The year 2017 brings surprises one by one. The next Dragonheart movie is hardly a good surprise. To be honest, the quality of the second and third films of the franchise was such that it would have been better not to have these films at all. With Dragon Heart 4, previous films played a cruel joke. It doesn't matter if you've seen them. The Quadriquel (or still the sequel to the latest prequel?) can be seen as a standalone film, even if the influence of the original 1996 film is felt here.
Influence means that Dragon Heart 4 is basically a repeat of the first movie. This is a very simple and understandable story. The royal family has two children, a brother and sister. Each of them carries a kind of dragon mark. Years later, the king dies. Dragon Drago, voiced by Patrick Stewart, shares a bond with each of the heirs. The rivalry between brother and sister for the throne is intensifying, the kingdom must be saved, and Drago must restore order on English soil.
“Dragon Heart 4” came out quite soft adventure film. By and large, like its predecessors, "Heart" is focused rather on children's audience. Not the most exciting action, combined with rather banal plot moves, turns “Heart of the Dragon” into a furiously boring story.
The main character played by Tom Rhys Harris did not like it. In a way, he wasn’t supposed to be liked, but even when his character evolved and showed up, I didn’t see him as a person or a hero. Dragon Drago, in turn, the movie is just a rescue. Ironically, Patrick Stewart is technically the first actor to voice Drago. It was his voice that was used in test shots of the original 1996 film.
The quality of implementation is at the level of a low-budget project. Despite the fact that the process of filming Dragon Heart 4 was controlled by a large studio and supplied the people who worked on the film with good scenery, costumes and special effects, literally everything here screams about the lack of funding. Creativity creators did not differ and to hide the penny budget failed.
However, not everything is so terrible and deplorable. Truth be told, in a string of disappointing Dragon Heart paintings, this part looks a lot better than I expected. And from time to time, Dragon Heart 4 looks even tolerable. Let the story go on a rolled-out and Dragon Heart 4 is a very predictable film, the action here develops always and does not sag. On the other hand, it’s obvious that the script just lacks depth or interesting subplots. In a way, this is a good thing, because there are no distracting and unnecessary details, but on the other hand, it really interferes with the originality of the project itself. This is another entertaining picture for the whole family, forgotten forever after watching.
4 out of 10