Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker

Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker or Dragon Age: Blood Mage no Seisen if you prefer, is the animated tie-in to the popular video game series, Dragon Age. I've written about similar tie-ins to video games before and this is sort of a thing for me now. This feature film was a collaboration between BioWare and Funimation. I'd call this an anime since it was done in Japan but the style itself isn't "anime" but CG, which is refreshing.

The story stars Cassandra Pentaghast, Nevarran royalty, chantry Seeker and dragon hunter. We all know Cassandra don't we? She's the woman who was giving Varric a hard time in Dragon Age 2. If she seemed like kind of a bitch then, you don't know half of it. In this film, she's angry, hot-headed and bloodthirsty. Seriously, she just recklessly charges into battle, jumping three whole stories in the air and cleaves stone golems like they were nothing. It all seems too much but she's supposed to be a badass dragon hunter or something and "amazing" moves did happen with Duncan in the original Dragon Age, though his was more plausible. Here's Cassandra after a hard day's work.

The story begins in a dark forest where a group of obviously evil mages in dark cloaks are standing in a circle doing spooky stuff. They're led by a guy called Frenic who looks like some kind of pedophile with a mask covering half his face. He's not really a pedophile but hey, there's a mysterious girl they're doing all sort off things to so yeah. Cassandra and a group of seekers crash the party. They take the little girl while Frenic manages to get away. Whoever this girl is, she's important.

Cassandra belongs to the Order of Seekers. Think of them as the internal police force of the Chantry that is tasked with finding and rooting out corruption. For those unfamiliar, the Chantry is the big religion in Dragon Age that pretty much influences everything. The Chantry has two orders here; the Seekers, as previously mentioned, and the Templars, who are knights tasked with fighting mages.

There's tension between the orders. The film doesn't do a good job of explaining it in detail but we can infer it's a glory thing or because the Seekers have to keep an eye on the Templars. Also, Knight Commander Martel, the leader of the Templars is a huge asshole in the beginning. That doesn't help.

The girl is taken into the Seeker's custody. Cassandra's mentor, Byron, kidnaps the girl out of the Seeker's base. He reveals to her that there's some kind of conspiracy afoot and he needed to get the girl to safety. He gets killed and Cassandra is framed for it along with Byron's contact, a mage named Regalyan. They manage to escape and it seems they have to solve the mystery themselves! Oh, and Cassandra really really hates mages with the intensity of a thousand suns! How will they ever get along?

That sums up the main plot of DADotS basically. There's a conspiracy and it's up to Cassandra and Regalyan to get to the bottom of it. A lot of the focus of the story in the middle part is the relationship between Cassandra and the unfortunate mage. They gradually learn to trust each other but we're supposed to care apparently. If you can get past Cassandra's shrill personality, good for you. I won't spoil since the ending confrontations are kinda cool so here's a list of things I liked and didn't like.

The Good

- The animation is much better than expected. It's not perfect but it's a nice change of pace compared to that off model drivel called Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. 

- The traitor-villain is very loathsome. There are different villains here; the obvious villain (Frenic) and the traitors. The traitor bad guy is really terrible and stupid and I found myself rooting for Cassandra to just kill the traitor already. A good villain is a plus.

- The final battle is pretty epic despite the ludicrous stunts Cassandra pulls.

- I don't know who Gackt is or why he's so awesome that he's all anyone mentions when they're talking about this show. He does a voice for a main character and sings a song but only in the Japanese version. Is this good or bad? I guess good. If you like Gackt, great. If you don't, well it's the English version anyway so he won't bother you.

The Bad

- Though the animation gets better and better near the finale, (it's usually the reverse in my experience) it does look "clunky" at times. That's CG for you. The faces sometimes don't show emotion very well but I think that's just me. It's a minor thing.

- The story seems very generic. I wish they would have fleshed out the location a bit more. It takes place in Orlais after all and DA fans haven't seen much of that. It would be nice if we got something in addition to the standard story.

- Frenic is a crappy villain. He's just a generic evil mage who wants power. It doesn't help that Frenic makes a hilariously stupid face near the climax.

- Cassandra is irritating. I know she mellows out and eventually trusts Regalyan but Jesus Christ, is she a hot-headed, angry little zealot. Her voice will grate on your nerves.

And that's about it. If you like Dragon Age, you will find this show amusing though the lack of any extra lore or character development other than Cassandra may leave you disappointed. If you don't care about Dragon Age the simple story, mystery plot and the action should leave you satisfied.

I thought it was OK and better than Mass Effect: Paragon Lost.

Dante's Inferno Animated

First off, Dante's Inferno Animated is not an animated version of Dante's The Inferno. Rather, it is based on a video game called Dante's Inferno, which is based very, VERY, loosely on the actual work. It's not usual for video games to get this treatment so I figured it was worth a look. I don't own the game but I know enough about it.

Look at that. It says it's an animated epic. Whatever. The main character is Dante who is apparently a crusader out to take the holy land. Right of the bat, Dante's horse FLIPS through the air. Again, whatever. Dante rushes home to his wife Beatrice, who he believes is in great danger. Thankfully, she's not in danger but is simply dead. Her soul is taken by Lucifer to hell as payment for a "bargain" of some sort to be explained later. Dante decides that the rational thing to do is to jump into hell to save her and so begins the story and the hack n' slash killfest hour.

The story is incredibly fast with Dante cruising at the speed of one circle of hell per ten minutes. As he fights on, his past is shown to us via flashbacks. When we're not watching a flashback of Dante, we're watching him hack demons over and over and over again. That's pretty much it basically. The show is nothing but Dante whining about how hellish hell is as he carves an incredibly bloody path through the underworld. He is accompanied by Virgil who does all the exposition since Dante can only growl "Beatrice!" as the ghost of his very naked wife floats away. That's it. What do you expect being based on a video game of the novel?

By the way, the trailer is wrong. It's based on the game of the original material. ON THE GAME. I can't stress that enough so all you literary assholes out there looking for an adaptation of the real work won't get dissapointed. Dante never killed no demons. In fairness, the way it shows the circles of hell is pretty creative. The trailer mentions animated studios.

There were five studios involved giving us five distinct styles. The first is more western in appearance. It reminded me of Spawn though not as good and probably not the same studio I think. The animation seemed sped up and weird in some areas. The second is a lot better. It's more anime-like but tons more awesome. The third is where Dante gets anorexic with long angsty hair. In the fourth he gains 300 pounds of muscle mass and looks more like some kind of shonen crap. In the finale, he looks boring but the fight scenes are pulled of technically well. If it weren't for the varying styles, this epic would have been epically boring. It helps keep some variety. All versions are very violent with blood and guts and even more blood, tits, gore, blood. It's very bloody. Blood.

All in all, it's pointless, mindless action but it's fun. I never expected anything more than that. The visuals keep it interesting enough to hold my attention otherwise it gets repetitive. Don't expect anything deep in this movie. Throw away the, ugh, "book" you pussy and watch some violence.