In this world, dragons are hunted for their vitriol, a highly combustible and expensive form of fuel. Of course, Ahab is not in it for the money. He wants revenge from a great white dragon—just like the book, except not really. Ishmael, should you chose to call him that, is a dragon harpooner looking too sign onto the crew of the feared dragon hunter. He and his moody sidekick Queequeg are hired by Ahab’s adopted daughter, Rachel (presumably a nod to one of the other ships mentioned in the Melville novel). Of course, she is attractive, generating all kinds of helpful sexual tension within the crew. This most definitely includes Ishmael, but she does not seem to mind his attentions as much.
Age would probably have worked better if they had been hunting sea-dragons, because that would have given them an excuse to serve aboard a ship. Instead, the Pequod is an anachronistic armored wagon that could have been a castoff from the Jawas. Shockingly though, the dragon effects are not all that bad, but brother, Danny Glover sure is. Perhaps Ahab’s make-up is partly to blame, making Glover look as if he were simply drizzled with candle wax. However, he is so overwrought and pointlessly venomous, he single-handedly reduces the film to low camp.
As the romantic leads (in Moby-Dick?) Corey Sevier and Sofia Pernas are a bit stiff perhaps, but not to a debilitating extent. Frankly, ex-footballer turned genre movie heavy Vinnie Jones steals the show as second mate Stubb, exhibiting charisma and energy well beyond viewer expectations. Unfortunately, the film inexplicably kills off their trump card before it even reaches the third act. Still, David Morgan also adds some nice supporting seasoning as the morally ambiguous first mate Starbuck.
