Undescribable Perfection

Such a frustrating disappointment

Let's be realistic.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The plot is naive and childish, the acting is average. I mean couldn't you afford proper looking dragons? Sometimes it seems they've got it and then it slips back to insane childish acting. Yes there's action, suspense, sorcery and the works, but for me it's definitely not a film for a movie night but fit for a casual cursory look. Then in the end, there's no happy ending. Nico has the opportunity to end Kraken's dragonous rule and restore peace to the kingdom. What does he do? he and his little friends abandon his people and runs away like powerless chickens to an island. To live happily ever after?? Give me a break. The bad guy is still alive to continue his breeding of dragons and ruthless tyranny. Terrible lower than low budget movie.

An odd little film, not entirely satisfying but not entirely ridiculous at the same time. By all accounts this Scandinavian fantasy film was based on a young adult novel published in Denmark, and it follows the usual template of having the younger characters battling against some evil and oppressive adults. In terms of look and appearance - this is a very visual production - this is often superior to similar American fare.The main thing that's noticeable about this film is how much of an influence GAME OF THRONES has been on it. You could be forgiven for thinking the opening scenes are set in Castle Black, the look of the costumes and sets are so similar. There aren't a great deal of special effects here but there are some well-realised dragons and the like. The pacing is fast and even if you never get fully immersed in the storyline or the characters, it keeps you watching regardless. The great actor Soren Malling (A HIJACKING) plays one of the villains.

First things first: the books are fabulous... There! This movie - not so much. From here on it is easy to fall into the ubiquitous "the-book-was-better-than-the-movie-duh" trap, because this usually falls into the apples and oranges category. This is not what was wrong here. The books are immensely detailed and thought through. Nothing happens out of the blue and for no reason. In other words: there is a stringent plot course from start to finish with very little meandering. That seems to have vanished completely in the movie. If you know the books, you know *why* things happen. Why Dina does what she does and meet who she meets - in short; we get to know her very well and, just as importantly, her family. Here she apparently out of the blue befriends a drunkard assassin, a hard boiled armourer and a powder wielding mini-merlin, all willing to die for her for no reason whatsoever. Perhaps they mixed up the synopsis and the script when filming. One thing is certain. It is going to be immensely difficult to continue the story with gigantic build-up pieces missing.As for the scenery mostly everything is spotless. Absolutely wonderful and for the most part beautifully filmed. And, by the way, the dragons are rendered verbatim out of the book as vile little buggers more closely related to primitive rats, albeit rather large, than the mercurial aerosol cans dragons are more often portrayed as.

Dina (Rebecca Emilie Sattrup) has no friends; nobody wants to be around the Shamer's daughter and her mother Melussina (Maria Bonnevie) is viewed by all as a witch, necessary perhaps but a witch nonetheless. And Dina has inherited her mother's gifts, for good and for ill. When the ruling family of the castle and town of Dunark are brutally murdered, it seems the deed was done by the eldest son Nico (Jakob Oftebro), but he refuses to admit guilt and so Melussina is called to "see" his guilt. She fails, and so high- ranking Draken (Peter Plaugborg) brings Dina to the town, but she too fails to elicit guilt in Nico. Draken, however, is determined to condemn Nico and take control of the town, and he not only has most of the ranking officers on his side, but a nasty surprise in the castle's dungeons - dragons! Can Dina find allies to help save herself and her mother? Or will the dragons eat them all?....This is a wonderfully medieval-styled film, with well-realized characters and a very strong female lead, plus some really terrific dragons (more lizard-like than we've seen of late). The film is based on the first of a well-loved Danish YA series, The Shamer Chronicles by Lene Kaaberol, and on the basis of this adaptation, I think the books would be well worth seeking out in translation. At turns dark and humorous, "The Shamer's Daughter" is a solid, action-packed and yet quite touching and emotional film, well worth finding if you can!