.00:1

Featured audio: Dolby Atmos TrueHD

Bonus features:  B

Trailer

Amazon link

Rated PG-13 for suggestive references and brief language

Language:  2/10—One censored f-bomb, references to “phallic”, and a few “bitches” that pop up in one soundtrack song

Sex:  2/10—Construction workers catcall Barbie, who responds that she has no vagina and Ken has no penis; Skipper’s breasts inflate to imitate the short-lived “Growing Up Skipper” doll; male cops and a man on the street sexualize Barbie, the latter by slapping her butt off camera; and Barbie showers, with nothing shown

Violence:  1/10—A comical big fight, with punches, kicks, and silly weapons applied here and occasionally elsewhere that seems clearly cartoonish

Adult situations:  1/10—The Kens drink beer though it’s only pretend beer, as with all Barbie and Ken actions to imitate pretend play of the dolls. 

Takeaway:  This is one film I hope isn’t followed by a sequel, for a sequel, I fear, would totally remove any have-it-both-ways ambiguity toward Barbie and Ken; Barbie works, but I’m not sure Barbie II would

Review of A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT (1949) (Blu-ray)

October 9, 2022

James Plath, Family Home Theater Comedy, Entire Family, Family, Fantasy, G rated, Musical, Romance Leave a comment

Grade:  C+/B-
Fantasy musical comedy romance
Not rated (would be G)

Disney didn’t invent family movies. As early as the 1930s, studios were adapting literary classics by Stevenson, Verne, Kipling, Dickens, and Twain with the intent that they might appeal to whole families. Disney’s philosophy was to make films for children that adults could also enjoy; those early family films were made for adults, but with content that might also keep children entertained. So many of these films were pleasant entertainment, which is to say a kind of middle-of-the-road offering meant to please a lot of people a little.

When The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther reviewed A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court(1949), he called it “that good time to be had by all.” Like many costumed adventures the studio system produced, this Twain adaptation featured a fantasy common to children (being transported to another time and place) and musical numbers that were a staple back then. While the adults were enjoying the romance and music, children were engaged by the escapist adventure and comedy, with everyone appreciating crooner Bing Crosby (The Bells of St. Mary’s, Going My Way, Holiday Inn) as Hank Martin, an easy-going blacksmith/mechanic from 1912 who awakens from a bonk on the head to find himself in medieval England, where he falls for King Arthur’s niece (Rhonda Fleming), becomes a knight, and has to out-wizard Merlin (Murvyn Vye) in order to survive.    

But that was then, and this is now. Despite the engaging premise, A Connecticut Yankee doesn’t have quite the same crackling energy and spitfire gags as Bob Hope’s costumed pirate romp The Princess and the Pirate (1944), nor does it have the intricacy of plot and memorable scenes that still make Danny Kaye’s The Court Jester (1955) a great film. Both of those costumed adventures are stronger than A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, which may have been more restrained because director Tay Garnett had a better track record with dramas and war movies than he did musicals or comedies. In fact, his last comedy prior to this one was seven years earlier: the bomb My Favorite Spy, with Kay Kyser. Everything in A Connecticut Yankee seems as mellow as Crosby’s character, when a more accomplished comedic director might have varied the pacing and contrasted Crosby’s mellowness with more madcap situations or manic characters.

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Review of THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER (Blu-ray)

October 8, 2022

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Fantasy Leave a comment

Grade:  B/B-
Action-Fantasy-Adventure
Rated PG-13

As with the James Bond franchise, the tone of superhero films can vary significantly depending on who’s directing. Kenneth Branagh was no doubt hired to direct Thor in 2011 so he could put his own quirky stamp on the Marvel character, which turned out to be a brooding Adonis; meanwhile, Alan Taylor’s TV background (Lost, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Deadwood) was reflected in the action intensity and darker tone of Thor: The Dark World (2013). When Taika Waititi was hired to direct Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and a sequel, you knew the series was moving away from the darkness and into the light . . . and, as it turns out, lighter.

