A princess is in the middle of her wedding ceremony when a dragon appears, picks her up and carries her away to a remote island.

You have to admit: that is a fairly efficient way to get my attention.

I went into I Am Dragon expecting something pretty but probably silly. Instead, I ended up genuinely loving it.

It is romantic, strange, visually beautiful and unapologetically fairy-tale. And sometimes I don't need a film to reinvent cinema. Sometimes I would simply like a dragon, an impossible island, beautiful clothes and two people I actually want to end up together.

Apparently that is not too much to ask.

Beauty and the Beast, but make the beast a dragon

The basic story has very familiar fairy-tale bones.

Princess Miroslava — Mira — is taken from the life she knows and carried to an isolated island. There she meets Arman, a mysterious young man who seems to be just as trapped there as she is.

Obviously, things are not quite that simple.

And yes, the story inevitably invites the Beauty and the Beast comparison: a young woman, an apparently dangerous creature, isolation and a relationship that changes as fear gives way to understanding.

But there is something about the dragon mythology that makes it work differently for me.

The beast is not merely an ugly prince waiting for a woman to discover his inner beauty. The dragon is genuinely dangerous. Arman is afraid of what he can become too.

That gives the romance something I did not expect from this film: tension without making the love story feel unpleasant.

It is ridiculously beautiful

This is probably what surprised me most.

The film looks gorgeous.

Not expensive in that glossy fantasy-film way where every surface has been polished until it stops feeling real. It is beautiful in a much more tactile way: stone, water, rough fabrics, pale skin, firelight, wind and enormous empty landscapes.

The island feels isolated rather than merely scenic. The world outside it feels like something out of an old illustrated fairy tale. And the production design gives everything just enough fantasy without drowning it in visual effects.

And yes, I noticed the clothes

Of course I did.

The costumes are exactly what I want from fantasy: recognisably inspired by historical clothing without feeling like somebody raided a museum costume department and became terrified of changing anything.

Mira's clothes are especially lovely because they belong to the visual language of the film. There are layers, embroidery, soft fabrics and dramatic shapes, but nothing feels like a generic “fantasy princess costume.”

Even when the plot pauses, I am perfectly capable of entertaining myself by staring at sleeves.

The romance actually works

This is where the film could very easily have lost me.

Fantasy romances sometimes seem to believe that if two sufficiently attractive people stare at one another beside dramatic scenery for long enough, the audience will simply accept that they are desperately in love.

No.

I need to see why.

Mira and Arman are allowed to become comfortable with one another. There is curiosity before romance. There are small moments, teasing, fear, trust and the gradual creation of a strange little life together.

That is what makes it charming.

The film gives them enough quiet time that when the emotional stakes become larger, the relationship does not feel as though the screenplay has suddenly informed us that they are soulmates.

Also: dragon

I realise this is not sophisticated criticism.

But dragons are cool.

There. I said it.

I have seen enough brooding princes, tortured billionaires, emotionally unavailable dukes and men who own suspiciously enormous apartments despite having no obvious employment.

Give me the dragon.

Would I watch it again?

Absolutely.

Not because it is flawless. It isn't.

But it understands exactly what kind of film it wants to be: a beautiful romantic fairy tale with a slightly darker heart. It does not spend half its running time apologising for being romantic, and it does not feel the need to turn every sincere moment into a joke.

I appreciate that more than ever.

So yes, years later, my recommendation remains the same:

watch the beautiful dragon movie.

At worst, you get two hours of extraordinary scenery and costumes.

At best, you may discover that Beauty and the Beast was simply missing a significantly better beast.