I thought The Last Dragonslayer was surprisingly good, considering the ridiculously mediocre average rating. Okay, it's obviously low budget for an effects film, and doesn't have any A-list actors in it, but it has wit and charm aplenty. I would much rather watch this again than a fairly long list of tediously average fare with much bigger budgets. Maybe I'm prejudiced because I'm British and so is this film (yes, I'm looking at you again, Hollywood), but I'm mightily bored of identikit LA feisty/angsty/hormonal teens dressed up with some special effects to let us all know we're watching a fantasy film, and The Last Dragonslayer at least looks and feels different from that. It feels like an adaptation of a children's book, with its bright colour palate, gentle humour and slightly pantomimish characterisation. The acting isn't outstanding, but it's perfectly acceptable for this type of film, and none of the characters jarred me out of the story.
If you don't want to watch a 'family' film, then don't watch this; you're liable to slate it unfairly for not being what you want it to be. If, however, you like family films, I see no reason why you wouldn't like this one. It has a good pace as far as I'm concerned, but if you have the attention span of a goldfish and require something to explode every 5 seconds or so, or endless quick-fire dialogue and slick, snappy rejoiners, then maybe give it a miss. I note one reviewer in particular (not naming any names) who had a braindead list of supposedly unanswered questions pertaining to the plot (which is fairly simple and not entirely unpredictable, but that didn't bother me), all of which were, so far as I could see, answered by the conclusion of the film. Ergo, don't be a massive root vegetable and knock plot holes in a film you can't even be bothered to watch! :-)
Review of The Last Dragonslayer
