| Master Fan
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 10,193
| Great review Kristen! Good to see your pixels!
Thanks to the rest of you who reviewed it too... I just checked back with that NYTimes link from my above post and now there are reader reviews there as well - here are some of them from random people who saw the movie too. Possible number of stars is 5 - so here you go - and if you want to read more, just click the link above. Keep checking the link for more...
Quote: Excellent Movie for Family!!!
This is an excellent movie for family!!! The story line was very unique.. CG was real great (better than Godzilla and Hulk). There were some scenes volent and shocking, but neither too cruel nor scary. There was no obscene scene, either. I watched it with my 7-year old son..... It was so amzing (and even miraculous) that he did not take his eyes off the screen throughout the whole movie. He said he loved it so much. I was so impressed by the last scene, which is sort of the climax of the movie. A good "imoogi" (a good pre-dragon giant serpent) transforms itself into a real dragon and ascends into the sky... It is so exotic, fantastic, dazzling, and overwleming. The scene is extremly spiritual in an entertaining way. It is really beyond description. You shouldn't miss it. I tend to agree, though, that acting could have been a bit better (A-). But what the heck! It's just a monster/action movie targeted for children, teenagers, and parents who want to spend quality time together. It is really worth watching with your children, if you want to keep some unforgettable memories shared between you and your children for years to come. I bet you will never regret watching it.
- ylee85  | Quote: Bad is Good
Fortunately for the makers of this film it is so bad that it may soon become a classic. It is so incoherent that after two minutes you abandon hope of comprehension and just sit back and enjoy. It is the perfect example of what happens when you have a lot of money and good intentions but no script. Sound familiar? In retrospect this fiasco makes Godzilla look like Hamlet although I am sure that it makes perfect sense to seven year-olds trained for the unreal by countless hours immersed in video games. On the way home I realized that this film is a brilliant satire of the dilemma facing America today. The wonderfully drawn, computer-generated dragon that ravages downtown LA is a metaphor for our involvement in Iraq. Since nothing emanating from DC makes any sense, that same feeling of hopeless predicament pervades this film as well. The scurrying federal agents reveal themselves to be as clueless as Chertoff's people and the army defending the homeland is ill prepared to deal with this novel threat. My only regret is that the LA heroine wasn't played by Margaret Cho. As the lovely strains of Arirang accompanied the rolling credits I left the theater hungry for kalbi--a film with more meat on its bones.
- stevejablonsky2 | Quote: Imoogi Metamorphosis - A Metaphor?
In Korean legends, Imoogies are depicted as incomplete life forms symbolizing the average people of no novelty, while a dragon is a symbol of the King. Imoogi needs a human sacrifice (female virgin) to become a dragon. This metamorphosis story had themed in many folk tales which are mostly sad because it involves either demise of Imoogi or tragic sacrifice. While Imoogies are village watchers, Dragons are Gods of the sky controlling the weather especially the rain, which is critical in traditionally agricultural society. For an Imoogi becoming a sacred dragon and flying in to the sky is the utter purpose of the existence. So, some Imoogies threatened the unwilling village to earn human sacrifice often in a violent way. Ironically, an Imoogi is not always a hated villain. The powerless, uneducated everyday people often identified themselves with Imoogi hoping to be a powerful dragon someday. But more often than not, the Imoogi ended up being defeated by a human warrior, which is sad because it metaphorically depicts the powerlessness of general public. Just seeing an oriental dragon visualized in such a detailed manner makes this movie worth to see. Besides, old Korean villages, costumes and people are surprisingly well presented, which is very educational to any people who has little or no exposure to this old but unknown culture. The music used for ending credit is a famous Korean folk song called 'Arirang' which symbolizes unfulfilled love of young lovers.
- yvawoo | Quote: not bad
Great CG with poor plot.
- zhen2 FOUR STARS - which I couldn't show due to too many smilies...
| And there has to be one negative one - you can't expect everyone to like it - after all, I hated Little Miss Sunshine and it got nominated for an Oscar! 
Quote: expensive low quality film
Don't trust the trailer. That's all. No plot, poor acting, only series of the wasted CGI.
- moon7up ONLY ONE STAR | __________________ “I’m drawn more towards independent-minded things because I think that’s where the most interesting stories are. But, it doesn’t really matter to me if it’s a big-budget thing, or a small little bare-bones movie that I have to pay to be in. For me, it’s more about the story and the character than anything else.”
~ Jason Behr |