Dragonheart: Vengeance Blu Ray Review (Universal)
Dragonheart Vengeance (aKa Dragonheart 5) is a 2020 fantasy film directed by Ivan Silvestrini (2night, Monolith, STUCK: The Chronicles of David Rea, & Love, Inevitably). It was written by Matthew Feitshans (Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer’s Curse & Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire). It’s produced by Raffaella De Laurentiis (DragonHeart franchise, Dune, Backdraft 1/2, & Conan franchise). It’s the 5th film from the Dragonheart series which includes the original, A New Beginning, The Sorcerer’s Curse, & Battle for the Heartfire. It was filmed in in Romania. The 6th film is currently in development & they are considering doing a remake of the original after that.
Lukas (played by: Jack Kane from Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw) is a young farmer who witnessed his family getting killed by savage raiders that includes the Bear (played by: Ross O’Hennessy from Game of Thrones), the Wolf (played by: Richard Ashton from The Fifth Element), the Snake (played by: Carolina Carlsson from The Young Pope), & the Scorpion (played by: Tam Williams from Spectre) in the countryside. He sets out on an epic quest for revenge. He offers money for help with his vengeance but no one is interested except for a low level swashbuckling mercenary named Darius (played by: Joseph Millson from Casino Royale, Angel Has Fallen, All the Devil’s Men, & Dead of the Nite) who’s known for his sword-fighting skills. Lukas meets a majestic dragon known as Siveth (played by: Helena Bonham Carter from Fight Club, Terminator Salvation, Big Fish, & Planet of the Apes) who has been banished from the kingdom. She has been hiding from her past but she decides to come out & save this young boy from his troubles. This unlikely trio go on a journey for redemption & they have to go against the evil King Razvan (played by: Arturo Muselli from Gomorrah, Tenderness, & The Teacher)!!!!
Dragonheart Vengeance is really ambitious for it’s lower budget, the visual fx try their best to live up to the production’s hype but they come off silly at times. The Siveth character stands out like a sore thumb here, she looks decent but could have been much better & I bet a good portion of the funding went into creating this role for the feature. Helena Bonham Carter was definitely the best thing about Vengeance, I really enjoyed her performance as the dragon with a heart of gold. She boosted the overall quality of this sequel. Joseph Millson was solid here & he had some funny moments in this. The barbarian villains were actually decent, it worked better with the unknown cast. Jack Kane was just okay as the lead, He got lucky that he had a solid supporting cast. I think Vengeance would have been much improved with a different actor to be honest. The script had the same vibe as the last two Dragonheart films. Plus it had a Game of Thrones tone to it at times. It wasn’t anything special but it was fun & it had some decent action in it. I’d recommend renting or streaming it first.
Let’s talk about the high definition presentation & special features from Universal! This 1080p (1.78:1) for it’s lower budget. They definitely try to make it look bigger here. The production design is pretty damn good for Vengeance. It has two different audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 & French: DTS 5.1 tracks. It actually sounds better than expected. All the action & battle scenes have a killer boost to them. The dialogue is very clean & the music is elevated here. It has English SDH & French subtitles. “A New Legend” is a little over 3 minutes. It has interviews with director Ivan Silvestrini, actors Jack Kane, Helena Bonham Carter, & Joseph Millson. They chat about the film & the story for it. They talk about their experience, cast, characters, & Dragonheart. “Creating Siveth” is a little over 2 minutes. It has interviews with director Ivan Silvestrini, actors Jack Kane, Helena Bonham Carter, & Joseph Millson. They chat about the Dragon character from Vengeance. They talk about working with nothing while visual fx is added later on. Carter brings up that she’s never doing anything like this before & that she loves doing vocal work. It had behind the scenes footage. It has a variety of Universal “Trailers” on it. It also comes with a slipcover, a digital code, & a DVD copy of the release. It’s available everywhere right now!!!!
