Movie Review--Dragon Wars

"Imoogi.  It is a creature from a Korean legend which turns into a dragon."

--Jack, Dragon Wars

Dragon Wars has a unique place in cinematic history as the first Korean movie to be released in general American theaters, a poor to mediocre film that at one point was supposed to be the most expensive South Korean movie to be made, though films like Snowpiercer (by Parasite director Bong Joon-ho) have since dethroned it in this regard.  South Korean productions have led to some incredible films, but Dragon Wars, in spite of the then-record amount of money that went into it, is at best a mediocre execution of something far more promising than the final film turned out to be.  It is not as if there is no artistic and philosophical potential in a story about reincarnated lovers, cosmic serpents, and an exploration of South Korean culture, but Dragon Wars fails to make the most of its premise, though it does still have some unintentional and intentional humor, adequate lore, and the occasional great action sequence.  It is at its worst no Suicide Squad, Iron Man 2, or Black Christmas (2019), and yet it still falls far short of the likes of Parasite!

Production Values

Sharing its mixture of mediocrity and lack of effort with several other major aspects of the movie, the visual effects rarely look like anything more than very obvious CGI creations, appearing very artificial next to the human actors and physical locations.  To conserve resources for more pivotal moments, the scale of the army of exotic creatures needed to be scaled back, as only a handful of scenes have Imoogi serpents or dragons that do not look blatantly out of place, and only moreso compared to more recent CGI.  Oddities in the editing or execution of scenes also sometimes show up, such as a part where a group of soldiers shoots at the entryway to a mountain before a large, hostile serpent exits the tunnel a few seconds later--which would be a productive course of action if the soldiers were actually aiming inside the tunnel instead of running off to the side and shooting in such a way that they could neither see nor aim at the serpent.  Scenes like this can provide unintended comedy, but rare moments of intentional humor are actually handled better than almost everything else, such as when an old woman tries to phase through a gate after she sees a servant of Buraki do the same, only to hit her head on the material.  The characters are rather undeveloped, but at least Aimee Garcia, who plays a friend of a main character, and Craig Robinson, who is better known for his role in The Office, do more with their limited roles than even the leads do, as the main characters are not exactly acted with a high amount of urgency, depth, or general energy.

Story

Some spoilers are below.

Shortly after a massive scale is unearthed in California, which triggers a memory for a reporter named Ethan, a massive serpent called Buraki begins searching for Sarah, the reincarnation of a woman who died in 1507 AD.  This woman, named Nani, was the human embodiment of a power that would elevate one of two legendary Imoogi serpents to become a celestial dragon--for the one that sacrificed her.  Buraki scours Los Angeles as Ethan recalls that he is the reincarnation of Nani's lover from 500 years ago, and that unless Sarah is killed by/for one of the Imoogi, Buraki and his forces will only search for yet another reincarnation of Nani 500 years later.

Intellectual Content

Dragons Wars squanders plenty of its philosophical potential, though shards of important or deep issues are addressed.  That Sarah, the latest incarnation of the Yuh Yi Joo, a woman whose life force can transform an Imoogi into a dragon, is to be killed for either "heaven" or for the arrogant Buraki is something that could have made for a very elaborate, personal exploration of sacrifice, especially with Sarah as an unwilling pawn in a rivalry between serpents that are far more powerful than humans.  Combined with a stronger, better funded approach to the metaphysics of South Korean legends, this could have helped the film stand apart from others in a distinctly positive way instead of as a very mixed movie.  As it is, the themes of destiny and Korean mythology and human sacrifice are scarcely developed, much like the characters themselves.

Conclusion

A bigger budget and a more committed cast, or perhaps better directing as well, would have lifted Dragon Wars to the place of a more thoughtful, dramatic film that introduced Korean terms and legends to some Western audiences for the first time.  Yes, even though it might have been the most expensive South Korean film when it debuted, the budget certainly needed to be larger or the resources utilized better if this was to have the level of visual flair it seems to strive for.  Dragon Wars still turned out to be the film that reached some important milestones for Korean filmmaking, although Korean movies that followed boast some much better examples of how to reach artistic greatness.  It could have been far worse, certainly, and it also could have been far better.  This puts Dragon Wars, or D-War, as it is sometimes unecessarily called, in the company of many other movies from all sorts of countries that are based on ideas with potential and yet were mishandled in the execution.

Content:

 1.  Violence:  Bloodless explosions, shootings, and physical fights are the extent of the violence.

 2.  Profanity:  Words like "shit" are seldomly used.