Dragonslayer

The saga is simple enough in this hybrid sword-and-sorcery fantasy: Dark Ages necromancer, summoned to conquer tyrannical dragon, inconveniently dies testing his powers; Sorcerer's Apprentice takes over, falls foul of virgin-sacrificing king; eventually takes on the impressively monstrous 'Vermithrax Pejorative' with a little help from the beyond. But it's the universal resonance of myth and legend that works against the film despite its creditable packaging: Richardson's 'last sorcerer' is inevitably close kin to the Merlin of Excalibur, while the callow youth with an ambitious half-grasp of his mentor's magic comes to us ready-filtered through the likes of Luke Skywalker. Verges on the nasty for the nippers; sails close to déjà vu for fantasy fans; fated, probably, to damnation by faint praise.