FILM OF THE WEEK
Dragon Rider (Cert PG, 92 mins, Sky, Animation/Fantasy/Adventure, available now on Sky Cinema, available from May 17
Bottleneck (voiced by Glenn Wrage) presides over the last remaining herd of dragons in a valley, which is also home to furry creatures called brownies.
When deforestation threatens the verdant sanctuary, outcast silver dragon Firedrake (Thomas Brodie Sangster) and brownie best friend Sorrel (Felicity Jones) plot a daring course of action.
Before the next full moon, they intend to locate the fabled Rim of Heaven, which wise elder Slatebeard (Peter Marinker) rhapsodises as “a paradise for dragons where the moon flowers shine”.
Taking flight to a nearby city under cover of darkness, Firedrake and Sorrel encounter an orphan named Ben (Freddie Highmore) and mistake the teenage thief for a mystical dragon rider.
Meanwhile, dragon-hunting behemoth Nettlebrand (Sir Patrick Stewart) learns of the globe-trotting odyssey and gives chase.
Based on German author Cornelia Funke’s best-selling 1997 children’s book, Dragon Rider is a sleek computer-animated adventure, which glides in the slipstream of the vastly superior How To Train Your Dragon.
Judged on its own modest merits, director Tomer Eshed’s fantastical odyssey boasts impressive visuals and Stewart roars through his supporting performance with a generous serving of theatrical ham.
A protracted narrative interlude in India, which welcomes lively vocal sparring between husband and wife Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar, unabashedly promotes lazy cultural stereotypes for easy laughs.
However, there is a big heart beating furiously beneath the film’s digitally rendered scales.
The execution may be a tad clumsy but director Eshed and legions of animators successfully claw their way to a crowd-pleasing resolution that earns a satisfied grin and maybe even a tear-filled eye.
Undergods (Cert 15, 92 mins, Lightbulb Film Distribution, SciFi/Fantasy/Thriller, available from May 17
In a dystopian, post-apocalyptic Europe, two men, K (Johann Meyers) and Z (Geza Rohrig), roam the streets in a van, looking for corpses and something more valuable – fresh meat.
Writer-director Chino Moya’s debut feature is a collection of short stories which sets its stall out early.
It’s atmospheric and very bleak but for those fearing they’ll have to watch 90-plus minutes of decaying brutalist architecture, we eventually cut to a couple living in an apartment block.
When they ‘invite’ a stranger into their home, it marks the beginning of serious problems.
Later, a father tells his daughter a bedtime story; one of the strangest tales a parent could relate to their sleepy offspring.
“This is a boring story,” she sighs. Sad to say, she’s not completely wrong.
K and Z eventually return and a man with apparent PTSD goes home to his estranged partner after years away, mirroring the opening tale.
The art direction is splendid in places with echoes of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and Enki Bilal’s graphic novels.
The cast, including Kate Dickie, Burn Gorman, Tanya Reynolds and Ned Dennehy, are excellent.