First the good news.

At times it a great looking transfer. Lots of colors, eye candy. Not a lot of film grain if any. Blacks are solid, no noise.

The bad news: In a lot of scenes ( not all ) there is some edge enhancement. Mostly in the bright outdoor shots. Good thing most of the movie is dark.
It had enough to ruin the viewing experience for myself.

Those with smaller displays, flat panels and RPs I think this title will fair very well.

I could never watch this again. I found the story to predictable. I felt I was watching several movies over again all mix into one. Plus it was corny.To much cheap CGI for my taste.
Go figure, I liked superbad.

the title alone tells me this is one to avoid =)

how does it compare to, say, the host?

the title alone tells me this is one to avoid =)

how does it compare to, say, the host?

D-War isn't horror. It's sci-fi junk.
They are nothing alike. You cant compare the two.

I loved the Host. But I have no desire to watch D-war ever again.

D-War isn't horror. It's sci-fi junk.
They are nothing alike. You cant compare the two.

I loved the Host. But I have no desire to watch D-war ever again.

ah i c, i had figured both were korean movies featuring monster(s). thanks.

"Just watched Dragon wars."....

I'm sorry. :D

I'm ashamed to admit that I saw D-Wars in the theater last year....yes, it's that bad.

Host was a good movie.

Alan,

What are you currently using for a projector and screen?

The NEC XG1352LC and Draper 106" M2500 you sold me 10 years ago are still serving us well...but occasionally I get the itch to go bigger.

John

D-War is pretty horrible.

I live in Korea, and a huge percentage of Koreans went ga-ga over it, merely for the fact that it was Korean-made. It was all the hub-bub here last summer. Something like 3 out of 4 Koreans in South Korea saw this movie.

The director of this went out on his own, and bypassed the Chungmuro filmmakers (much like the USA's Hollywood) in doing it. It took him something like 4 years to make, and much of the CGI is 4 years old.

Koreans were proud that someone was able to bypass the old clan of Chungmuro guys and actually do something new and somewhat interesting. There has been a lot of criticism that the Chungmuro filmmakers are only interested in doing overly sappy love flicks and overdone fight/action flicks involving the same old mafia/gang matras. People were yearning for something else.

Be glad you didn't have to watch this in a Korean theater. There was a long photo tribute to the director, which more or less portrayed him as some kind of hero. It made me sick (I'll be that's on the blu-ray too). Totally self-serving, as if he had pre-prepared himself for all of the Korean awards he might receive from this movie. Yuck.

To sum it up, my Korean lady said, "We know the story is really bad. We know it looks very stupid at times. But we're proud that the dragon special effects in the end looked really good, and we're proud that the director was able to persevere despite the Chungmuro filmmakers, as well as produce and get the movie released in the USA."

The fact that the Chungmuro filmmakers became insanely jealous of the money it made here, and that they openly made nasty comments about the flick, only fueled the movie sales. One of the major TV News stations is rumored to be involved with the Chungmuro group (by ownership or close ties of some sort) and they even snuck a camera into the theater and filmed the dragon sequence -- airing for the evening news -- something which was considered the draw for seeing the movie. Many felt was an attempt to keep people from spending money to see the movie. The TV station didn't have authorization to film the screen in any way, and never got permission. They just went in and did it. Can you imagine the lawsuits that could erupt from that sort of thing in the USA?

This is about as "B-grade" as a movie with a semi-wide release in the USA can get.

How was the Dolby True HD 5.1 audio track?

This is one of those movies so awful that you almost have to rent it (not buy) and see it just for the fact that it's so awful.

Think poorly-done CGI ripoffs of Star Wars monsters from Naboo battling tanks in LA.

Alan,

What are you currently using for a projector and screen?

The NEC XG1352LC and Draper 106" M2500 you sold me 10 years ago are still serving us well...but occasionally I get the itch to go bigger.

John

Hi John

Glad to hear the NEC is still at work. They are great machines. Ive had my share of digitsls over the last few ears but I just bought another CRT and will go back to the tree eyed monster for a while.

Thanks for chiming in:)




Baccusboy

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing. Adds a little nostalgic to the movie!

This is one of those movies so awful that you almost have to rent it (not buy) and see it just for the fact that it's so awful.

Think poorly-done CGI ripoffs of Star Wars monsters from Naboo battling tanks in LA.

No dude it's not even on that level. It's not like a sci-fi channel movie that you watch for the crappy effects and amateur acting.

You want to see it for all of those qualities and you want like it because it's so cheesey. But in the end it's just bad. I didn't no that I didnt like shen-long(sp?) dragons until I saw this film.

Yeah, it is pretty awful.

The only actor I liked in that movie was the heavy black guy from the office.

I hope he gets picked-up and put in SOME kind of movie, just because he looked so non-movie-ish. But he did a great job.

Host was a decent flick...but D-War is not a recommended movie. With that in mind, it's NOT the worst movie of the year as I can find more bad ones than D-War. I would say it's definetely a rental just to kill time.

the title alone tells me this is one to avoid =)

how does it compare to, say, the host?

