Gryphon (TV 2007)

In a mystical land torn apart by civil war, a warrior princess must team up with a rival warrior prince to hunt down an evil sorcerer who has summoned a giant flying demon which is terrorizing their land.

Director:

Andrew Prowse

Writers:

Kenneth M. Badish (story), Tim Cox,

Stars:

Jonathan LaPaglia, Larry Drake, Amber Benson

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jonathan LaPaglia	...	Prince Seth of Delphi
Larry Drake	...	Armand
Amber Benson	...	Princess Amelia of Lockland
Andrew Pleavin	...	David
Douglas Roberts	...	Gorwin
Ashley Artus	...	Gerard
Sarah Douglas	...	Queen Cassandra of Delphi
Amy Gillespie	...	Daphne
Simona Williams	...	Kyra
Adrian Pintea	...	King Phillip of Lockland
Stefan Velniciuc	...	Orin
Constantin Barbulescu	...	Monk
Radu Andrei Micu	...	Sir Patrick of Delphi (as Radu-Andrei Micu)
Nicolae Stoica	...	Messenger #1
Toma Cuzin	...	Messenger #2

Storyline

In a far-away mystical land, two kingdoms, the Delphi and the Lockland, have been raging a civil war for nearly 300 years. With the death of his only son in battle, King Philip of Lockland has his daughter Amelia take over command of the Lockland armies against the invading Delphi, led by Prince Seth. In desperation, Philip turns to the warlock Armand to summoned the Gryphon, a giant flying lizard/lion hybrid to destroy the Delphi armies. But Armand has other plans and plots to take over both Delphi and Lockland kingdoms for himself and his two evil brides. Amelia is forced to team up with Seth to search for a mystical weapon that can kill the Gryphon, leading to the two enemy groups on a odyssey quest to find the weapon, called the Drakonian Pike, before Armand finds it to use for his own evil schemes.

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Plot Keywords:

gryphon | prince | civil war | princess | pike | 

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Taglines:

The fate of two kingdoms rests in their hands

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence and some sensuality

Details

Official Sites:

Sci-Fi Channel

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 January 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Attack of the Gryphon

Filming Locations:

Romania

Company Credits

Production Co:

Active Entertainment, Media Pro Pictures, Nu Image Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

User Reviews

a tough movie-of-the-week to beat from the sci-fi channel...and I mean that in the worst possible way

Wow...I watched this really in lieu of deciding to finally check out a sci-fi channel movie of the week, in this case featuring Amber Benson from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The made-for-TV slew of Saturday night movies are never picks of the litter, matter of fact not even well-made in any respect. But Gryphon, my non-existent God (which you may feel is non-existent if you believe it after seeing this), what a load of tripe! It's a medieval hodge-podge of total clichés and story arcs that obviously were thrown together by the five or six or seven writers who decided to pound this out over pizza and beers one night. Then again, maybe they KNEW that they were making a really stupid movie. But this raises the bar for stupidity, like a litmus test for often incoherent strands of story and character, and for wretched CGI. I'm not expecting Peter Jackson here, but this is enough to send me back to my psychiatrist for a double session of "the good old days of models and puppets."

Actually, what ended up keeping me glued to my seat (in a manner of total irony) was the CGI Gryphon itself. Created by watercolor or paint by number or Mario Paint or all of the above, it's controlled by a sinister sorcerer who wants to use it to create chaos in the kingdom. The gryphon flies about with total abandon of any logic, and it occasionally- in the midst of people trying to KILL IT- comes down to just preen itself in front of its foes. It sometimes kills people too, but often just acts like the most constant, reliable thing about the movie- it's so laughably bad it hurts the mind and diminishes the soul to something comparable to a slug, and makes one pine for a random insurance commercial. As the Gryphon continues as a threat, we're given a quest, a romance between warrior man and woman (the woman Benson, who can't even read her s****y dialog competently enough with her posturing and fake toughness) from the same descended vein, and a random possible battle that might ensue if a) the gryphon and/or sorcerer gets their way, or b) if there's somehow a tiny boost in the budget by the end of filming. And by the time the climax comes around, me and my friends somehow were not only compelled to keep on watching (just to see how low it could go limbo style), but to keep on gleefully- if painfully- yelling at the screen as the sorcerer used his powers in very random, selective measure, and kept his nutty little bird somewhere else by contrivance.

I know I shouldn't be TOO hard on Gryphon, as I'm sure some of the intentions behind it were decent enough. But the execution is just so lacking in every department: special/visual effects (well, in a sense, the visual effects are "special"), proper casting (even the actor playing the sorcerer is like ham left out of the fridge), dialog, cinematography, message, or romance. Even the action is sloppily filmed a lot of the time by lackey Andrew Prowse, who once in a while made me wonder if the soul of Uwe Boll slipped into his own. It simply leaves a residue that wont go away very soon after, even with its own likely self-knowledge of its many flaws. It was made on a quick buck, and for all its exploitive gestures, hopefully most, if not all, of the regular sci-fi movie channel viewers will recognize it as a new standard which other movies in its wake may not live up to even if they try (or lack trying). It's simply one of the very worst made-for-TV movies I've ever seen...albeit with a hell of a goofing-on-it time all the way.