I Am Dragon (2015) - FFF - Through the Eyes of Cat

By Cat

Number Rolled: N/A

Movie Name/Year: I Am Dragon (2015)

Tagline: Love is frightening. 

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance 

Length: 107 minutes

Rating:  Unrated

Production Companies: Bazelevs Production, Mindstream Productions, Splendid Film

Producers: Vessela Bannzurkova, Timur Bekmambetov, Yakov Gordin, Natalya Smirnova, Antony Tanev, Igor Tsay, Mariya Zatulovskaya

Director: Indar Dzhendubaev

Writers: Aleksey Arsenev, Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko, Indar Dzhendubaev

Actors: Matvey Lykov, Mariya Poezzhaeva, Pyotr Romanov, Victoria Runtsova, Stanislav Lyubshin, Alyona Chekhova, Ieva Andrejevaite

Stunts: Valeriy Derkach, Aleksandr Gerasimov, Stanislav Kisilevskiy, Radka Petkova, Stanimir Stamatov

Viewing Options: Amazon Video (Included With Prime), YouTube (purchase)
Alternate Titles: On - Drakon, He's A Dragon

Blurb from Amazon: In the midst of her wedding, Princess Miroslava is kidnapped by a dragon and carried away into his castle on a remote island. Now the only things Mira has are a stone cage and a mysterious young man named Arman... but who is he and what is he doing on that island? Miroslava will know the truth too late: loving a dragon will reveal the bitter truth.

Cat’s Point of View:

I have a new favorite foreign film. 

I'd caught a glimpse of the trailer for this movie sometime around its release date, and had been intrigued. Of course, I became rather giddy and had to watch the film at once the moment I noticed it was available for streaming with my Amazon Prime subscription. 

There's a special place in my heart for tales of dragons. Throw in an interesting cultural landscape and a romance spin and it's a recipe for success in my book. In fact, I've read a few books along those lines. This wasn't based on any of those. However, I've read a few pieces on this movie that seem to mention a literary base for the film, however, I haven't found any specifics to solidify that.

There were a lot of effects in the movie, but it didn't feel over-burdened by them. It's understandably a large element of a fantasy movie that involves a mythical creature and magical transformations. The computer generated element successfully enhanced the story seamlessly.

I found a trailer dubbed in English for this film, so I can imagine that a version exists as such, but I really enjoyed the voices of the Russian actors. After watching the original version with the subtitles, the voices in that trailer just didn't seem to match the characters I'd grown to love.

Filmed on the Black Sea, the visual landscape of this movie was simply stunning - both in real setting and that which was created. I loved the beautiful red in striking contrast with the snowy backdrop. I adored the drama of what literally made up the backbone of the dragon's island. There was a profound symbolism present in the massive skull of the ancient dragon.

I enjoyed the character development of the young dragon, and the chemistry between the characters was believable. The pacing seemed just right to allow for a natural progression for the story. I was relieved that nothing was rushed to resolution.

I will likely watch this movie again very soon - and many times in the future. I might just even track down a DVD for my collection. 

Languages

Speech Available: Russian

Subtitles Available: English [CC]

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 81%

Metascore - None

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – 6.7/10

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 5/5

Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: PG-13

Movie Trailer: