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316 comments in total

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247 out of 333 people found the following comment useful :-
If you are under 13 or above 13 and intoxicated..., 18 August 2007

Author: aachikong from United States

If you are under 13 or above 13 and pretty intoxicated, you'll enjoy D-war. If you are a seriously dedicated fan of all kinds of brainless action films, you'll enjoy D-war. Otherwise, don't bother! I saw the movie today with my nephews and 3 of their friends. They really loved it and that made me feel good. After the movie was over, all the kids(my nephews and their friends)could not stop thanking me for taking them to the theater.

The CG is good. Acting and directing are horrible. Storyline is extremely simple. But, since the half of the audience was kids, they were screaming, shouting and cheering every time the dragons appeared on the screen. This made the viewing experience far more exciting than it should have been.

It's a good movie to take your kids to, but except for the final battle sequence, D-War is disappointing. I give this film 7 out of 10 mainly because the kids loved it so much.

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178 out of 246 people found the following comment useful :-
How did we get to Mordor, mommy?, 19 September 2007

Author: curlif from New York City

This movie serves as a timely warning to anyone who thinks they can both write and direct their own movie. Face it, you can't. Because that way there's nobody around to tell you when you hack great holes in your plot, have meaningless transitions, trite, unmemorable dialog and manage to turn a fairly cool Korean legend into a steaming pile of celluloid turd.

I wanted to like this movie as a trashy popcorn movie, really I did; I like lots of crappy movies. But once I've been forced to ask myself what the hell just happened and WHY, DEAR LORD, WHY? more than a few times, I really can't take it any more.

Also, I would love for someone to explain how LA became Mordor for the last scene.

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191 out of 282 people found the following comment useful :-
Dragon wars sucked, 17 September 2007

Author: s-hull_1990 from United States

This movie was horrible.

They didn't develop any of the characters at all and the storyline was played out horribly. It was a definite sleeper. You'd expect the action scenes on a movie like this to be its strong points but D-Wars surprises you with even a let down in that department.

Also, the acting was just a step above the level of a low budget porno flick. And I seriously mean that.

I was actually happy to see the end credits on this one cause it was just that bad!!! Please, whatever you do people, don't waste your time and money on a crappy movie like D-Wars.

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213 out of 342 people found the following comment useful :-
Oh. My. God. Why no rating lower than a "1"?, 15 September 2007

Author: randytz from United States

This movie is likely the worst movie I've ever seen in my life -- surpassing the previous most god-awful movie, "Spawn of Slithis," which I saw when I was about 10.

Bad acting, stilted and ridiculous dialog, incomprehensible plot, mishmashed cut scenes, even the music was annoying. Did I leave anything out? Well, the special effects weren't bad -- but CGI does not a decent movie make.

I can't believe I actually spent money to see this movie. If anyone has the contact info for Hyung-rae Shim (the director), please forward it to my user name "at gmail," and I'll contact him to personally demand a refund.

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126 out of 184 people found the following comment useful :-
It's happening here too?, 6 August 2007

Author: zephyransys from South Korea

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

First of all, let me remind you people that I'm not affiliated to this film, neither directly nor indirectly, therefore there is no reason for me to dress up my comment in any direction, which in turn enable me to put an impartial comment about this film.

Second, I also watched the film, being a Korean (living in Korea of course) and the film being shown in nearby theater, so I might be able to seek out the Cons and Pros of the film more accurately than some people who just speculate on other's comment only.

That being said, let me tell you what's really happening in Korea concerning D-War OK, the facts first.

As of Aug 6th (Korean local time), D-War viewer counter surpassed 3 million. That's right. This movie is a huge hit in Korea, whether it is a masterpiece or crap. The increase rate of total viewer number is such that there is saying that D-War will surpass the total viewer record of 13 million, a record set by last year's The Host.

For this particular film, there are ongoing struggle between two sizable forces. The Korean orthodox film-making faction, represented by 'Choong Moo Ro' – the Korean version of Hollywood - is the major force of film-making in Korea. This is where almost all Korean movies were born.

