Dragonlance is about friendship. It is only fitting, then, that I saw
this movie with Larris, a good friend who I wouldn't have met if it
hadn't been for Dragonlance, or even alt.fan.dragonlance. I received
the movie in the mail today. I opened it, already knowing the DVD
cover is not particularly good. Tanis, Goldmoon and Raistlin are not
given the serious treatment that we would expect from earlier
portrayals in both novels and art. The only good thing is that the
Dragonlance logo is without the silly dragon.
With more than just a little fanfare, we inserted the DVD, preparing
ourselves for the worst. The negative buzz hadn't escaped me, neither
had the youtube trailer, so my expectations were very, very low. And
that was a good thing, because that meant that I, at first, actually
enjoyed this movie more than I otherwise would have... and more than
it deserved.
I managed to enjoy the first part of the movie quite a lot. The script
was a good adaption of the novel, leaving the most important things
in. It also portrayed the characters very well. I guess to those not
familiar to the books the characters would seem flat and one-
dimensional. To me, it was like revisiting old friends (it's been many
years since last I read the books), I already knew the characters and
could enjoy their portrayal here. The writer had inserted some new
dialog that for the most part nailed the characters as I knew them,
that was an aspect of the script I found enjoyable. There was also the
all-important attention to detail that I liked. For example, Raistlin
phrased spells just like in the book, and there were even some visual
details to appreciate (such as the platinum dragon head on Fizban's
staff). The visual portrayal of Solace and the Inn of the Last Home
was familiar yet new (as it should be when you see a visualisation of
a work you are a fan of) and brought a smile to my face.
The acting, and casting, was very uneven. Raistlin and Goldmoon were
good, so was, to a certain degree, Flint. Tanis was not very good, and
Tasslehoff was horrible, he wasn't even close to sounding like the
character as I know him. They both seemed to be taken straight out of
contemporary American movies, particularly Tasslehoff who sounded like
an annoying character from a college movie. Their accents, and many of
Tasslehoff's lines, weren't suited to a fantasy setting at all.
However, the interaction between Tanis and Riverwind was very good,
giving us a deeper sense of their relationship.
To put it mildly, the visuals left something to be desired. Most
character concepts were OK, so was the coloring. But the animation was
so poor it hindered my ability to fully enjoy this movie. The reason
for this is that it was so choppy and static that it felt more like
watching a slide show than watching the people and creatures of Krynn
moving. This was particularly evident in the fight scenes, which did
not work very well. And when you don't really get the sense of
movement, something is very much lacking from what should be a moving
visualization of Dragonlance.
But as I said, I did enjoy this "slide show" at the beginning. It did,
however, take a very wrong turn, and did wrong even the things that it
up to that point had done right. Either during or after Darken Wood (I
would say during because of the silly vines on the Forest Master), the
script turned into a very poor adaption of the book. It skipped way
too many important scenes. Xak Tsaroth was glossed over in a way that
it shouldn't have been. The return to Solace, the Sla-Mori, and
several things in Pax Tharkas (such as Tas and Fizban looking at the
murals) were missing. Suddenly, the movie was way too busy getting to
the end of the book, and it suffered considerably because of this. No
doubt the movie would have been much, much better if it had covered
only the first half the book.
Visually, it also got a lot less interesting. While Solace was
portrayed relatively well, Xak Tsaroth was not. There was no sunken
city, no cavern, just a couple of doors, corridors and a dragon hoard.
Qualinesti was not recognizable at all, where was the Tower of the
Sun, the marble towers and the bridges surrounding the city? It could
have been any standard forest elf village. Pax Tharkas was
recognizable, but not exactly visually stunning. It was no more
evocative than the sketches found in DL2 and the Atlas. This movie
failed to present the fantastic locations of the book visually. There
was absolutely no sense of Xak Tsaroth, Qualinesti or the Sla-Mori.
Solace and the poorly done Pax Tharkas were the only locations in the
movie that were truly unique to Krynn. And for a Dragonlance movie,
even one with poor animation, that is not even close to good enough,
particularly considering the fantastic source material found in the
modules, the Atlas and Art of Dragonlance in addition to the novel
itself.
The ending left a lot to be desired, of course. The plot took turns
that were simply horrible, I would guess due to interference from
studio suits. Fizban rising up to Takhisis, defeating her, what was
that about? Are the viewers of this movie to stupid to figure out that
a blow against Verminaard is a blow against Takhisis. The He-Man "you
may have defeated me this time Paladine, but I SHALL RETURN!" moment
was excruciating. (Even though it could be argued that it fit the
animation style well...) And was the Kitiara scene really necessary?
Another thing I didn't like was Fizban's speech about faith. Have
faith in the good gods, if you don't have faith the Queen of Darkness
will take you. This is a theme so simplistic that it is nothing but
silly. You could even argue against it, the only way to fight Takhisis
is with faith, that is believing things without evidence? The novel's
message about the return of the gods and fighting evil was much more
nuanced, complex and sophisticated, and should not have been replaced
with this.
The Dragonlance movie was a movie that was enjoyable at first, low
expectations made me forgive its flaws while I enjoyed the decent
adaption and seeing old friends in a slightly new way, and get new
visual impressions of the world of Krynn. But it outwore its welcome
as its virtues went away, and its flaws became way too many and way
too obvious.
Morten
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