RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON

 

Publicity poster for Raya and the Last Dragon (© Don Hall/Carlos López Estrada/Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Animation Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Exactly a month ago, on 17 November 2022, I watched the recent Disney computer-animated fantasy feature film Raya and the Last Dragon.

Directed by Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, co-directed and co-written by Paul Briggs, and released in 2021 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Raya and the Last Dragon has a very (over?) complicated plot that tells of an ancient southeast Asian subcontinent kingdom, Kumandra, whose five nations (each named after a vital body portion of a dragon) formerly co-existed peacefully with its prosperity augmented by its benevolent deified dragons.

But 500 years ago came the Druun, amorphous purple-and-black entities that devastated Kumandra, turning many of its nations' people and all but one of its dragons to stone. Happily, Sisu (voiced by Awkwafina), the sole surviving dragon, was able to concentrate her departed dragon kin's powers together with her own into a dragon gem whose power warded off the Druun and revived all of the stone people, but, tragically, not the stone dragons. Since then, moreover, the five nations have no longer trusted one another.

Now, 500 years later, Benja the leader of the nation Heart, where Sisu's dragon gem is guarded, attempts to reunify Kumandra by inviting delegations from the other four nations to a feast, but he and his young daughter Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran), trained by him as the gem's newest guardian, are ruthlessly betrayed by Namaari, the young daughter of the Fang nation's leader, resulting in a violent skirmish in which the gem is smashed into five sections. Each of the other four nations steals one, then flees, because the smashing of the gem has incited the release from the subterranean zone of the dreaded Druun, which promptly begin petrifying everyone again, including Benja.

Raya flees, riding her bizarre pet (a fictitious giant armadillo-like pill-bug known as a pill-bear and named Tuk Tuk), determined not only to recover the four missing gem sections but also to rediscover Sisu, the last dragon, who is the only one capable of uniting them into a single whole gem and utilising it to banish the Druun once more. Along the way, and five years later, Raya grudgingly accepts the assistance of various others who have lost family members to the Druun like she has done, though she doesn't trust any of them, and succeeds in locating Sisu.

Raya also encounters Namaari, now a teenage warrior like her (and voiced by Gemma Chan), who again like her is seeking to capture the five gem sections to ensure that Fang becomes the dominant nation. Having previously been betrayed by Namaari so vehemently, Raya is not ready to trust her again, but Sisu persuades her to do so, several times as the movie progresses, but each time Namaari betrays her, and even kills Sisu.

Eventually, however, because this is after all a fairytale, everything works out – the Druun are vanquished, the petrified people and all of the dragons (including Sisu) are revived, and the five nations of Kumandra are reconciled once more.

The computer-created, eye-popping visuals in Raya and the Last Dragon are absolutely gorgeous, especially Sisu, who at times resembles a pale azure unicorn as much as a dragon. There is plenty of amusing knockabout humour, both visual and verbal, to savour and enjoy too, particularly from Sisu, who, due to her incessantly manic utterings and monologues, courtesy of much ab-libbing throughout by Awkwafina, comes across at times like a dragonesque version of Robin Williams's hyperactive blue genie in Disney's Aladdin! Unusually for Disney animated movies, however, this one is not a musical – the only songs appear over the end credits.

Oh, and btw, for all of you trivia buffs reading this review, Raya is Disney's very first entirely original princess, not based upon or inspired by any pre-existing character or real person; and her name, 'Raya', happens to be Malay for 'hibiscus' (the national flower of Malaysia) and Indonesian for 'great' – so now you know!

BUT: here is my fundamental problem with this movie. The message preached long and hard throughout is that it is imperative that we trust one another – no matter how much we are betrayed, no matter how traitorous others behave, we must still trust, and eventually it will all turn out fine.

This may well be the case in a fairytale like the one that this movie unfurls, or in an ideal world. But as any victim of a con artist, swindler, shyster, or worse will only too readily confirm, to behave in such a naive manner in the real world is asking for trouble, big trouble. I wish it were not the case, and I hate to sound cynical, but I've been around long enough to know that's what happens in reality.

Consequently, I find myself concerned by how heavily this message of trust above all else is hammered out at its audience, which will certainly include impressionable youngsters who are yet to learn about the lowlife out there, not just on the streets and in business but on the other end of computers spouting forth spam and all manner of other online malware on a scale of deception unparalleled in human history.

So, enjoy Raya and the Last Dragon with its ravishing beauty and spellbinding magic by all means, but in my opinion it would be best to consign its saccharine platitudes about trust to the land of fairytale in which this film is set.