And there is an unorthodox film making faction. In fact, it is so small in size and force to compare fairly with the other side. Therefore it is treated not as much as a faction, but just a time-to-time phenomenon that pops up once in a while.

Director Shim belongs to the latter and his film D-War is the single most successful (as of yet, in Korean market) case.

Shim was (and I believe he still is) one of the most famous (therefore successful) comedian in Korean of all time. That is a fact everyone (even the Choong Moo Ro faction) acknowledges.

However, the fact that he is a successful comedian worked against his transition to a film director.

I don't know about other countries, but in here, the comedian used to be treated as 'low class job' because what they do looked silly, so when he became a director, he was ruthlessly criticized by the orthodox faction.

Those criticisms still exist today, as you can find those in Korean film related sites.

So what happened? Almost, um... no, that's a wrong word. All of the critics rated D-War at the bottom end, sometimes even lower than some of the real crap film which did not survive in domestic market for more than a week. (Their rating was very simple. If a for-real crap film made by the orthodox faction has terrible plot, they would shrug and say, 'it's creative.') This in turn fueled the rage of people using the internet (called Netizen here), and they took their fight to the orthodox faction, creating a BIG MESS as a result.

With such a huge struggle going on, general population overheard the news of it and many of them became more curious about the film of issue, the D-War I suspect this event ironically played a big role D-War getting this record breaking sale in domestic market.

Now, about the film itself.

As I've seen it, I don't think it is a knockout that some people say, but I don't think it's such a bad movie that some others say.

The plot is there, however lacking it's smoothness in transition between the scenes. And the plot itself is not bad.

The problem is how the film weaves the story. In that part, there is a major 'Whoopsie,' that in turn creates three major (serious, but not totally lethal, I think) problems.

The fact that total running time is about 90mins may have affected it, but since Shim must have played a part in editing, it might not be a good excuse.

First, it brings some confusion in understanding the storyline.

Second, it affects the actors and actresses, making their acting look awkward and out of place sometimes.

Third, it makes the first half of the movie quite boring, since that part is where the film explains the overall plots and develops them. Actually, there was some good humor evenly placed, the director Shim's trademark sort (He used to be a Comedian, if you have forgotten) to ease the boredom, but it's quite 'Korean thing,' so I doubt it might work in off-shore market.

Okay, so is the D-War really crap? I wouldn't say so. Personally, I was bored to hell in the first half of the movie, but was mesmerized to the CG scene in the second half.

The second half of the movie, where the action really starts is where the 'fun' begins. (That is, if you endured the first half without major outburst of anger and exited the theater by kicking the door open) Well, the battle scene is quite good, considering its CG was all domestic (I mean Korean) technology and it was really their first shot at it.

Compared to Transformer? In evaluation of absolute term, Transformer is better. I mean, c'mon, what did you expect? The total cost for D-War is around 70 billion won, which is approximately $75 million. How much did the Transformer cost? I don't know. But I don't think it's anywhere near $75 mil.

That fact in mind, CG in D-War is not half bad. It's even impressive in some way, as long as you don't measure it with major Hollywood block-buster film standard. I mean, you don't compare Lamborghini and Ford Mustang by same standard, do you?

So, there you have it.

D-War is not a 'record-setting' block-buster, but it's not a 'Straight to DVD shop' crap.

Some of you might quite enjoy it, while some of you won't.

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104 out of 148 people found the following comment useful :-
The worst major film I've seen in a long time, 27 September 2007

