To call this a rip-off of The Lord of the Rings is a little far fetched. While the dialogue at times sounds re-worded, and one location (The Valley of the Dead) seems more like it's from The Scorpion King, rather Tolkien's Paths of the Dead. Gryphon is highly unoriginal, however, blended with terrible effects and wretched acting, making it a guilty pleasure at best.
Amber Benson performs her lines with a very stale voice, focusing too much on tone rather than delivery. Jonathan LaPaglia sounds like he's got a throat infection, as his portrayal of the heir to Benson's rivaling kingdom. Larry Drake seems tired with his performance, and when he is lively it's just way too over-the-top. Benson's father is too lackluster; LaPaglia's mother seems too theatrical, which isn't exactly how she should be considering the role, and LaPaglia's father has no idea how to continue after small beats/pauses.
The music is very redundant, with very little sweep. Though it is safe to say, considering the crap churned from Sci-Fi, it's the best score released for one of their made-for-TV movies.
The special effects are laughably bad. The gryphon is so two-dimensional, how the filmmaker thought this would pass with an audience is beyond me -- but considering this is the same guy that made Heatstroke, don't look for any brains.
All in all, with a romance sub plot that entangles itself in underlying incest, and a story that is hardly original, Gryphon is only good for background noise like the rest of Sci-Fi's productions. I highly recommend you skip it, unless you're looking for 90-minutes of unintentional hilarity.
Amber Benson performs her lines with a very stale voice, focusing too much on tone rather than delivery. Jonathan LaPaglia sounds like he's got a throat infection, as his portrayal of the heir to Benson's rivaling kingdom. Larry Drake seems tired with his performance, and when he is lively it's just way too over-the-top. Benson's father is too lackluster; LaPaglia's mother seems too theatrical, which isn't exactly how she should be considering the role, and LaPaglia's father has no idea how to continue after small beats/pauses.
The music is very redundant, with very little sweep. Though it is safe to say, considering the crap churned from Sci-Fi, it's the best score released for one of their made-for-TV movies.
The special effects are laughably bad. The gryphon is so two-dimensional, how the filmmaker thought this would pass with an audience is beyond me -- but considering this is the same guy that made Heatstroke, don't look for any brains.
All in all, with a romance sub plot that entangles itself in underlying incest, and a story that is hardly original, Gryphon is only good for background noise like the rest of Sci-Fi's productions. I highly recommend you skip it, unless you're looking for 90-minutes of unintentional hilarity.