That apart, if you'd like to witness at first hand the dazzling spectacle awaiting you in Raya and the Last Dragon, be sure to click here to view a stunning trailer for this movie on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

My official Disney large-size action figure of Sisu (© Walt Disney Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

MANTICORE & MANDRAKE - MONSTROUS ENCOUNTERS OF THE CURIOUS KIND

 

The full covers from my official DVDs of Manticore and Mandrake (both images © Tripp Reed/The Sci-Fi Channel/Syfy – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The multitude of TV creature features produced and premiered by The Sci-Fi Channel (later renamed Syfy) during the past two decades are often denigrated by critics because their monsters are not as awesome as those in blockbuster films. However, this is grossly unfair, overlooking as it does the crucial, telling fact that this company simply doesn't have blockbuster budgets to draw upon, and does very well imho with the much more modest budgets that it does have. Certainly, if these movies had been around when I was growing up I would have revelled in them, just as I did with those of Ray Harryhausen way back then (and still do today, for that matter).

In particular, I am impressed that rather than remaining with the tried and trusted monster catalogue of aquatic monsters, gargantuan insects, enormous apes, and radiation-transformed mutant beasts, SyFy is not afraid to present its audience with a much more varied array of examples, often lesser known or more curious, but no less interesting or exciting. On 4 November 2022, I watched two such movies, and here they are:

 

 

Screenshot of one of the manticores from Manticore (© Tripp Reed/The Sci-Fi Channel – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

MANTICORE

My first Sci-Fi Channel/Syfy monster movie watch of 4 November 2022 was the 2005 creature feature Manticore.

Directed by Tripp Reed (who also appeared on-screen, playing Sgt Henderson), and originally broadcast by the then-named Sci-Fi Channel in 2005, Manticore focuses upon a pair of those eponymous mythical monsters that combine the body of an enormous lion with the sting-tipped tail of a scorpion and sometimes the wings of an eagle too – they were winged in this movie.

A platoon of US soldiers in war-torn northern Iraq, already striving to contain local insurrections and ambushes, is sent to a remote town to rescue a foolhardy news reporter and her cameraman, wholly unaware that these two have encountered a ferocious manticore, one which has already slain almost the entire town's population.

It turns out that a pair of huge stone manticores – the Sacred Twins – have been secretly animated by a crazed Iraqi terrorist who claims descent from the ancient kings of Babylon and plans to use the manticores to take back and rule Iraq, being uniquely protected from their ferocity by the magical amulet that he used in the ceremony that brought them to life.

There duly follows a lot of bloodshed and gore as one by one the platoon's members experience grisly deaths in the town at the teeth, talons, and sting of the rampaging, rapacious manticore lurking there. Eventually, it is killed by the US military dropping a major bomb upon the town, but the other one still survives. And guess what?

According to this movie, the only way for the two manticores to be turned back to stone was for them to stare directly at each other – which of course can no longer happen now that one of them is dead. This plot device owes more to basilisk and cockatrice mythology than it does to anything manticorean, but it provides an interesting twist within the film's storyline.

It takes a long time for the CGI-created manticores to be clearly seen (and never together), but when they are finally and fully revealed they are certainly impressive. The two most famous stars of Manticore are Robert Beltran (as platoon leader Sgt Tony Baxter) and Heather Donahue (Corporal Keats), and it made thrilling watching after I finally obtained it as a Region 1 DVD following a long but worthwhile wait to procure one.

Manticore is exactly the kind of movie that I'd have loved watching on TV on a rainy Saturday afternoon as a youngster, but I derived just as much enjoyment from it now, with its fast pace and unusual, far from run of the mill monsters.

And if you'd like a taster of what to expect from it, be sure to click here to watch an official Manticore trailer on YouTube that shows how the manticores were brought to life.

 

 

The killer tree in all its foliated fury from Mandrake (© Tripp Reed/Syfy – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

MANDRAKE

Some hours later on 4 November 2022, putting away my now-watched DVD of the Sci Fi Channel's monster movie Manticore in the Monsters section of my DVD/video collection, I noticed that the DVD immediately next to it was another Sci Fi Channel (now renamed SyFy) movie that I'd long promised myself to watch – the  monster plant movie Mandrake, so that's what I watched.

Directed once again by Tripp Read (who also edited it and co-wrote its screenplay), and originally broadcast by SyFy in 2010, the title of this movie, Mandrake, is misleading, as the plot has nothing to do with the real Mandragora plant that according to legend (but not reality) screams when it is uprooted.

Instead, the botanical antagonist is a supernatural killer tree, armed (so to speak!) with coiling and constricting tentacular tendrils reminiscent of those reported for the fabled Madagascan man-eating tree (click here to read all about that herbaceous horror on my ShukerNature blog).

The story, set in the tropical jungle of an unnamed Latin American country (but actually filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana), is all about a very rich but crazed modern-day conquistador descendant named Harry Vargas (played by Benito Martinez) who is determined at any cost, financial or human, to get his hands on a legendary dagger buried with one of his conquistador ancestors in said jungle.

So he sends out a couple of anthropological/archaeological expeditions to find his ancestor's tomb and retrieve the dagger, which the second expedition succeeds in doing, thanks to being led by no-nonsense jungle survival expert Sgt Darren McCall (Max Martini).

