Gamer Films: Dragon Age- Rise of the Seeker

I'm going to pretend that this is just based on the one game in the series that I like.  Today's film is Dragon Age: Rise of the Seeker.  It's a new film, which kind of confuses me.  Most of the films I'm going to cover here are releases designed to coincide with a new game release (i.e. tomorrow's Resident Evil film).  This film is about a year late to be for the last game and a couple more to be based on the original.  The story, however, is much closer to the original game.  I r confused.  On the plus side, it's based on the game I like.  Given how complex the back-story of the game is, I was concerned that it would be either too simple or too dense.  How did they do?  To find out, read on...

The story is a bit complicated.  There is a strict Church group and there are Mages, which are feared and controlled.  It's all very deep at times.

Instead of lingering on that, here's the title line...

The villains are a cabal of Blood Mages, magic-users that use blood for their spells.  The villains are using an Elf girl for something, but...

...our heroine arrives with a group of Templars.  She makes short work of them, but the main villain escapes.

It's also at this point that you realize that this movie is going to be bloody.  It's not kid's stuff!

Things take a turn, however, as our heroine goes along with her mentor on a mission that seems to go against her beliefs.  Oh and that guy who was obviously going to die...well, he dies.

Our heroine- who hates Mages- is forced to team up with a Mage to save the day.  This leads to the film's one odd omission.

The original game is all about the Blight and their threat.  They show up here...in one scene...as lackies.  There's Fan Service and then there's silliness.

As we learn, our heroine has a tragic back-story involving Mages, which explains her prejudice.

That's nice. Want to go save the kingdom from an army of Dragons now?

I won't SPOIL the entire finale, but I will say that things don't exactly go well at first...

 In true video-game fashion, the Boss gets beaten...but then transforms into a new form.  This is actually a neat-looking finale and quite epic, so I won't SPOIL that either.

I will say that the film sets up sequel-bait.  Is this for a game or a film?  The End.

Dragons are always cool- Asylum films aside.  In all honesty, I didn't know what to expect with this film.  For one, I didn't even know that it existed.  Second, I was unsure as to which game they would make into a film.  If you don't know, Dragon Age 2- as an Electronic Arts sequel- changed a lot of things, including the leads and the location in which it was set.  Thankfully, this was based a lot more on the first game.  Regardless of how you feel about the games, the film tells a good- albeit safe- story.  The characters start out one way and go through a nice little journey of change.  As a whole, the thing feels nicely-paced and has some good action.  Some of the plot twists- which I won't SPOIL- were pretty obvious though (at least to me).  They don't do too much to really break the mold- as one might say- but it's a good story nonetheless.  It probably won't blow you away, but it's a solid, action-adventure tale that stands on its own and alongside the series.  While I yearn for a good game to come in the series, I leave you with this one shot to entice you to see the finale...

Next up, the sequel to a Resident Evil animated film that was decent.  On the plus side, there's no Milla Jovovich in sight!  Stay tuned...