Gryphon is set in a mythical world long ago which has been torn apart through civil war, Lockland Castle is surrounded by Delphites & the battles rages on. King Phillip (Adrian Pintea) of Lockland is devastated to learn of the death of his son in battle, he decides to let an evil sorcerer named Armand (Larry Drake) to resurrect an ancient creature with the had of an Eagle & the body of a Lion known as the Gryphon which Armand uses against both the forces of Lockland & Delphi so he can become ruler of the whole lot. Armand also becomes immortal & the only thing that can kill the Gryphon & Armand is the legendary Draconian Pike which has been split into two pieces & hidden. Princess Amelia of Lockland (Amber Benson) & Prince Seth of Delphi (Jonathan LaPaglia) must put the brutal civil war & their differences to one side as they team up to beat an even bigger threat as they go in search of the Craconian Pike which itself is fraught with danger...
Slightly retitled to Attack of the Gryphon for it's DVD release this made for telly Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' was directed by Andrew Prowse & is just about as bad as it sounds, the Sci-Fi Channel are up to their usual tricks with a lifeless, boring, silly & predictable mess of a film. The plot might have had some entertainment value if it had developed it's potential, a team of opposing soldiers in search of a mythical weapon with which to kill an evil sorcerer & his monster sounds alright & reminds me of those Sinbad films or Jason and the Argonauts where men set sail on a mission & encountered all sorts of monsters & dangers but here the script has these people just wandering through a wood which isn't any scarier or sinister just because we are told it's called the 'Valley of the Dead', when they find these parts of this Pike they have very little trouble getting them either, you would have thought a few traps or something might have helped but no, there's this statue which comes to life a has a sword fight with a bloke but that's it. Also the Gryphon itself is rather underused, all it ever does is either sit there or just swoop through the air at people on the ground, it never really fights anyone or does anything memorable. Even as a fantasy sword & sorcery adventure it fails as there's no adventure apart from riding through some woods, no sword fighting & an evil sorcerer who keeps letting people live at the end despite them wanting to kill him, at 85 minutes long it feels longer, the character's are all paper thin & the film just doesn't satisfy on any level.
Being a telly film there's no blood, gore, violence or nudity to liven things up, poor show guy's. Despite being set in medieval times the horses have nice new saddles, costumes have zippers & one of Armand's women wears a red rubber fetish outfit the entire film. Period accuracy or trying to create an ambiance wasn't high in the makers list of priorities was it? There's no excitement, no scares, no action & the whole thing just plods along in uninspired fashion. Most of the so called mission to find the Pike takes place off screen & their progress is shown on an old parchment map that pops up every so often to let the viewer know where our heroes are. The CGI computer effects are bad with some shots of the Gryphon coming across as unintentionally funny, the magic effects don't fare much better either.
Filmed in Romania this look repetitive & has little going for it. The acting is mediocre at best from a cast that deserves better really, Larry Drake as the bad guy is OK I suppose.
Gryphon is yet another bad, predictable & boring Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' with more terrible effects. This had the potential to be alright but it isn't so don't waste your time on it.
Slightly retitled to Attack of the Gryphon for it's DVD release this made for telly Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' was directed by Andrew Prowse & is just about as bad as it sounds, the Sci-Fi Channel are up to their usual tricks with a lifeless, boring, silly & predictable mess of a film. The plot might have had some entertainment value if it had developed it's potential, a team of opposing soldiers in search of a mythical weapon with which to kill an evil sorcerer & his monster sounds alright & reminds me of those Sinbad films or Jason and the Argonauts where men set sail on a mission & encountered all sorts of monsters & dangers but here the script has these people just wandering through a wood which isn't any scarier or sinister just because we are told it's called the 'Valley of the Dead', when they find these parts of this Pike they have very little trouble getting them either, you would have thought a few traps or something might have helped but no, there's this statue which comes to life a has a sword fight with a bloke but that's it. Also the Gryphon itself is rather underused, all it ever does is either sit there or just swoop through the air at people on the ground, it never really fights anyone or does anything memorable. Even as a fantasy sword & sorcery adventure it fails as there's no adventure apart from riding through some woods, no sword fighting & an evil sorcerer who keeps letting people live at the end despite them wanting to kill him, at 85 minutes long it feels longer, the character's are all paper thin & the film just doesn't satisfy on any level.
Being a telly film there's no blood, gore, violence or nudity to liven things up, poor show guy's. Despite being set in medieval times the horses have nice new saddles, costumes have zippers & one of Armand's women wears a red rubber fetish outfit the entire film. Period accuracy or trying to create an ambiance wasn't high in the makers list of priorities was it? There's no excitement, no scares, no action & the whole thing just plods along in uninspired fashion. Most of the so called mission to find the Pike takes place off screen & their progress is shown on an old parchment map that pops up every so often to let the viewer know where our heroes are. The CGI computer effects are bad with some shots of the Gryphon coming across as unintentionally funny, the magic effects don't fare much better either.
Filmed in Romania this look repetitive & has little going for it. The acting is mediocre at best from a cast that deserves better really, Larry Drake as the bad guy is OK I suppose.
Gryphon is yet another bad, predictable & boring Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' with more terrible effects. This had the potential to be alright but it isn't so don't waste your time on it.