In so doing, however, they also succeed in unleashing a deadly curse upon themselves, as the dagger's removal awakens its supernatural guardian, the killer tree. Not only that, a highly inimical, supposedly long-extinct native tribe, the (fictitious) Yamballi, who seek to placate the tree with human sacrifices, is also on their trail, in order to use them as sacrifices. The CGI tree is not seen in its entirety very often, but when it is seen it is truly a sight to behold, which I mean in a good way.

The plot itself is a very formulaic adventure/thriller – the team's members get picked off one by one, meeting a variety of grisly ends, as the villain becomes ever more unhinged in his relentless pursuit of his goal, in this case the dagger, but it still provides a thrilling ride along the way.

Less gory overall, nonetheless, than Manticore, Mandrake includes characters that you actually root for – not that this saves most of them from the grasping roots of the killer tree! (Relatively) famous names among the cast include the afore-mentioned Max Martini as McCall and Betsy Russell as archaeologist Dr Felicia.

To venture boldly but safely through the cursed jungle of the killer tree, be sure to click here to view the entire Mandrake movie currently free of on YouTube.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX (aka CURSE OF THE PHARAOH)

 

A Czech Riddles of the Sphinx DVD that depicts the sphinx on its cover (the cover of my English-language DVD of this movie doesn't, unfortunately) (© George Mendeluk/Insight Film Studios/Sphinx Productions (II)/The Sci-Fi Channel – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 6 October 2022, I watched on DVD the TV monster movie Riddles of the Sphinx (aka Crse of the Pharaoh).

Directed by George Mendeluk, and originally screened on TV by The Sci-Fi Channel in 2008, Riddles of the Sphinx concerns an archaeologist's search for the fabled Hall of Knowledge of ancient Egypt, the repository for all human wisdom and knowledge acquired since time began, but now long lost – or so historians thought.

It turns out to be an interdimensional chamber, access to which is only obtained by solving a series of riddles that spontaneously appear upon an ammonite-shaped key-functioning stone, and are linked to various other interdimensional chambers associated with certain of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The archaeologist (referred to simply as Thomas, and played by Donnelly Rhodes) succeeds in accessing the first of these chambers, only to be confronted and killed by a ferocious, ostensibly indestructible sphinx that escapes to track down the dead man's history schoolteacher son, Robert (Lochlyn Munro), an Indiana Jones facsimile who is also highly knowledgeable in Egyptology and cryptography.

When given the ammonite stone by his father's former professional partner Jessica (a Lara Croft lookalike who just so happens to be Robert's former romantic partner), Robert realises that the sphinx's release not only threatens himself and his mega-intelligent teenage daughter Karen (Emily Tennant) but also presages the imminent release of a terrifying plague-like pandemic that will wipe out all of humanity.

Consequently, he seeks urgent assistance from a secret quasi-US governmental organisation called The Sentinel, where he used to work, and from where chief operative Ryder (Mackenzie Gray) readily agrees to join them in their quest, duly requisitioning from The Sentinel whatever they need to assist them. However, Ryder has his own secret agenda…

Riddles of the Sphinx inevitably samples everything from the Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider franchises to Stargate, The Librarian, and more, but not in a good way, sadly, as it is all glaringly derivative with little originality of its own.

Far worse for me, however, was the almost entirely unintelligible dialogue delivery of the film's principal actress, Dina Meyer (playing gun-toting leather-clad action heroine Jessica). Enunciation of separate words by her was all but non-existent, at least to my ears as a Brit – instead, her words just slipped and blended together into a non-delineated stream of incomprehensible sound. Bearing in mind that Jessica is one of the movie's two lead characters, being unable to tell what she is saying means that I missed all manner of important clues as to what was happening and back-story aspects.

Worse still, when I resorted to employing subtitles, I discovered that the DVD doesn't include any! Rewinding frequently to attempt lip-reading helped on occasion, but by and large this major problem ruined the film for me. Everyone else's dialogue was perfectly intelligible, so my ears clearly weren't at fault.

As for the CGI sphinx: to be fair, it is impressive, effortlessly transforming from huge sphinx to massive lion-like man (played by Dario Delacio) and back again, but again there is an intrinsic problem. This sphinx is winged, enabling it to chase after its human quarry wherever and however they seek to escape from it, whether on foot, by car, or even in an aeroplane. However, in Egyptian mythology, sphinxes are not winged (as confirmed by the huge wingless Great Sphinx of Giza edifice, for instance) – they are only winged in Greek mythology. However, a wingless sphinx would pose a far lesser threat than a winged one, so I can forgive the film makers for this muddling of mythologies.

Overall, had Meyer's diction been (a lot) clearer, Riddles of the Sphinx would have been an enjoyable 90-minute romp. As it was, its DVD definitely needs a subtitle option, because at least for me the riddle of what Meyer was saying proved far more difficult to solve than any riddles contained in this movie's plot.

If you'd like to catch a glimpse of this movie's spectacular sphinx in all its monstrous majesty and malevolence, be sure to click here to watch an official Riddles of the Sphinx trailer on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

My mother Mary Shuker and I with the Great Sphinx at Giza, Egypt, 2006 (© Dr Karl Shuker)