The Last Dragon (2005)

I love this movie so much

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Just watch this, before the controversial Mermaid Documentaries, Animal Planet made a convincing Dragon documentary featuring Tyrannosaurus rex and Chinese Tigers being second the the reptilian fire-breathing serpents and still falling short against their battle with mankind. We see a supposed discovery of a dead Dragon in Romania among the Carpathian Mountains. The dragons may be a lie, but the rest of the aspects of Biology, Zoology, Evolution, Ecology, and Paleontology are accurately used in the description of a mythological beast as they challenge our beliefs in the beasts. Look for someone who hasn't seen or heard of this film, then see their face change as they watch it. You, too may feel this way. Even knowing the story was only that, I was convinced and started looking through dragon stories for any connections as well as searching though different animals for cases of convergent evolution. I especially recommend that you show this to kids, as they will certainly be fascinated and start to wonder.More convincing (and even more true) than a Politician's speeches, take your friends and family into the Last Dragon's World, and experience this fantasy made real.

Let me begin by saying I am a big fantasy fan. However, this film is not for me. Many far-fetched arguments are trying to support this film's claim that dragons possibly ever existed. The film mentions connections in different stories from different countries, but fails to investigate them more thoroughly, which could have given the film some credibility. The film uses (nice!) CGI to tell us a narrated fantasy story on a young dragon's life. This is combined with popular-TV-show-CSI-style flash-forwards to make it look like something scientific, which it is definitely not. In many cases the arguments/clues are far-fetched. In some cases, clues used to show dragons possibly existed, or flew, or spit fire are simply invalid. To see this just makes me get cramp in my toes. Even a fantasy film needs some degree of reality in it, but this one just doesn't have it. Bottom line: it's a pretentious fantasy-CSI documentary, not worth watching.

That's what gets my goat, when they advertised this on the Discovery Channel or the Learning Channel which ever it was, they implied that they really discovered the corpse of a dragon. I didn't want to see it, but my brother talked me into it. Then we sat and watched it, then near the end, they said in essence, "SURPRISE! We were just kidding!" I mean, all that hype over finding a real dragon then to spring on us that it wasn't real is just cruel, I believe in the existence of dragons and not telling us that this was just scientific conjecture from the get go was just mean. I mean, if we knew that ahead of time, we wouldn't have watched it. Even though I half suspected it myself. A real dragon discovery would have made the news. The second thing, I don't buy the theory of platinum to create a spark, I think it's more of a nature electric spark in the back of the throat. As a fantasy, this gets 7 STARS but shame on those people who promoted it as real, for shame. I expect more honesty from the Discovery Channel.

The dragon is one of the most recognizable of the mythological creatures and probably is the one that has fascinated the human mind the most for many centuries. For some cultures they represent evil, and for others they represent goodness, but the constant is that they have been in our mind in one form or another since the beginning of time. We all have wondered at some point, what if the legends were true? what if dragons actually existed? Now to satisfy those questions, from the creators of "Walking with Dinosaurs", this movie presents a fictional documentary on what would happen if dragons were real."Dragons' World: A Fantasy Made Real" chronicles the adventure of a group of scientist who discover the fossils of a real dragon, finally proving the existence of the mythical beings. Dr. Tanner (Paul Hilton) is the leader of the expedition, a dreamer and Cryptozoology enthusiast who is decided to prove the existence of dragons even if his reputation as scientist gets destroyed in the process. Katrine Bach and Aidan Woodward play the other members of his team, the Biologist and the Data Analyst respectively; they are less convinced than Tanner, but Tanner's enthusiasm is contagious and they find themselves following this man to the top of the Carpathian mountains.To call this movie a documentary would be seriously wrong, as it is a fantasy tale told in a documentary way. As Tanner's adventure unfolds the last days of a family of Carpathian dragons, we are told the hypothetical theory of Dragon's evolution by Ian Holm's narration (Patrick Stwart in the U.S. version). With vivid Special Effects by the makers of the "Walking with Dinosaurs" series, Dragons came to life in some of the most fantastic scenes depicting Dragon's lifestyle.The visual work is terrific, and while some scenes were a bit weak (particularly scenes involving humans and dragons interacting), most of the scenes were of outstanding quality, with the unforgettable scene of two dragons flying together as they mate. The writing was very clever, as real animal characteristics were added to the dragon myth to make it feel "real". In fact, at times the movie feels very convincing and one begins to wonder if what they show is actually true.Sadly, it is not, and that's not only it's great virtue, it is also it's great flaw. At times it takes itself too seriously that becomes either ridiculous or misleading; two different extremes that I'm sure were not the ones intended by its makers. Still, the movie is a very interesting example of a false documentary, and the hypothetical theory on dragon's biology is very well thought.The acting was OK for the most part, although Paul Hilton overacts a bit. The rest of the cast played minor roles but the performances were very good. The movie is all about the dragons and Tanner's adventure. Ian Holm did a very good job with the narrative and gave the film a good dose of credibility although, due to the script, at times what he says walks the fine line between brilliant and ridiculous. Probably a stronger distinction between real life and fantasy would have helped to make the story more enjoyable.To summarize, "Dragons' World: A Fantasy Made Real" is a very entertaining film that fans of fantasy and dragons should not miss, if only for the stunning visuals. It may be misleading if one is not aware it is a false documentary, but suspension of belief is part of the fun here. Still, it is an enjoyable movie despite its flaws and really makes one wish that dragons were real and not just fantasy. 7/10