Author: JKristine35 from United States

I went into this movie with high hopes. Normally, I'm not too picky about my movies and creature movies are *always* fun to watch, or so I thought. I'll list the good parts of this movie: -The creature effects. All of the creatures were well-done, their movements were realistic, and they fit into the other imagery well. To be honest, the creature effects were the ONLY reason I gave this movie a 2 rather than a 1. Now, the bad things: -The acting. Good Lord, I've seen bad acting, but this movie takes the cake. Not a single one of the characters is even *close* to believable. It's like the director sent out a casting call and picked all the worst try-outs from it. I tried very hard not to giggle too loud, cause I didn't wanna upset anyone else in the theatre, but the acting really was THAT BAD. -The storyline: The entire story is full of plot holes from beginning to finish. You can pick at least 5 plot holes out of any given 30 minutes of film. The plot holes, of course, are complimentary with the cheese. This is probably one of the most clichéd, not thought-out, and outright dumbest stories I've ever seen put on screen since I had the grave misfortune of sitting up one night and watching Parasite on the SciFi channel. -The dialogue: This is a world where everyone says the cheesiest and most clichéd thing they possibly can, at every chance they possibly can. In this world, it seems like every line has been spoken before in at least 30 other low-budget creature movies. It is the world of cheese and cliché. -The special effects. While the creature effects were downright awesome, the special effects fail miserably. Yes, they are better than those seen in other movies, but a lot of it is in the presentation. And this movie has no presentation whatsoever. It looks kinda like the special effects used on the Power Rangers TV show, to be honest. To sum up: Dragon Wars is worth neither your time nor your money. The concept is good, but it is trapped in the bad directing, acting, dialogue, and cheesiness of the film. Wait til the next big monster movie comes out. It's gotta be better than this, cause Dragon Wars is absolutely horrible.

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79 out of 106 people found the following comment useful :-
Great special effects...but they're completely wasted on this storyline, 17 September 2007

Author: Robert McCaffree from L.A., California

How this movie got made with a supposedly $70 million budget and without being completely retooled is beyond me. The storyline and dialogue are beyond amateurish. Characters say things no real person would ever say and almost never react to things that were said before. No one seems to be grounded in the real world. The acting of the leads is fine given that the writing is such a dud...but several actors in supporting roles really drag the production down. The hero's hair probably should've gotten its own credit, it was so oddly attention- grabbing...not to mention that it gave one of the better performances in the pic. Finally, for a movie about L.A. being besieged by giant reptiles, this film is shockingly boring. What a shame! If you do see this, your mind will be constantly racing, thinking up ways that you could have taken the SFX scenes and built a far better movie around them. Sadly, it wouldn't have taken much.

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76 out of 104 people found the following comment useful :-
A review of "D-War", 17 September 2007

Author: dee.reid from United States

To review "D-War" (sometimes called "Dragon Wars" or "Dragon Wars: D-War") with any real depth would be an exercise in utter futility. I mean that, really. The film is a big, loud special effects bonanza the likes of which have been seen plenty of times on United States soil, but "D-War" is unique in the fact that it is not an American production, but an Asian one, specifically of the South Korean kind.

But just because it's a South Korean movie with American actors, does that really make it good? It's a yes/no/maybe so type of answer. "D-War" comes to us from South Korean import Hyung-rae Shim, who announced the project back in 2002 and has spent the last five years getting it off the ground. It's received mostly negative reviews here in the U.S. and in South Korea (where it set box office records for an opening week with an estimated five million viewers within a nine-day time-span), but the movie's special effects and action sequences are undeniably stunning. But it's a shame about the story and characters.

Supposedly based on an ancient Korean legend, a 200-meter-long Imoogi (a giant serpent) called Buraki is denied a chance at immortality when two young lovers who are destined to perform the ceremonial rights run away and perish in their escape. 500 years later in Los Angeles, the man is reincarnated as American news reporter Ethan (Jason Behr), who as a child was given a powerful pendant by an elderly antiques dealer named Jack (Robert Forster) and now has to find the reincarnated woman, Sarah (Amanda Brooks), before her 20th birthday.

Sure enough, in special effects sequences that seem right out of any Asian monster flick made in the last 50 years, the dragon Buraki reappears with his seemingly invincible army of demonic warriors to continue his 500-year pursuit of what is rightfully his. Lots of explosions, guns, and destruction as ancient slams head-on into 21st-century military technology, and Ethan and Sarah try to find a way to stop Buraki and his army before he destroys the city.

