Good concept, poorly executed.

A different way of telling a story

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

After so many reviewers butchered the flick, I'm almost reluctant to say I think it's not all bad (voted 4/10). To start with, it's a C movie with cheap actors, cheap effects (the monster looks crap, no arguing about that), shot in the cheapest location they could find (Bulgaria or Romania, depending on whether you believe the opening titles or the ending titles). Obviously, it can't look like 'Bored of the Rings'. But under the production circumstances, it is acceptable. I liked the two kings who have personal difficulties to overcome their hatred for each other. They would rather not join forces to attack the wizard. Also the princess was cool because she always has blood or mud on her face, had to do the dirty work with sword in hand, not just look pretty, sit around and scream 'OMG, it's the monster' all the time like in the old days of C movies. Except for the visible problems due to low budget, some problems also lie within the script. The evil wizard seems terribly clichéd as a villain, while many things are poorly explained or not at all. There you go, it surely is somewhat silly, but OK to watch once.

Stuck on the public bus from San Jose to Montezuma, Costa Rica, and as an American accustomed to barbaric dragons and sorcerer flicks, this was not only surprising, but wonderful.We boarded the bus at 6:30am, content in the knowledge that after 5 hours, we would be arriving on the tropical Pacific beach at Montezuma, on the western peninsula in Costa Rica. It was unsurprising, however, to find that a movie chosen by the bus driver on the bus was of American heritage, as American Consumerism and Capitalism are running rampant all over this military-free nation. 50 percent of Costa Rica's GDP comes from the export of fruits and sugar...51 percent come from tourism and for those of us lucky enough to be white AND choosing the public transit system to the coast, SCI-FI channel's "Attack of the Gryphon" gave us a taste of home (though we had to read the English sub-titles as they had graciously chosen the Spanish over-dubbing for the 4 Tico's on board.)I could summarize and critique this fine film for you, but will not. Basically, it sucked. Besides the 10 minute break where we were allowed off of the bus to eat gallo pinto for breakfast and watch the bus driver re-start "Attack of the Gryphon" for the second time after the climatic battle between good woman and man warriors and evil sorcerer, the film was mostly ignored. As I'm sure it was ignored on whichever Friday night it was played on SCI-FI Channel.Don't bother ever paying money for this movie. If it happens to be on, and you happen to be stuck on a tour bus... f*** it. Its not totally completely horrible.

God bless the Sci Fi Channel. It never ceases to amaze me with its ineptitude. And GRYPHON may well be something of a pinnacle. I dare you to find a film that features a more pathetic CGI creature.Beyond that, we get a plot that seems to toss every Harry Potter cliché imaginable at its audience. I can picture a bunch of guys in the Sci Fi Channel's boardroom shaking their heads in unison with an executive's ranting."What this story needs is more magic." "Yes, RJ." "And some knights. I like knights. They could fight each other with swords.""Yes, RJ.""And don't forget the women. We could make them witches. Witches in tight costumes. Did they have rubber suites back then?""Whatever you say, RJ."It probably didn't happen that way, but it might as well have. The only pleasure here is seeing the painfully miscast Larry Drake struggle to deliver lines that sound like they were written to entertain kindergarteners.

The fact that so many fantasy movies turn out to be unforgivably bad, is something that surprises me every time. It is beyond me how anyone can turn fantasy into total boredom, but it is obvious that there are many people that can do just that. Of course, Gryphon is no exception and it probably is one of the worst fantasy films ever made. Why is it so bad? Let's see: 1. the story is boring and unimaginative. 2. tons of clichés that don't even make sense 3. mediocre - and often bad - acting 4. lousy CGI effects - it reminded me old movies like Jason and the Argonauts, except when they made those movies they had an excuse 5. uninteresting direction 6. the main monster is a ...gryphon? To be honest this should have tipped me off from the start 7. the people that made this film don't know the first thing about fantasy 8. I could go on but what's the point?So, was there anything good about this film? Well, yes. It ended. All in all, a total waste of my time. Watch it at your own risk. You have been warned. 2/10 for this one.