6 Exceptionally Badass Movie Dragons

Dragons are awesome. I am sure there are countless other ways I could have opened this article, but come on, why dance around a subject when we can just jump right to the heart of it? At some point, someone saw a lizard and thought to themselves: if that thing was huge and could breathe fire, it would be fucking terrifying. And thus, dragons were born. What is amazing about dragons is, they are never quite represented the same. In some films, you have the dragon as this massive antagonist, tormenting villagers and shit. A sort of "end boss" who seems unbeatable. Yet, in other films, dragons can be the good guys and can even help the protagonist. I think it should also be noted that riding a dragon into battle is about as epic a thing as anyone can do. Dragons are SO badass that they have transcended their genre. Whereas once, dragons were delegated to the fantasy genre, that is not the case anymore. From animated films aimed at children to dystopian science fiction settings, dragons are no longer solely the dungeon dwellers we once saw them as. Hell, in a few of the following entries, the dragons were the best thing about the film. Well, in most cases, dragons are the high point of anything they are in. They are dragons, after all. Their badassery speaks for itself. So, from the softhearted and misunderstood, to the feral and terrifying, here are 6 exceptionally badass dragons from movies. Oh, and the only reason Falcor didn't make the list is because he is an adorable luck dragon who looks like a mix between a dog and Wilford Brimley. That, my friends, is NOT badass. Cool? Yes. Badass? No. You know which dragons are badass, though.... Draco - Dragonheart Sean Connery as a fucking dragon. Again, do I even need to say anything else? I want to take a moment, as I sometimes do, to imagine what the pitch meeting for this movie must have been like..... "Man, that CG stuff has come really far, huh? *Takes another hit of his joint* We should totally make a movie where we have a giant CG dragon, but we should have it sound EXACTLY like Sean Connery. I mean, EXACTLY. I would say we should just get Connery to do the voice, but we all know the likelihood of that happening." Yet somehow, these fuckers got Sean Connery to voice Draco in Dragonheart. Oh, and this was not like one of those times an actor came in and actually disguised their voice or gave it some character. No, this was a giant Scottish dragon. In all senses, it should have failed. The thing is though, to me, it didn't. Maybe now when we watch the movie it shows its age, but when it came out, the Sean Connery dragon was a high water mark for cinema dragons, at least up to that point. Also, for those NOT taking notes, yes, this movie features a giant dragon with a Scottish baroque. How can you even be mad at that? Vermithrax Pejorative - Dragonslayer First off, are we allowed to talk about how fucking metal the name of this 1981 movie is? I feel like when you say the name of this movie, you have to scream it in a heavy metal voice: DRAGONNNNSLAYEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!! On a more serious note, we may look at the above picture and see what is clearly a giant puppet, but you need to understand that Dragonslayer's effects were mind-blowing for their time. This was 1981, and no movie dragon had ever been this, well, dragonish. Up to this point, we had mostly only seen stop motion dragons that were clearly made out of clay (no disrespect to any of Ray Harryhausens' amazing work, by the way.) But, Vermithrax Pejorative changed all that. It should also be noted that this movie was clearly drooling all over Star Wars, but it had something that George Lucas' films didn't: a fucking fire-breathing dragon. Wait, did the shitty Star Wars prequels have a fire-breathing dragon? Probably. Again, young ones may see this movie and scoff, but they need to give props to the films that did dragons first and did them right. Maleficent - Sleeping Beauty First off, can we please not discuss Disney's live-action retcon of this entire movie? I see what they were trying to do (make money), but they raped one of their own classics, and it made no sense. So please, do not think of the Maleficent from that film (as lovely as her cheekbones were). Instead, let us remember the first animated dragon that really freaked us out as kids. I mean, just take a moment to let the above picture sink in. Everything about that dragon design may appear cliche upon first glance, but once you take a moment to let the color pallete sink in, you realize just how far outside of the box Disney was shooting with this one. Purple and black? It's not a fucking sports car. Yet, they pulled it off. So much so, that I am bringing this dragon that was created in 1959 up on a list in 2014. Fucking Disney, man. Impressive stuff. Smaug - The Hobbit Let it be known, before I shower anything about these films with praise, that I am not a fan of them. I don't like to idea of directors going back and retreading on material that worked for them. The Hobbit could have EASILY been one movie, but the studios were like, "wait, this dude brought us in BILLIONS before, I bet he can do it again." But another 9 hours of this shit? Nope. Not a fan. Still, I will begrudgingly admit that I am a fan of Smaug. The thing is, this is all that anyone really wanted from this trilogy. They wanted Smaug to be a fucking scary, intimidating badass, and that is what they got. I will even give extra points for the Benedict Cumberbatch voice work. He hides his voice enough that we don't see his face in the character, yet still uses some elements that make it recognizable. The Male - Reign Of Fire So you have Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey fighting a pimp male dragon in a dystopian future so they can end the bloodline of dragons that have pretty much ruined humanity. This movie fucking sells itself. It also took the idea of dragons and put them in a different time and place, which put a very fresh twist on their core concept. This was not some dragon in a fantasy setting. It was a fantasy creature in a realistic setting. It is the kind of "outside the box" thinking that I wish more writers and directors would practice with their work. Also, the film has one of the most manly movie moments ever. Shit like this is what MAKES a cult film a cult film: You're fucking welcome. The Hungarian Horntail - Harry Potter The Harry Potter world is a world full of wonder (and many types of dragons). But in keeping with the theme of the list, which seems to be the joining of the words "badass" and "dragons," the two merge perfectly when Harry Potter is forced to fight the Hungarian Horntail during the Triwizard tournament in The Goblet of Fire. This dragon pretty much embodies anything about dragons that make them scary to us, and cranks it up to ten. From the many spikes adorning its body to the double flame throwers under the tongue, it is just dragon design done perfectly. And, the tension in the scene only builds more and more when you realize this dragon is pretty intent on killing a teenage boy in front of a school full of spectators. That's about as badass as it gets, isn't it?

6 Exceptionally Badass Movie Dragons

Maleficent – Sleeping Beauty