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.

What can I say? Some films just plain suck. Whether they are cheaply done or filled with bad actors or have a bad director or whatever, some just aren't good. This is one of those for most every reason you can name.First, the acting. I don't think I've seen any of these actors before (except the one who was the wizard, I have seen him in something; personally, I thought his performance was the only one in this that was worth anything), and I'm not broken up about it. Not a one was worth much at all. Amber Benson was especially bad (to everyone who likes her and thinks she's hot and everything, sorry; she's cute, but that doesn't make up for terrible acting). Jonathan LaPaglia was pretty bad too.Next, the effects. Does anybody agree that the Gryphon effect was one of the worst CGI's in the history of CGI? Dear Lord above save us from such atrociousness! They should have spent more on that one and less on everything else! Finally, the plot. Nothing too original here, and some was cheesy-cliché--the prince and princess sleeping together (that scene was a blatant rip-off of Troy!), the two nations working together (multiple fantasy and sci-fi movies), the nations reuniting into one at the end (blah blah blah).Don't waste brain matter watching this movie. It just is not worth it. And for the love of God, don't buy or rent it! Don't' encourage these morons to make anything else.

The fact that so many fantasy movies turn out to be unforgivably bad, is something that surprises me every time. It is beyond me how anyone can turn fantasy into total boredom, but it is obvious that there are many people that can do just that. Of course, Gryphon is no exception and it probably is one of the worst fantasy films ever made. Why is it so bad? Let's see: 1. the story is boring and unimaginative. 2. tons of clichés that don't even make sense 3. mediocre - and often bad - acting 4. lousy CGI effects - it reminded me old movies like Jason and the Argonauts, except when they made those movies they had an excuse 5. uninteresting direction 6. the main monster is a ...gryphon? To be honest this should have tipped me off from the start 7. the people that made this film don't know the first thing about fantasy 8. I could go on but what's the point?So, was there anything good about this film? Well, yes. It ended. All in all, a total waste of my time. Watch it at your own risk. You have been warned. 2/10 for this one.

Duh... I think I'm as good as Jackson!I have this nifty software called M$ Paint.. a friend has a hacked copy of Adobe something or other on his apple IIc.. and we have a tiny budget we managed to con some sucker out of investing so I can make an epic masterpiece too!Now reality sets in that this movie is epic for sure.. in the sheer level of horrifying bad quality.. the only saving grace is the locations used for filming (and they were used due to lower cost for filming).The CGI is so pathetic it makes Southpark look like it's cutting edge "realism".. Honestly I'd be beyond ashamed to be associated with this POS in any form.. If any of you remember bad special effects from 70's flicks etc then this will remind you of such.. but it's far far worse. And at least the films back then had the excuse of lacking the methods we have now.. there is no excuse for this now though.I actually watched this due to Amber Benson being cast in it... and she can act as has been previously proved... However given the drivel of this script (and script should be taken with a box of salt!) and the inane crap from the director she had no chance.In the end I have three pieces of advice:1) Amber Benson... FIRE YOUR AGENT ASAP & then call Joss up and ask for a real part!2) Anyone thinking of watching this movie please hit your head off the nearest hard object until the thought of such goes away... trust me it'll hurt less.3) For the Director, Writers and others responsible for this film... please remove yourselves from the gene pool immediately... we already have enough stupidity in this world without your trying to spread yours around as well...Ultimately this film is one everyone should run away from.. as far and as fast as they possibly can! Maybe I should bill the director/writers for my therapy needed after this experience?