I better Netflix it...

I bought and watched D-War aka "Dragon Wars" last night on BR.

Let me start off by saying (or maybe admitting) I've always been a huge fan of giant monster flicks, especially Japanese and went so far as to methodically purchase every Toho flick first on laserdisc than R2 dvd over the last 20 years. So I was prepared to enjoy this flick despite the obvious cheesiness of it all.

Unfortunately, while there's some good scenes of city-destroying monster mayhem, mind-numbing leaps in logic and jaw dropping plot contrivances simply prove to be too much for even a movie like this. Just one of dozens of examples; a couple FBI agents are moving the key characters to safety when one agent suddenly decides he needs to kill them because he's aware of the "prophecy" because the agency has a "paranormal investigative unit" that has kept up on the situation for a "long time." The 200ft long evil giant snake dragon spends the first half of the movie almost casually going through LA area neighborhoods looking for the good guys causing massive destruction but barely getting much more than a police response for a residential burglary.

The CGI effects range from decent to tv sci-fi channel bad and some of the "dinosaurs" look like the designs where liberally borrowed from The Lord Of The Rings movies and "Dinotopia." I mean, you have soldiers riding giant rhino-like monsters with medieval cannons on their backs.

One nice touch is the casting of cult 60's/70's film and tv actor Robert Forrester as one of the chief characters who clearly outclasses everyone else in the movie even if he's arguably miscast in his role.

The presentation itself is good but not reference material for BR. The live action photography is inconsistent, sometimes looking a bit soft in dark, indoor scenes. For the most part, colors are vivid and in some close ups of say, actors' faces or the indoor scenes in the cluttered curio shop, the image shows off sharply defined detail but there's also a bit of black crush in some darker scenes. The TrueHD 5.1 audio has punch and some depth, but it's all explosions, monsters roaring and so on that wears down the viewer by the time the dragons invade LA. The widescreen image is matted to 2.40:1 which means some subtitles for several characters who speak in Chinese (on the English language track) appear in the bottom black band and do not run up into the movie's image.

T.B.

Here's an existing review thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=964469&highlight=dragon

Thanks for your comments. Being a Godzilla fan myself, i first planned to buy that BR at amazon but when i heard all the bad comments here on avs about it, i canceled it and decided to rent it instead. I guess it was the best thing to do!:p

Here's an existing review thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=964469&highlight=dragon

Whoops. It didn't turn up when I did a search before starting my thread, probably because I used "D-War" instead of Dragon Wars. If one of the mods wants to combine the two threads, that would probably save the few people interested in this title some time.

T.B.

Thanks for your comments. Being a Godzilla fan myself, i first planned to buy that BR at amazon but when i heard all the bad comments here on avs about it, i canceled it and decided to rent it instead. I guess it was the best thing to do!:p

Yeah, as some people have commented in the similar Dragon Wars thread, "The Host" is far superior to this movie as well as just being a much better blu-ray transfer.

Hopefully in the near future, some of the better Toho Godzilla movies will get a blu-ray release as well as the 90's Gamera trilogy.

T.B.

The movie was REALLY bad.I forewarn anyone thinkig about buying this BR to at least rent it before blowing $30+ on it.

A Blockbuster employee warned me the other day when I brought it to the counter to rent. I was surprised as they usually could care less what you rent. I guess it was so bad in his estimation that he wanted to spare me the agony of the time spent in watching it. It was even on a day where Blockbuster Rewards has 2 for 1 so it wouldn't have costed me anything as it was a throw in I chose with 3:10 to Yuma they were holding for me.

One nice touch is the casting of cult 60's/70's film and tv actor Robert Forrester as one of the chief characters who clearly outclasses everyone else in the movie even if he's arguably miscast in his role.

Wow, sounds like Forrester wasn't able to drink the career revival juice offered to him by Tarantino when he cast Robert in "Jackie Brown" (unlike Travolta taking heaping doses of that juice when "Pulp Fiction" hit). Shame he's stuck playing the Raymund Burr-type role in a silly CGI foreign monster flick. The man deserves better! :(

Thanks for the story about the movie Baccusboy. Sounds more interesting than anything in the movie itself, although I'm still not sure who the Chungmuro filmmakers are. Did they have anything to do with "The Host" by any chance? I'm a little confused in that aspect.

Watched it last night with my 2 kids and they loved it. Seeing it thru their eyes, made me love it - felt like I was 12 years old again. If you just want to have a fun evening and not have to think - I recommend it!

Best Movie Never

Do Not Buy This Movie Is Crap

IGN said that this movie was so awful that it was actually good.

Noooo I ordered it :'( Damnit...why didn't I check here first?

I thought this movie was okay. It's worth owning if you are okay with movies that have a pretty ho-hum plot wrapped around some really kickass action. The city destruction scenes are > those in Transformers IMO. It was definately B grade, but it's not on my "sell" list. There is ALOT of rumble if you want to dust off your subwoofer.

