Ranger
Today we have a larger short film. This piece if almost thirty minutes long. And this is a JRR Tolkien middle Earth tale loosely based on the Simarillion, which is a book I never read but it didn’t keep me from watching a fantasy film. So we’re going to review this film, Ranger. The film is a 2012 film directed by Josh Fuluce.
The film follows Ranger aimlessly wondering throughout middle earth on a journey to find a purpose and meaning. But one day he sees an elvin girl dancing in a woods. There they fall in love. But their love is not approved by her father. There are three elves left in the woods and he doesn’t want his daughter marrying a man. So he offers him a deal. If he can steal a gem from the dragon’s cavern to return life to the forest, he can marry his daughter. Of course, this is meant to send the ranger to his certain death, but the young man is willing to defy the odds.
So let’s start with the good here. The writing is wonderful. It hits all the right notes being enchanting, whimsical and epic at the same time. The acting is top notch. In some ways this could easily be smuggled into a Lord of The Rings films and you wouldn’t notice a difference in quality.
The bad? Everything in this film falls apart when it comes to special effects. The orcs look okay, and they most definitely deserve a cookie for trying. But the dragon? Its hits the scene where he enters the can and then jumps to where’s he’s running out of the cave with the stone. That is disappointing and cheap, as there was not dragon. And when the dragon came out to attack later, I was in total shock that it looked like plastic. After everything done so well, why couldn’t they find some other method than terrible CGI.
Overall this film is both wonderful and tormenting at the same time. It’s just so perfect and great on so many levels. But the dragon? It just hurts the film so much. I was going to give it three and a half flicks, but I have to knock it down a grade. It’s just a film I want to love so much, but they killed it. I still think it’s worth checking out, but consider yourself warned.
2 ½ Flicks out of four
Overall Rating: A Wonderful Fantasy Killed by Bad CGI
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Lelue's Realm Presents : Short Film Theatre 