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List Price: $19.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 13755
Released: March 28, 2006 |
| Our Price: $4.38 |
| Used Price: $4.40 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In a dark age long passed young Siegfried witnesses the horrible murder of his father King Siegmund of the Netherlands. Vowing to take back one day what is rightfully his Siegfried is granted refuge at an allied royal court. Under the watchful eye of his spell-casting mother Hjordis Siegfried rigorously trains for his big day of revenge becoming a powerful warrior. Acquiring a magical sword forged from a fallen star he sets out to rid the land from the brutal reign of the dragon Fafnir and to gain control over the gold Fafnir stole from the mythical Nibelungs. Victorious Siegfried baths in the dragon's blood making him invincible. His merriment is quickly tarnished however when the Nibelungs appear wanting their gold back. Frustrated that they will not even negotiate their fair share Siegfried leaves the a portion but takes for himself The Ring- the beautiful core piece of the Nibelung treasure. He unwisely chooses to ignore the Nibelung curse: he who possesses the Ring will never be able to hold onto true love.System Requirements:Running Time 132 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396100299 Manufacturer No: 10029
Description of Dark Kingdom - The Dragon King:
Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King is a visually impressive historical adventure based on the same Germanic and Norse legends that inspired Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle operas and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Produced for German television (and shot in South Africa), the film stars Benno Furmann as Siegfried, a prince whose family is slaughtered by a pair of evil kings; raised by a blacksmith (Max Von Sydow, still commanding as ever), he meets and falls for Valkyrie queen Brunhild (Kristanna Loken from Terminator 3) and slays the dragon Fafnir for King Gunther (Samuel West), which in turn, involves him in treachery, war, and separation from his beloved Brunhild. Well directed by Uli Edel (Last Exit to Brooklyn>, The Mists of Avalon), Dark Kingdom occasionally suffers from exceedingly purple dialogue, but the performances, action, and special effects combine to make for a rousing fantasy-drama. Originally broadcast at three hours in length, the DVD presentation here is the U.S. cut, which comes in at just over two hours; a battery of five making-of featurettes are included in the disc's supplemental features. --Paul Gaita
Dark Kingdom - The Dragon King Reviews:
Baaaaad Movie 
2008-09-29 - This movie was pretty bad, the only reason I bought it was because Robert Pattinson was in it, for about 5 minutes. After he was on screen, I thankfully turned the video off!
Dark Kingdom 
2008-09-15 - The acting was satisfactory. A considerable amount of artistic liberties were taken varying the story line and relationship of charactore to each other. It would be better to just present the original story line and try and explain the relationship of charactors to each other, A longer movie would be much better.
Jim
Not too bad, not great.
2008-06-12 - This was a decent effort to put the Nibelungenlied to film. The FX was good, the sets and costumes were above average and most of the actors were ok. However, it really didn't do much for me, and had too much of a TV-movie feel to it. I'd rather listen to Wagner.
Great except for the title 
2008-04-06 - This film in its original form was fairly faithful to the German version of the story, known as the Nibelungenlied. "Ring of the Nibelungs" would have been just fine as a title- so what if Wagner used it first (it is the same story after all). The acting was excellent- the motives and emotions of the characters really come through. You are watching one of the classic legendary stories portrayed as a very human story. Whoever decided to put "Dark Kingdom- The Dragon King on this film was an absolute idiot. It is the only thing that spoils the film.
If you think this is different from what you saw on the Science Fiction Channel 
2008-03-17 - ...You're right. Many scenes were cut out completely and others were shortened. What remains is a poor tribute to the efforts of a strong cast. Many of the humerous, short scenes which helped humanize the main character were cut as was much of Max Von Sydow's screen time.
The heavy handedness of the re-editing is as bad or worse than what one sees when a broadcast network puts on an R rated feature film, but less predictable. Believe me, save your money and wait for a chace to record a rerun of the original from TV.
