“Queen Ginnarra rules the Kingdom of Aberon with an iron fist. To her devout followers, she is the prophet of the abyss, a master of unfathomable power, commanding forces that lie beyond the grasp of mortal understanding. They believe that through evil deeds, they may win her unearthly blessings. She led a rebellion against us and murdered my father. I fled to the deadlands in exile. But there is a truth that chills the blood within my veins. Queen Ginnarra is not only ruler of our kingdom, she is my sister.”
Crown Of Shadows sells itself as Game Of Thrones Meets 300. There is a reason even small budget filmmakers want to do something akin to Game Of Thrones. It’s been immensely popular and has made a mint for HBO and the author of the books, George RR Martin. But there is also a reason why budget filmmakers should stay away from such material. To do it correctly costs a fortune, and you can’t hide cheap computer graphics with such an epic promise. It’s almost assuredly going to disappoint, and that’s the main story behind Crown Of Shadows.
The intro pretty much sums up the story. Queen Ginnarra (Tremethick) sits on the throne she won by killing her father. Her brother is Prince Elderon (Gourlay). He’s been roaming the dark woods with a kind of deathlike figure known as The Seer (Seath). This robed, mysterious guy basically speaks in enigmatic riddles and isn’t really much help to anyone. Elderon’s help comes from a dragon that appears whenever he is in a tight spot. The dragon was apparently summoned by his dying father to protect him. Meanwhile the Queen sends her toadies out to torture and kill the poor kid. There’s some bloody gore from the f/x team, but eventually there is an epic battle much too large to be seen on this budget, and dragons fight, and soldiers fight, and we get it all in slow-motion graphic-novel pieces to hide the budgetary issues.
The film certainly has a couple of bright spots, but they can’t overcome the mess the film delivers. The dragons at time look quite good, that is until they move. It appears the budget only allowed for the wings to be animated, and the bodies move at odd angles because they are moved as a kind of box. The ground shots are actually better, that show the dragon form disappearing and reappearing with the clouds.
One of the first rules of writing and filmmaking is that you need to show, and not tell. This film violates that rule at every turn. There are miles and pages of dialog, and it puts quite a strain on one’s eyelids. Of course, dialog is cheap to film. Large epic tales are not cheap to show. This is a hugely ambitious project that doesn’t quite make the cut. There is even some mystery as to the director. The film was also released under the title The Reign Of Queen Ginnarra under a different director’s name. I reached out to the studio for an explanation, but it appears Richard Campbell, who is credited with this version of the film, is a pseudonym, while Lawrie Brewster appears to be the actual director. He has other credits, while Campbell does not. I can understand him wanting to distance himself from the DVD release. They are identical films. Both have the same cast and story and share the far-too-long running time of 142 minutes.
The acting is mostly bad. Andrew Gourlay is horrible throughout. He looks more like little Anthony Soprano, and I don’t buy his performance for a second. He’s technically the lead, and he’s likely the worst of the cast. The opposite is true of Megan Tremethick, who is quite surprising as the evil queen. She doesn’t get the best stuff to play here, but she makes a meal of it whenever she can. She’s an absolute step above the rest here, and I’ll look for her again in the future.
I’m not sure if releasing this on DVD was an incredibly stupid idea or brilliant. If the f/x are truly as bad as they appear here, it was a brilliant idea. We’ll blame it on the old-school 7mbps bit-rate. If they are better than they appear here, they needed at least HD to showcase them. I suspect it’s all as bad as it seems.
The film is only worth a look for the curious in this genre. The story isn’t a bad one; it’s just a bad film all around. If you are checking it out because there is also a promised Lovecraft story here, you will also be disappointed. A lot of talk about The Old Ones and The Dark Gods, and the film opens with a Lovecraft quote. It’s all just talk and window-dressing here. They claim to be like Game Of Thrones. I have just one word for that: “Heretic”.
