Tag Archives: Hydra

The Cyan Dragon (2020)

October 8, 2024 Ken Miller Leave a comment

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is the-yan-dragon-copy.jpg
This movie features a many-headed monstrosity! — This movie features a many-headed monstrosity!

Starring Cui Erkang, Zhang Ruiyao, Su Suxia, Cheng Qi, Zhang Ying and Yin Shaosheng. Written by Liu Jiahong and Wang Runz. Directed by Ji Zhizhong and Tony Wei. Tencent Penguin Pictures

One of the hydra-creature's toothy heads — One of the hydra-creature’s toothy heads

A dying general transfers the power of the Cyan Dragon into the body of Xiang, a lowly footsoldier, who must learn to harness the energy to defeat an enemy nation led by a villain capable of beckoning a massive, multi-headed monster. The general’s sister, Ling, tutors Xiang on how to use his powers while they head for the frontline of the war, but Xiang must contend with his instincts to avoid the oncoming danger… and he also starts to fall in love with Ling.

THE CYAN DRAGON is a Chinese-made flick that starts with acrobatic 300-style war scenes, set within green screen-type virtual vistas, that are very cool and exciting to watch, with lots of wirework and characters utilising different powers.

Soldiers are routed by the villain's multi-headed serpent beast! — Soldiers are routed by the villain’s multi-headed serpent beast!

This is where we’re first introduced to a group of masked bad guys who look great on-screen. They each have their own supernatural skills: one killer leaves a smoke-like black trail as he swiftly moves about, another has a hand that transforms into a swollen lava-fist, and the chief villain is able to summon a hydra-creature from beneath the earth.

This dude can turn his hand into a big lava-fist!

The masked bad dudes and their hydra-monster!

During this opening skirmish we also get to see how the power of the Cyan Dragon can be used, as the doomed heroic general restructures the material of his sword, causing it to become super-extended, so that he can skewer many adversaries onto his blade at the same time. This battle set piece is great fun and thrilling to watch, so it’s a pity that it is the only such large scale fight featured in the movie.

With Xiang becoming the host to the Cyan Dragon energy, the plot takes time to show us how the protagonist is initially rather unheroic, needing warrior woman Ling to keep him on track. Xiang, Ling and a couple of escorts set off on their mission, where they are stalked by the masked dudes, who use a kind of floating, brass spying drone-device to track them.

Ling, the fighting femme heroine — Ling is the stern, fighting-femme heroine

The ending sees Xiang and Ling fighting the remaining chief villain in a snowy landscape, trying to survive as the baddie briefly subdivides into three different warriors and then expands in size to become a giant fighter with a fiery halo.

When Ling is killed by the villain, Xiang screams in anger and sadness, zooms upwards through the clouds, out of Earth’s atmosphere, entering the void of space! Then he powers back down to Earth, now dressed as the fully-armoured fighter Cyan Dragon!

Our hero slams back down to Earth and says... "My name is Cyan Dragon!" — Our hero slams back down to Earth and says… “My name is Cyan Dragon!”

Cyan Dragon mauls the masked chief, but the villain has one ace left up his sleeve, as he summons the many-headed super-beast once again!

For a while the villain becomes part of the gigantic monster itself, by melding with its throbbing innards

This finale, with the totally CGI Cyan Dragon warrior battling the CGI hydra monster in a CGI landscape, is little more than glorified computer game footage, but it’s fun to watch nonetheless.

When Xiang becomes encased in his armour he does look very CGI, there's no doubt about that, but the action's fun to watch anyway — When Xiang becomes encased in his armour he does look very CGI, there’s no doubt about that, but the action’s enjoyable to watch anyway

The movie is entertaining and thrilling in places, with lots of wirework and too-cool-for-school villains. It’s a shame, then, that the film is so short. It would’ve been more satisfying to see Xiang spend time to fully explore the growth of his powers, and the notion that his energy can be personified and interacted with (it leaves his body a couple of times and takes on the form of a small dragon-creature) should really have been dwelt on longer.

