Product Description

IN THE TRADITION OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS COMES A BRAND NEW EPICFANTASY.A FANTASY-ADVENTURE STORY BASED ON NORDIC MYTHS OF THERING OF THE NIBELUNGS ABOUT THE SON OF A SIMPLE SWORDSMITH WHOREPEATEDLY SAVES HIS COUNTRY, NOT KNOWING THAT HE IS HEIR TO ATHRONE.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19236 in DVD
• Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
• Released on: 2006-03-28
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 184 minutes

Amazon.com
Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King is a visually impressive historical adventure based on the same Germanic and Norse legends that inspired Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle operas and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Produced for German television (and shot in South Africa), the film stars Benno Furmann as Siegfried, a prince whose family is slaughtered by a pair of evil kings; raised by a blacksmith (Max Von Sydow, still commanding as ever), he meets and falls for Valkyrie queen Brunhild (Kristanna Loken from Terminator 3) and slays the dragon Fafnir for King Gunther (Samuel West), which in turn, involves him in treachery, war, and separation from his beloved Brunhild. Well directed by Uli Edel (Last Exit to Brooklyn>, The Mists of Avalon), Dark Kingdom occasionally suffers from exceedingly purple dialogue, but the performances, action, and special effects combine to make for a rousing fantasy-drama. Originally broadcast at three hours in length, the DVD presentation here is the U.S. cut, which comes in at just over two hours; a battery of five making-of featurettes are included in the disc's supplemental features. --Paul Gaita

From the back cover
From producer Volker Engel (visual effects supervisor of Godzilla and Independence Day) comes the story of the young blacksmith Siegfried who, not knowing that he is heir to a conquered kingdom, becomes popular with the Burgunds by slaying their bane, the dragon Fafnir. When the reward seems to be a huge treasure, Siegfried ignores the curse that lies on the hoard--which now endangers his love to beautiful Norse warrior queen Brunhild.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining -- but cut
Compared to the region 2 DVD, where the film has 2 parts (as it was shown on European TV) and runs about 177 minutes in PAL (which equals 184 minutes in NTSC), this version was obviously cut by about 50 minutes. The title (UK: Ring of the Nibelungs) was also inexplicably changed, lest any U.S. viewers be put off by the similarity to the Wagner opera cycle. The fact is that the operas are based on the same source material, an ancient (about 800 year old) Germanic saga, similar to the British Beowulf legend and other myths. The "Nibelungenlied" has been filmed several times (there is even a silent movie version), but this latest TV adaptation has been updated to match the tastes of today's audiences. There is plenty of swordplay, some good special effects, and a fine story. Some younger viewers might be surprised that someone had ideas like that 750 years before Tolkien. Kristanna Loken is great to look at and quite adept at handling a sword. Since the cast is international (German, Swedish, America-Norwegian), there is a weird mix of accents, but apart from that, the movie is quite entertaining and deserves some recognition. The soundtrack is also good, and the DVD offers a decent 5.1 sound. The opening map places the action (as in the original saga) in Burgundy, a region that straddles today's border between France and Germany. The movie was shot in South Africa, although the landscapes are digitally made to resemble Scandinavian ones.

Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King
First off, let me say that if you like Norse myth you'll like Dark Kingdom. This is one of the stories that inspired Tolkien to write Lord of the Rings. Or should I say, one of three stories, because they combine three stories to make this film.

This is the story of Brunhild and Siegfried from Wagner's the ring cycle Brunhild is usually the fat lady. That's where the saying comes from, "The opera ain't over until the fat lady sings."

Brunhild was a match for any man, or God. This movie is a good movie, but if you saw it on the sci-fi channel. You saw a more complete movie, than you got on the special edition DVD.

1) first cut Saxons at the Smithy
2) Siegfried bringing the Dragon back to Bergen.
3) the lady saying she would be a pagan again just for tonight
4) Kremheld confessing her love for Siegfried to Hagen.

My question is, why did they make these cuts for the American version of the DVD. Also, why did they change the title from, ring of the nibelungs?

I believe the DVD is still worth having, but it only gets four stars because of the edits.

If you want the un-cut version...
...and can view region 2/PAL, then it's available on amazon.co.de and is titled 'Die Nibelungen: Der Fluch Des Drachen'. Amazon.co.de will take your amazon.com password and settings and the page layout is the same - so even with minimal to non-existant German you should be able to get it.

Comes with both English and German sound tracks and is 177 minutes long.

There's no point in me reviewing the story as so many others have done so better than I could.

It's worth tackling the German as from the other reviews I gather a lot has been hacked out of the US release. (My rating is based on the German release).