"D-War" is a film that looks and sounds amazing, in theory, but the execution is so poor that you'll rightfully feel that you've been cheated by the time the credits roll. Make no mistake, Buraki and his minions look pretty cool and plenty menacing, and the destruction they bring about in their action sequences is nothing short of breathtaking. In this regard, Shim has surely done his job in presenting "D-War" as a no-holds-barred sci-fi/fantasy action epic.

On the other hand, the film's human players are drastically short-changed and given cheap, hokey dialogue and scenes that rarely connect. It seems that the only reason they're here is to give us something to root for, which is not in any real way genuine. "D-War" unfortunately comes off as something a lot closer to the poor American adaptation "Godzilla" (1998) than anything that is uniquely Korean. Another problem is that the story seems to take itself a little too seriously, with cheap humor that doesn't get anything greater from us than a weak little laugh. The acting and direction seem mediocre at best (so that you do feel a little sorry for the hokey performances of American heavyweight Robert Forster and up-and-coming Jason Behr), which is a real shame because Hyung-rae Shim is obviously a capable talent who knew what he wanted to do here and surely enough had the means to do it. His head seems full of ideas but the problem is with the execution of those ideas; maybe he was trying to do too much without really working out the material in greater detail. And the ending, a would-be "Raiders of the Lost Ark" special effects showdown, seems pretty cheap too.

I really wanted to like this movie, believe me, but "D-War" is a mediocre attempt at something that really had potential to be spectacular. But maybe it's because I'm an American. Maybe you'd have to be Korean to understand the mythical themes about that classic battle between good and evil. It's just too bad that the finished product of "D-War" appears to be like any other "B"-grade monster movie than the extraordinary idea that the director had in mind.

5/10

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110 out of 183 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the worst films I've seen...in a long time, 15 September 2007

Author: Eye_of_Chaos from United States

First off, I have no idea how this movie made it to the big screen. Its not even the low budget SCI-Fi channel movie, its just awful. Me and my friend who love action movies, Independence day, Jurassic Park, LotR, etc. went to see this movie expecting this movie to me a Transformers with dragons, mindless entertainment. All we got was a mindless hour and a half. The CG was not as bad as I was expecting, but the plot is so awful along with the acting, it made up for it. Its basically a Chinese legged of dragons returning every 500 years...Sounds like a good remake of Rain of Fire? No, The plot tries to be deeper than it should be leaving not only plot holes, but with magic, and a very small actual war between dragons(rather big snakes) it just gets ridiculous. The director attempted to add a bit of humor in the movie which fail. Me and my friend laughed through the whole thing(along with all 5 of the audience), and cant believed we spent money on this. The short trailer on TV makes up for most of the action while crap makes up the rest. I've seen a lot of B movies like Reptilian, The Cave, Spider, and others, but i have to say if you want a non stop laugh for an hour, watch this.

Story: 1/10 CG: 5/10 Acting:3/10

I don't drink...but it would have helped before watching this movie

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85 out of 137 people found the following comment useful :-
Comparisons to Boll and Sci-Fi Channel don't apply, 19 September 2007

Author: MassivelyEndowedBobRoss from United States

This movie was not good. Let's start off with that. But it wasn't a one or two star movie like people are giving it.

Pretty much, the plot is decent. It's something different. It's totally corny and implausible, but it's DRAGON WARS, it's not trying to win any Oscars. to people who say the visual effects are the worst they have seen, PUH-lease. The effects are about on par with Dragonheart and the Godzilla remake. Of course, this means the effects are ten years old, and films like T2 and Jurassic Park still look like they were made last year, but that's beside the point. The effects aren't THAT bad.

The acting is average. Nothing special. Better than Keanu Reeves or Clive Owen. See, what I'm trying to do here is show you that a movie like "Gryphon" or "Raptor Island" or "Alone in the Dark" are much much worse than this. Stop giving unfair comparisons. The last 20 minutes of the movie actually had some good action, and the final battle was great. Lighten up. Just have sit back and MST3K it if you want. But it's cheesy monster mashing fun.

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