DVD Corner

Dragon Age: Dawn Of The Seeker Blu-ray Review

Not even the dragons can save “Dragon Age: Dawn Of The Seeker.”

After a previously released live-action “Dragon Age” web series, fans of the franchise can now watch an anime film brought to you by Bioware, Funimation, and Oxybot. The story of “Dawn Of The Seeker” involves a a Mage hating Seeker (Cassandra) who winds up teaming up with a Circle Mage (Regalyan) to rescue a kidnapped girl (Avexis) from the clutches of the evil Blood Mages (and their spies) who want to cripple the Chantry (the governing religious order).

The main problem with “Dawn Of The Seeker” is that it always feels like a feature length video game cut scene. Screenwriter Jeffrey Scott seems to have trouble adapting the video game universe to a film script and it clearly shows with the clumsy exposition, the rushed and forced characterization, and the laughable pieces of clichéd dialogue like “Hate can only breed more hate” and “Victory will be ours!” The animation is also very video game esque as well. While the dragons and armor look impressive, the poorly animated blood, the dead eyes, and the weird foggy cell shading style are kind of off-putting for such an ambitious project.

On the plus side, anything involving the dragons will capture your interest. The end battle between a dragon and a certain villain is especially epic.

Summary: Fans of the “Dragon Age” video games may want to check this out, but for everyone else, I’d say skip it.

Video/Audio:

The film, which is presented in widescreen 1080p, definitely looks better in hi-def than it does on DVD. The CGI animation has much better clarity on Blu-ray.

Both English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 have been included on the Blu-ray release. The English dub features some truly over-the-top voice acting. Expect to hear some awful accents and scenery chewing villain speak. The Japanese track has a much stronger voice acting cast and is the superior track. As for the sound f/x, they are dazzling. The booming score, the dragon roars, and the action sequences really put your speakers to work.

Extras:
* 2 DVD Copies. One contains the English language version (with extras) and the other contains the Japanese language version (sans extras). Why 2 discs were needed for this, I do not know.
* A code for a “Dragon Age: The Silent Grove” #1 digital comic book from Dark Horse.
* Trailers for “Tales Of Vesperia,” “Mass Effect,” “.Hack//Quantum,” “Sengoku Basara,” “Vexille,” “Fullmetal Alchemist,” “Dragon Ball Z Kai,” “The Legend Of The Legendary Heroes,” and Funimation.com.
* “Dragon Age production art stills gallery.
* “Dawn Of The Seeker Backstage Pass”-Bioware employees talk about the “Dragon Age” franchise, anime, the universe, mages, Templars, Seekers, the characters, the animation,
* “Bioware Studio Tour”- Speaks for itself.

May 30, 2012 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Bioware, Dragon Age Anime, Dragon Age: Dawn Of The Seeker Blu-ray Review