Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God, 2005

Warning: This movie is extremely good!

I was supposed to write review for the first "Dungeons & Dragons" movie, done in 2000, but by accidents, I got this movie instead. Whatever! (I thought)... So I sat there in front of the screen, thinking, "perhaps it would be just another fancy movie about dragons, princesses and princes stuff!"

A pleasant surprise when I found myself got sucked up in the plot, and promptly fell in love with the hero(s) and heroine(s) of the movie. However, I was very worried with myself, because for the life of me, I did not recognise any of the brilliant cast.

Read the reviews for this movie later, I realised why! Turned out that this movie was a low budget one, with many "not too well known actors actresses" in it. Perhaps because they (the actors actresses) were pretty fresh, that was why they gave such a marvelous play acting?

The movie was brilliantly done, with a "full of surprises and twists" plot. The story told of a mythical kingdom (Ismir) where magics, mages, sorcerers, curses, evil dragons, anything that your mind could fancy and imagine of, would be there.

Wonderful use of special effects in this movie. A touch of "The Matrix" here, a bit of "The Mummy" there, and at between, lots of scenes which reminded the viewers strongly of "Xena the warrior", "Hercule", as well as all the Greek Gods and their wraths.

I love the costumes and all the wonderful magic/illusions they showed in this movie. Damodar (Bruce Payne) strikingly resembled the "bad" High Priest Imhotep in "The Mummy" (1999). Instead of all the horrors comed with "The Mummy", this movie showed the viewers all the dark and evil things in an artistic way. The thrills and all heart stopping moments were there, not because of scary and disgusting images, but of the unknown, the climax of the story.

The plot was about a powerful and evil dragon, which had been captured and trapped in a certain mountain by the wise men and women of Ismir many years ago. Its evil power was restricted by the removal of its magical strength and power, into a black orb. The ancient sorcerers and sorceresses of Ismir kept the dragon and this black orb separated to ensure that this specific dragon could no longer harm anyone, especially the human species.

Damodar, an evil sorcerer, thought differently. He schemed with the dark world, to unite the black orb back to the evil dragon, with the hope that this powerful presence would give him the power to reign over the human species, once the evil dragon had released its wrath and vengeance over the kingdom of Ismir.

Melora (Clemency Burton-Hill), the young and beautiful wife of the courageous and loyal Lord Berek (Mark Dymond), who was the king's treasurer, happened to be a young sorceress of Ismir. While trying out a magic, she happened to encounter the evil spirit of Damodar, and got entangled into a bad cursed by him. In her vision, she also saw a lot of bad things which was about to happen to Ismir.

Consulted with the senior sorcerers and sorceresses of Ismir over this big problem, lord Berek was asked to go on a mission with the 4 best warriors of the kingdom, to get the black orb before Damodar could get his evil hand on it to cause destruction to Ismir. The 4 warriors who accompanied lord Berek represented Intelligence, Wisdom, Honor and Strength, in the fight against the evil magic.

The journey they took was full of dangers, traps, and attacks. Step by step, they came closer to their target, not without big loss.

Lord Berek managed to bring the black orb back to the High Priest of Ismir, without knowing that the real high priest had been removed/killed, by the dark world. The black dragon was reunited with its power, and Ismir was in for destruction.

Melora was dying then because of the curse by Damodar. Seeing the destruction of Ismir, she managed to figured out the way to defeat the black force: by putting faith into the God of Nature.

With the shiny white orb (created by faith), the black dragon was destroyed completely, (not right at once of course!).

The movie was real beautiful, very touching with the love Lord Berek shared with his Melora, the love the people of Ismir had for their country, the kindred spirit which the warriors shared with each other, especially in time of trouble. All of that in a short and powerful movie, with superb acting, and with no sexual nor nude scenes, truly incredible!