With humor, you never know when you cross the line until you actually step over it.  Director John Glen did so with the pre-title sequence to the Bond film A View to a Kill when he turned a ski chase scene into a one-ski snowboarding adventure with a Beach Boys surfing song playing in the background. And Marvel fans might think that director Taika Waititi did so by including more silly gags and comic dialogue in Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) than he did in Ragnarok.

It’s Waititi’s own fault, really, because he created such a tough act to follow. Thor: Ragnarok earned a 93 percent “fresh” rating from critics and an 87 from the audience at Rotten Tomatoes. Though he’s been a consistent master of subtlety when it comes to infusing serious topics with humor, as he did with his masterwork Jojo Rabbit (2019), maybe Waititi felt he had to push his Thor sequel even further into the broadly comic atmosphere of the Guardians of the Galaxy films to keep the franchise moving forward. And yeah, Love and Thunder gets pretty silly at times, which is why critics gave it their lowest mark (64/100) since The Dark World (66/100). Audiences, however, who liked this one in spite of the silliness. So did our family.

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Review of DARBY O’GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (Disney Movie Club Exclusive Blu-ray)

April 26, 2022

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, Family, Fantasy, G rated 1 Comment

Grade:  B+
Fantasy
Rated G

Nine years after Disney got into live-action filmmaking with their 1950 adaptation of Treasure Island, the House of Mouse scored a modest success with their 17th live-action entry, Darby O’Gill and the Little People. It wasn’t the box-office hit that The Shaggy Dog was that year, but solid enough now to appear on an IMDB.com list of “25 greatest films of 1959”—a list that The Shaggy Dog failed to make.

When Darby O’Gill was released, the selling point for this family fantasy-adventure was the film’s depiction of leprechauns. Now the big attraction is a very young pre-Bond Sean Connery in his first starring role in a feature film. And he sings. How’s that for a pot of gold?

Connery plays a dashing young Dublin man who finds himself in an awkward position when he is assigned by Lord Fitzpatrick to replace an old man named Darby O’Gill (Albert Sharpe) as the caretaker for his country estate in the tiny town of Rathcullen. O’Gill is a popular man in town, even though everyone laughs at his earnest stories of leprechauns and his claim to have met their king, Brian Connors (Jimmy O’Dea).

A “city” fellow is a natural disruption to local rural life, but Michael McBride finds other challenges. For one thing, there’s Pony Sugrue (Kieron Moore), a boisterous town bully who could be the prototype for Gaston in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. A big strong man who tends to brag and mock others, Pony thinks he’s the natural choice to replace O’Gill and marry Katie, the old man’s daughter. In fact, he feels entitled. Then there’s Katie (Janet Munro), a charming young woman that Michael quickly falls for, creating a classic romantic triangle. Finally there’s O’Gill himself—a charismatic and likable old man that Michael grows fond of and would prefer not to hurt. Conflicts like these create a narrative structure that manages to entertain the adults who watch with children.

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Review of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME (Blu-ray combo)

April 16, 2022

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Fantasy, PG-13 rated 1 Comment

Grade:  A-
Fantasy-Adventure
Rated PG-13

Well, it’s out: Spider-Man’s identity and the film that almost wasn’t, now available on home video.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) almost didn’t happen because of corporate greed, but ironically ended up making more money than ever for Sony and Marvel-Disney, who couldn’t come to an agreement over future Spider-Man movies. Fan backlash sent them back to the negotiating table, and the resulting sequel to 2019’s Spider-Man: Far from Home became the highest grossing Spider-Man film and sixth-highest grossing film of all time.

No Way Home also got the highest ratings from critics and fans on Rotten Tomatoes, with 93 percent of critics and 98 percent of audience members loving it—better, even, than fan favorite Spider-Man 2 (2004) featuring Doc Oc.

See? Good things happen when you play nice and listen to fans. But it’s next to impossible to keep a secret from them. Word leaked that somehow previous Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would be involved.

Writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers had taken inspiration from It’s a Wonderful Life, where a wish provided the basis for the plot and a domino chain of revelations. Far from Home ended with Spider-Man’s identity exposed and reputation destroyed. The writers decided to have him do what any young and still immature adult would do: wish it away. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) asks Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to use his magic to make everyone forget Spider-Man’s identity so things can return to normal. But because he keeps tinkering with the spell by adding people he wants to still remember him—girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei)—the spell goes awry. The multiverse breals open, and visitors good and bad enter his universe.