Above: three shots from a scene where Xiang chats with a tiny dragon, which is the embodiment of the energy now inside him

The movie is also known by the title BLUE DRAGON OF ALIEN BATTLEGEAR.

The armoured Cyan Dragon warrior versus the huge hydra-monster!

Hercules (2014)

May 2, 2022 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Hercules leaps at the tree-wrecking Erymanthian Boar! — Hercules attacks the huge, tree-wrecking Erymanthian Boar!

Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) and his small, loyal warrior team earn gold as roaming mercenaries for hire. But when he accepts the offer of Lord Cotys (John Hurt) of Thrace to train an army in order to protect the kingdom from a ruthless warlord called Rhesus (Tobias Santelmann), Hercules must finally make a choice between making money and making a difference.

Dwayne Johnson is a natural fit as the muscled hero — Dwayne Johnson wears the lion headgear well!

Based on Steve Moore’s comic ‘Hercules: The Thracian Wars’, the screenplay, written by Ryan Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos, goes in a very interesting direction, presenting Hercules’ legendary labours as merely exaggerated stories used to boost his claim to be an unbeatable demigod. His band of mercs, made up of knife-wielding Spartan Autolycus, Amazon archer Atalanta, berserker warrior Tydeus, the philosophical spearman Amphiaraus and storyteller Iolaus, all do their best to help overstate their leader’s prowess as much as possible.

Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Dwayne Johnson, Reece Ritchie and Rufus Sewell

Ian McShane is wonderful, of course, as Amphiaraus, who can see visions of what is to come (but keeps getting his time of death wrong!)

Director Brett Ratner handles the movie really well, orchestrating some impressive big scale battles, most notably the clash with the bald, savage Bessi tribesmen, and he inserts twists and revelations into the story at exactly the right points. This plotting skilfully builds up to the scene that makes HERCULES a favourite fantasy action movie of mine… when, during the film’s desperate, all-is-lost moment, Hercules draws on all his willpower and belief to actually tap into the godlike strength required to break his chains.

It’s such a highpoint when Dwayne roars “I am Hercules!” and leaps into action. Love it!

What helps make this scene work so well is that, up until this point, the movie has worked hard to strip away the legend and demystify Hercules’ feats, revealing that his fights with the likes of the Hydra and the Nemean Lion were all fabricated or overly embellished. ‘Centaurs’ are revealed to merely be inaccurately observed mounted warriors and Cerberus proves to be a misremembered hallucination. So, by the time Hercules is shackled in the dungeon, seemingly powerless to prevent Cotys’ daughter Ergenia (Rebecca Ferguson) from being executed, you really don’t think he will be able to draw upon the superhuman might needed to save the day.

Dwayne Johnson makes for a perfect, very physical Hercules, Ian McShane stands out as Amphiaraus, who amusingly keeps mistakenly thinking he can foresee his own imminent death, and Rufus Sewell imbues Autolycus with a cynical charm.

Autolycus in action during the battle with the green-painted Bessi tribesmen

Though all of the monsters are ultimately revealed to be bogus, the CGI utilised to bring them to the screen is top-notch, especially the huge, tree-splintering Erymanthian Boar. The three huge, black wolves that Hercules combats in the dungeon are well executed too by the visual effects team, with one of the critters getting its jaws snapped in the vicious skirmish with the Greek strongman.

The hellish Cerberus... — The hellish three-headed hound Cerberus…

...is revealed to be three feral, snarling wolves owned by King Eurystheus (Joseph Fiennes) — …is revealed to be three feral, snarling wolves owned by King Eurystheus (Joseph Fiennes)

HERCULES is a handsome, well-mounted yarn with good production design and cinematography, which deftly balances humour and seriousness to produce a movie that rewards repeated viewings.

Here are some posters…

Finally, here’s the awesome Erymanthian Boar in action…

Devoted to every kind of movie and TV monster, from King Kong to Godzilla, from the Blob to Alien. Plus monsters from other media too, including books and comics.