One of the more interesting fantasy movies from the early 1980’s. What’s most surprising about Dragonslayer are how well many of the dragon effects hold up even to this day. Dragonslayer was long before the days of Smaug and Peter Jackson’s Hobbit. This movie was done by ILM while they were prepping for Empire Strikes Back and it was one of the first films to use the GoMotion camera which moved as the objects were animated, providing a more life-like and realistic special effect.
Look for a lead performance by Peter MacNicol as the bumbling wizard. He’s probably best known for his role in Ghostbusters II as the art curator Poha. He’s not bad here but it’s pretty clear to see why he never became a leading man again. This role fits him pretty well though.
The pacing is off a bit in this with some stretches of boredom but I enjoyed it nonetheless and would recommend to anyone who’s a fan of fantasy films and dragons.