McKenna and Sommers wrote the screenplay before Maguire and Garfield even agreed to participate. But their wishful thinking paid off. Fans have debated who’s the best, as they have with Bond actors. Dropping all three into the same film was pure genius—and it’s not just fan-candy or a curtain-call film. There’s actual chemistry among the three, and it’s fun seeing them not only work together as superheroes and compare powers, but also reference their own films.

There’s consistency, too, because Jon Watts—who directed the first two films starring Holland—is also behind the camera for this one. The light touch that’s been a part of his sensibilities is here in triplicate, and that’s good news for families. When the tone is light and there are moments that spark laughter, it tends to balance the fantasy-adventure violence and traumatic moments, sending a message to young viewers that this is first and foremost a fun ride. Enjoy it. Although a beloved character does die and there’s some blood, stabbing, and serious punching, the “reunion” aspect of former villains and heroes entering the current Spider-Man universe takes a little off the edge of the violence.

No Way Home earned an Oscar nomination for its special effects, and apart from a sequence involving power lines in a forested area that looks very much like it was shot using miniatures, I can see why. The complicated Tetris-like shifting of the urban landscape completely suggests a universe that is fracturing, and the portals that lead from one universe to the next are rendered convincingly. The film’s budget was estimated to be a whopping $200 million, but the opening weekend box office alone was $260 million in the U.S. and Canada.

Just one question:  When a superhero fall, lands, or finds their footing again, is it deliberately campy that every single time they assume that low-crouch, one-hand-on-the-ground superhero pose? And how long will it take Disney to realize that they can build a fun theme-park attraction for fans if they have people take turns assuming the pose in front of a green screen so they can see themselves in a finished shot with background added?

Entire family:  No (age 8 and older?)
Run time:  148 min.
Aspect ratio:  2.39:1 widescreen
Featured audio:  DTS-HDMA 5.1
Studio/Distributor:  Columbia Pictures/Pascal Pictures/Marvel Studios
Bonus features:  B
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Code
Trailer
Amazon link
Rated PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language, and brief suggestive comments

Language:  2/10—A few of the characters use the “s” word and there might be a few other lesser profanities, but no f-bombs

Sex:  1/10—Chaste as can be, with a few kisses plus an instance where a man is shown from the torso-up saying “I’m butt-ass naked”

Violence:  6/10—Punching, pummeling, explosions, and superhero-villain battling, but not much blood except for one emotional scene

Adult situations:  2/10—Really, all Marvel Universe films are adult-world films that kids have been a part of since the comic books first appeared, but in this one there are no drugs and the only scene that has anything close to drinking is an end-credit scene set in a bar

Takeaway:  The ending sets up fourth film, but thus far nothing is in pre-production

Review of THE BRASS BOTTLE (Blu-ray)

December 22, 2021

James Plath, Family Home Theater Comedy, Entire Family, Fantasy, PG rated Leave a comment

Grade:  C+/B-
Comedy
Not Rated (would be PG)

The mid-‘60s gave viewers two sitcoms featuring women with magical powers: Bewitched, an ABC-TV series about a witch married to a mortal, and I Dream of Jeannie, an NBC comedy about an astronaut who splashes down near a deserted island and finds a bottle containing a beautiful genie determined to serve (and exasperate) him.

As with “The Munsters” and “The Addams Family,” audiences were split over which show was better. It’s the fans of I Dream of Jeannie who are going to want to see The Brass Bottle, because it provided the inspiration for the TV show. After Bewitched became a smash hit when it debuted in October 1964, creator-producer Sidney Sheldon wanted to develop a similar property for NBC. Sheldon had seen The Brass Bottle, which opened in theaters in May of that year, and the concept seemed perfect. All he had to do was make a few changes, and the rest was television history.

