I must confess I never played the original game in which this movie was inspired; in fact, my only familiarity with the Dragon Quest franchise was watching the 1991 anime series during my childhood.
I still remember the initial backlash this movie got, having a much lower score here on imdb for a while. I assume the reason of that negative reception was the plot twist reveal near the conclusion of the story, but personally I don't think the movie was nowhere as bad as some reviews claimed.
In fact, it was a fairly enjoyable adventure flick which does adapt many conventions from Japanse roleplaying games into a 3D format, with a rather pleasant visual style (Even it occasionally resembles the cutscenes from a videogame, though considering the final plot twist, maybe such kind of aesthetic was pretty apt)
Sure, I can understand perfectly well why the fans would have preferred an entirely faithful adaptation of the original game, but even after the controversial plot twist reveal, the movie still shows a lot of love for this world and its characters, particularly in the way the main character confronts the villain, delivering a decent anti-escapism message without deriding the fans. (Something I wish Hollywood was able to learn)
And I really appreciate that, even from the perspective of a casual viewer with not much knowledge of this franchise.
I still remember the initial backlash this movie got, having a much lower score here on imdb for a while. I assume the reason of that negative reception was the plot twist reveal near the conclusion of the story, but personally I don't think the movie was nowhere as bad as some reviews claimed.
In fact, it was a fairly enjoyable adventure flick which does adapt many conventions from Japanse roleplaying games into a 3D format, with a rather pleasant visual style (Even it occasionally resembles the cutscenes from a videogame, though considering the final plot twist, maybe such kind of aesthetic was pretty apt)
Sure, I can understand perfectly well why the fans would have preferred an entirely faithful adaptation of the original game, but even after the controversial plot twist reveal, the movie still shows a lot of love for this world and its characters, particularly in the way the main character confronts the villain, delivering a decent anti-escapism message without deriding the fans. (Something I wish Hollywood was able to learn)
And I really appreciate that, even from the perspective of a casual viewer with not much knowledge of this franchise.