Other than the fact it was in HD with a few nice CGI effects, it basically looked and flowed like a typical made for Sci-fi Channel movie.

it cant be any worse then Snakes on a Plane.

didnt snakes on a plane at least throw some gratuious nudity in for good measure. and any movie with sam jackson uttering "muthaf****" shouldnt be at least worth a rental. i havent seen the movie tho so i'm not even sure if he does say the m word.

Wait, HOLD up...

This movie actually made MONEY here?

didnt snakes on a plane at least throw some gratuious nudity in for good measure. and any movie with sam jackson uttering "muthaf****" shouldnt be at least worth a rental. i havent seen the movie tho so i'm not even sure if he does say the m word.

Snakes biggest sin was that for the most part it was pretty... boring.

It WAS a PG-13 movie dressed up as an R film and it showed. (The guy who got scewered falling off the stair case in the plane was the highlight of the whole sordid affair.)

I enjoyed this for what it was.

The director of this movie was a very famous slap stick comedian in Korea in the 80s. Imagine someone like Benny Hill turning into a B-movie director. It's quite a change.

this is the worst movie i had seem in a while, along with THE TEN :(

If I see this for $5, then i'll pick it up for sure. I have seen far worse movie than this movie.

I read the HighDefDigest review, showed it to my brothers, and we all agreed we had to watch it because of how awful it sounded. We checked it out this past Sunday and this is indeed one of the best worst movies ever. We had our own great session of MST3K going.

I have to throw in a comment here. I like SciFi and monster movies in HD. I saw the preview of this movie on one of my BR discs and it looked cool. I decided to buy it at a discount on Amazon Marketplace. But the darn thing is still well above $20 with shipping. So I started reading user reviews here and on Amazon. Wow. Rarely have I seen a movie so universally panned by so many. It seems you have to watch it expecting the worst movie ever so you won't be dissappointed. A true purchasing red flag. So, thanks to you all. I will now rent this thing rather than buy. A savings of $15 plus.

I just used the new Sony "Buy 2 get 1 free" blu-ray offer to get this for $2.99. This is about the right price I would pay for this movie.

This movie was really awful. My wife is Korean and wanted to see the film to support what the director is trying to do (make Hollywood type big budget films in Korea), but even she thought it was awful. I believe her comment was that we should've just watched "The Host" again instead, a film that we both liked.

First the good news.

At times it a great looking transfer. Lots of colors, eye candy. Not a lot of film grain if any. Blacks are solid, no noise.

The bad news: In a lot of scenes ( not all ) there is some edge enhancement. Mostly in the bright outdoor shots. Good thing most of the movie is dark.
It had enough to ruin the viewing experience for myself.

Those with smaller displays, flat panels and RPs I think this title will fair very well.

I could never watch this again. I found the story to predictable. I felt I was watching several movies over again all mix into one. Plus it was corny.To much cheap CGI for my taste.
Go figure, I liked superbad.

you mean the bad thing isnt that the movie F'n SUCKS!!!

Good heavens, I just watched my copy of The Host and thought it was seriously overrated. If D-War makes The Host look like an Academy Award winner, I'm definitely steering clear.

P.S. to those that liked The Host: am I the only one bothered by the fact that the hobo at the end is the smartest character in the entire movie?

[QUOTE=Icemage;12973663]Good heavens, I just watched my copy of The Host and thought it was seriously overrated. If D-War makes The Host look like an Academy Award winner, I'm definitely steering clear.

P.S. to those that liked The Host: am I the only one bothered by the fact that the hobo at the end is the smartest character in the entire movie?[/QUOTE

The Host was not a good movie.

you guys crack me up.. The host was a good movie, terrible to say the least..

I have to wonder how many people who dislike "The Host" either watched it dubbed or just don't like monster movies. The film is much like "Little Miss Sunshine", but with a monster and much more interesting characters.

I have to wonder how many people who dislike "The Host" either watched it dubbed or just don't like monster movies. The film is much like "Little Miss Sunshine", but with a monster and much more interesting characters.
The CGI was pretty good. What I am allergic to is chronic and contagious stupidity in a film that's not explicitly about being stupid (Dumb and Dumber). The occasional flash of comedic humor is crude and jarring.

The Host isn't a terrible monster movie, but a ham-fisted storyline and some very questionable choices in direction don't win it any brownie points in my book.

D-wars is like Power Rangers. No I'm not joking I saw it in the theater and it's one of the worst movies ever.

D-wars is like Power Rangers. No I'm not joking I saw it in the theater and it's one of the worst movies ever.

HAH, I said the same thing during the movie. "This is like a Power Rangers episode."

I have to wonder how many people who dislike "The Host" either watched it dubbed or just don't like monster movies. The film is much like "Little Miss Sunshine", but with a monster and much more interesting characters.
I love monster movies, and I watched The Host in its original language, but I really didn't care for it very much. Even though I've watched a fair number of Korean movies in my time, there were clearly cultural aspects of the movie that went over my head. I also found the "humor" more annoying than funny. The first scene with the monster was great, but it went downhill rather quickly after that.
J

this movie sucked big time! Waste of money!