The Brass Bottle was the third film inspired by the 1900 novel of the same name, and as it turns out, British writer Thomas Anstey Guthrie was probably born in the wrong century. The fantastic elements of The Brass Bottle drew praise from none other than George Orwell, and an earlier comic novel, Vice Versa, was about a father and son who change places because of magic. That novel was made into a 1981 British TV series and a 1988 American film. It also inspired modern retellings like Freaky Friday, Big, and Seventeen Again. In other words, the old Victorian writer would have made one heck of a good screenwriter.

Though The Brass Bottle doesn’t have the madcap mayhem of slapstick or screwball comedy, the plot and dialogue are clever. The film might have played out like a fable, but there’s more complexity here and it’s fun to see how similar yet totally different The Brass Bottle is from I Dream of Jeannie. It’s equally fun to see the star of I Dream of Jeannie as a mortal in this fantasy.

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Review of MULAN (2020) (Blu-ray combo)

December 6, 2020

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Fantasy, PG-13 rated Leave a comment

Grade: B/B-
Action-Fantasy
Rated PG-13

When it comes to live-action remakes of Disney animated films, there are two types of people: those who want a near-exact copy of the original, and those willing to accept the live-action version as a completely new work of art and entertainment. And people who expect Disney to remain faithful to the 1998 original aren’t loving this 2020 remake of Mulan: Where are the songs? Where’s Mushu? Where’s the cricket? Where’s Shang? And what the heck is a witch doing in this story?

Yeah, about that: Disney opted to go the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon route, with an emphasis on mysticism and the fantastic in a film that showcases martial arts action sequences, along with a heaping portion of qi. It’s not exactly new territory for them. Disney-owned Miramax rolled out Hero in 2002 just two years after Crouching Tiger changed the landscape for martial arts movies. As in Hero, the fight sequences in Mulan 2020 are gravity-defying and poetic in their movement and choreography, even if the fights themselves aren’t quite as spectacular as those you encounter in some of the best martial arts films. Which is to say, überfans of martial arts flicks aren’t loving this film so much either, because Disney likes to steer the ship right down the middle, aiming always for a general audience. The sequences are less violent and bloody so the film could earn a PG-13 rating.

The live-action villain, Böri Khan (Jason Scott Lee) may not be as deliciously villainous as Shan Yu from the animated version, but his witch cohort, Xianniang (Gong Li), is menacing enough for both of them. She’s also a shape shifter who can break apart and reassemble into hundreds of bat-like flying creatures. The live-action Mulan (Yifei Liu) doesn’t have any cutesy animal companions, and there’s less suggestion of attraction between her and the Commander (Donnie Yen) than there was in the animated version. Otherwise, the plot remains essentially the same. When invaders threaten China, the Emperor decrees that every family should send one man to fight to save the empire. Poor old Hua Zhou, a military hero in previous wars, can’t even accept his orders without falling. So naturally his feisty daughter Mulan decides to take his place and leaves in the dead of night with his armor, his sword, and his mount. If she’s discovered, she’ll be put to death for not recognizing her place as a woman.

Mulan 2020 is directed by Niki Caro (Whale Rider), and the film’s feminist themes come across even more forcefully than they did in the animated version. Young Mulan is already a warrior-woman in the making when we first see her as a child fearlessly chasing a chicken across rooftops (chickens on the roof?) and using a staff with the prowess of former martial arts star Jet Li, who plays the Emperor of China in this version. Though the live-action Mulan has to endure the same embarrassing encounters with a matchmaker, at least her father acknowledges the warrior and qi (life force) within her. So off she goes—without his knowledge or blessing and without the comedic talking dragon and cricket—to train with other draftees and eventually fight the invaders. More

Review of JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL (Blu-ray combo)

March 19, 2020

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Fantasy, PG-13 rated , Leave a comment

Grade: B-
Rated PG-13
Fantasy Action-Adventure

Before I offer my family’s take on Jumanji: The Next Level, I’d like to point out that the Internet Movie Database readers thought it was almost as good as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (6.8 vs. 6.9/10) and 87 percent of the audience at Rotten Tomatoes rated them dead even.

Our family’s reaction came closer to the Tomatometer Critics, who gave it a 71 percent “fresh” rating compared to the 76 percent rating they had given Welcome to the Jungle. We didn’t think it was as good.

