Director: Fumihiko Sori
Starring: Colleen Clinkenbeard, Christopher Sabat, Brina Palencia, J. Michael Tatum, John Swasey, Chuck Huber
Running time: 85 minutes
Certificate: 15
DRAGON AGE: DAWN OF THE SEEKER is an animated film based on the popular RPG video games. I’ve never played the games, but I am a big fan of rival RPGs such as THE ELDER SCROLLS series. I’m not exactly adverse to swords, sorcery, and dragons. DARGON AGE: DAWN OF THE SEEKER takes place in your typical fantasy world and begins with what seems to be a religious rite, in which dragon’s blood is fed to a young girl. The girl is soon rescued by a group of knights known as Seekers. One of these Seekers is Cassandra, who is beautiful and skilled but also quite rash and violent. She soon uncovers a plot that is attempting to overthrow the Chantry of Andraste.
The film is animated in a number of different styles that never particularly gel. It started with a close-up of a lizard that looked exceptionally realistic. Next thing I saw were a number of poorly rendered horses galloping through a forest that seemed to have less articulation than a Gerry Anderson puppet. This is the biggest problem with the film, it uses so many different animation styles that you are constantly thrown back and forth over what to expect from the film. The human characters are quite basic anime style creations, and even though the eye movements bring them to life, the lack of mobility from their lips makes the fairly decent voice work seem trapped inside these characters.
In terms of story, this is clearly based on a computer game as it seems like a number of cut-scenes slapped together. Even the dialogue sounds like it is giving you commands on how to progress to the next level. “Take this stone so I can contact you whenever…” etc. It does try and bring some life to proceedings with some backstory, but the characters often seem too lifeless to make you feel anything for them. I was constantly asking myself why this was a film at all.
The film is clearly made for a specific audience, but then I’m just as confused because surely that audience would rather be playing the game itself. There are certainly some epic action sequences which you could never recreate yourself in the game, but when it comes down to the final boss I couldn’t help my thumb from dancing on the remote control, hoping that it was I dealing those fatal blows and hacking and slashing at enemies. Director Fumihiko Sori has done some excellent work involving both animation and live-action in the past, but DRAGON AGE: DAWN OF THE SEEKERS seems as though it just wants to advertise the brand rather than expand upon it.
DRAGON AGE: DAWN OF THE SEEKER is released on DVD and Blu-ray 1st October 2012. Buy a copy here.
