Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker – Review

In the land of Orlais, where battles are fought with swords and magic, a young heroine rises as templars, mages, and dragons clash. Cassandra, a brash and beautiful Seeker, must stop a conspiracy that threatens the realm’s most powerful religious order, the Chantry of Andraste. Accused of treasonous crimes and hunted by friend and foe, Cassandra must clear her name and overcome her raging emotions in order to save the day and take her place in legend. A bold tale that has quite the fan following based on the highly successful video game franchise by Bioware, director Fumihiko Sori and the good folks at FUNIimation made sure that the amount of care and dedication to this project was evident in the first five minutes of the film. This isn’t classified as anime to the realists out there but it does add to the trend of CG films bombarding the market similar to last years’ Tekken: Blood Vengeance.

Dawn of the Seeker really tries to tell a story, and sucks you in by revealing character who I can say with confidence are interesting! The film centers not just on Cassandra’s life as a Seeker, but also on the continuing themes of faith and corruption within the Chantry. That said, if the video games didn’t spark your interest, this film probably wont do anything for you either. It deals with the same subject matter and environments such as getting tangled up in a conspiracy, which pits her against blood mages as a primary antagonist. If you couldn’t guess, yes blood mages are the bad guys and you will be introduced to many clans throughout the world. There are a few warring factions in this world, as well.

For those who are NOT familiar with the game, don’t fret! In my opinion you should at least understand the core conflicts which is enough to enjoy this film on a basic level. Cassandra is the type of main character that begs you to cry out in excitement during thrilling moments. Their vocal performances are also well done, befitting the professionals behind them. If you are a logician you are going to find a couple things that don’t make sense, but I wouldn’t worry about it, the point of the film is to continue the franchises story while providing a lot of action, and a bit of dialog; not an intellectual exercise. More importantly, Dawn of the Seeker is a first for Funimation, as it was the first time that they had worked from scratch and not adapted a Japanese production for the west. Although that is valid enough reason to support this films’ effort, the real strenght relies, however, upon the consumers attachment to the franchise’s world.

Like I mentioned above, the action is pulse-pounding. You can see everything that is going on in the screen clearly which brings a greater reaction from the viewer. At times, some of the scenes seem to drift away from the original plot, but in the end, you’ll see that each is important in developing the character personalities, and helping to understand them more. This works well in conjunction with the animation style, since the detail and shadow effects are so amazing, it will take a few viewings just to stop drooling over yourself. Another great thing about this film is the weapons, which as in anime, research has always been done to blend a balanced present and futuristic/fantasy weaponry. Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker is a film any fan of the video game should rush out and see, as it involves wonderful fight scenes, pyrotechnics, and epic moments throughout.