Welcome to the Jungle effectively used the Breakfast Club formula of grouping different teen personalities together so that we knew, by the time they entered the game, what they were afraid of, what they most wanted, and how they acted normally, so we could appreciate their every movement as an avatar within the game that had sucked them inside. The writing was crisp and it all made sense.

This time, though, the beginning is slow and which characters are which avatars is a bit muddled. When we watch Spencer (Alex Wolff) drag through some pre-game scenes that are supposed to explain why he goes back into the game, those scenes seem unnecessary because they don’t really offer much in the way of an explanation. They just slow the narrative. Same with the introduction of Spencer’s Grandpa Eddie (Danny DeVito) and his estranged business partner Milo (Danny Glover). The camera time they get feels wasted, given DeVito’s and Glover’s talents. You find yourself thinking, “Come on, get on with it.” More

Review of NE ZHA (Blu-ray combo)

March 5, 2020

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Fantasy, PG-13 rated 1 Comment

Grade: B/B-
Not Rated (would be PG-13)
Animated fantasy-adventure

The ancient Chinese philosophy of yin and yang (light/dark, positive/negative) is at the heart of Ne Zha, an animated feature film from Chinese director Jiaozi that shuns the harsh angularity of anime in favor of the rounded contours that typically characterize western animation.

In fact, there are moments in this 3D computer animated fantasy when you might find yourself thinking of Disney’s more traditionally rendered Mulan, especially when a governor named Li Jing (Hao) is drawn in the same style as a younger version of Mulan’s father. The governor and Madam Yin (Qi) learn that the Primeval Lord of Heaven has decided that they will be the ones to raise one half two beings that came from the Heavenly Pearl. The other half is being raised and controlled by the Dragon King, who seems determined to prove that even the good offspring of the Primeval Lord of Heaven can be used for evil purposes.

But of the two, Nezha is the hellraiser. In fact, the full Chinese title of the film translates as “Birth of the demon child Nezha.” He’s like Dennis the Menace and Stitch rolled into one—a little fireball that his doting parents love, nonetheless, and want to protect. Because of his temperament and frankly evil laugh, he’s ostracized by his community, and probably justifiably so. I mean, he is prophesized to bring destruction to the world, so why would people cozy up to him? But eventually the community learns they have to count on him. More

Review of DRAGONHEART: VENGEANCE (Blu-ray combo)

February 20, 2020

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Fantasy, PG-13 rated , , , Leave a comment

Grade: C+/B-
Entire family: No
Fantasy
2020, 97 min., Color
Universal
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and some bloody images
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 widescreen
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 5.1
Bonus features: C
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Code
Trailer
Amazon link

Dragonheart: Vengeance is the third direct-to-video “prequel” to the cult-favorite 1996 fantasy adventure starring Dennis Quaid and the voice of Sean Connery, and the good news is that it doesn’t look like the typical slap-it-together direct-to-video release.

Aside from some noticeable green screen work in less than a handful of spots, the CGI effects and animation are strong enough to make you forget that this spawn of Dragonheart never saw the dim light of theaters. But apart from those strong production values, Dragonheart: Vengeance is a mixed bag.

On the plus side, the two main characters are instantly likeable. The more screen time they get, the more you like watching farm boy Lukas (Jack Kane) and mercenary swordsman Darius (Joseph Millson) as they set about to avenge the murder of the boy’s family and eventually take on the evil king. On the minus side, haven’t we already seen a family-less Luke hooking up with a profit-minded rogue adventurer who then take on the Emperor—albeit with a galactic rebel army? And haven’t we seen Darius’s “look” before in Aragorn?

Instead of Sean Connery’s voice, the dragon in this film is powered by Helena Bonham Carter (“You’re a girl dragon?”). Carter is always the consummate professional, and it’s a nice touch having the dragon breathe ice and not fire. But some of the lines that are written seem way too contemporary, and the script doesn’t allow for the same playful interaction as in the original film. Instead of a con game where the mercenary and dragon worked together to extort money from frightened villagers (and banter like buddy cops in the process), this dragon is a reluctant dragon—as much of a pacifist as those old-time Western heroes who need to have someone close to them threatened or die before they’ll take action. More

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