On a rare trip to the cinema I saw the latest Dungeons & Dragons Movie...
It was fantastic
They pulled it off, and managed to put together a movie which pretty accurately reflects what playing a game is actually like. Previous incarnations have made the cardinal sin of taking themselves too seriously because they built a world in which there are real consequences and motivations. This is not D&D.
Let's face it most parties you have every had the honour of joining make up their plans on the spur of the moment. Most of those plans go south almost immediately and the party scrapes a victory by the skin of their teeth. This is well portrayed in the character of Edgin (Chris Pine) who even styles himself as the team leader and planner. Every party needs a tank and Holgar (Michelle Rodriguez) fills this role with aplomb, they even give her a surprise romantic plot twist just to round out her character.
Low level mages are crap and this party's spellcaster is no different Simon the Sorceror (Jussie Smith) plays this to a tee. Individual player agency even if that sends a plan spiralling into failure is a critically important part of the playing experience. His triggering the bridge trap even whilst the rules are being explained to him is classic D&D.
The elf druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) is the only character that I struggled with because it was played as a jack of all trades. This may have been for plot reasons but she felt a little NPC to me. Talking of NPCs, who can forget the excellent Xenk Yendar (unpronounceable name starting with X... check!) the insufferable super character who cannot be bested in combat as he's too important to the plot to die, even though everyone kind of hates him.
Even the DM makes a sort of appearance as the hand of fate that tips the scales against our characters. most noticeably in the carefully orchestrated portal painting scene when the frame "accidentally" falls over onto the floor. So D&D.
Easter Eggs Galore
When you are dealing with a muti-generational fictional universe adored by millions you are going to need to lean on the fan service. It's why your core audience, the fans, are going put down the cold hard cash to go see your movie.
This is where many of the current crop of properties go astray. Instead of giving fans what they want the directors writers and producers all want to "subvert expectations" or lean into "representation" in order to chase some ethereal demographic of what they would like their audience to be. This is so mind numbingly empted headed thinking that it beggars belief. The first rule of any product is know your audience.
What this team did was mine the massive back catalogue of source material and pull out a few monsters that everyone is familiar with.
Aaracokra, Dragonborn, Rust Monsters, Owl Bears, Displacer Beasts, Gelatinous Cubes, Mimics and of course dragons. Colour me surprised when up pops Themberchaud the fattest Red Dragon you are every likely to encounter. He will be familiar to anyone who has had the misfortune to wind up in Gracklestugh the Duergar fortress city of the Underdark. Last I saw of him he'd slain his jailers and was merrily setting the city on fire.
Familiar spells peppered the action like bullets from a machine gun. Having a knock down drag out fight between two mages wielding Bigby's Hand was a sight to behold.
In the run up to release, the internet was wild with complaints about how they should have written this with the characters of the original D&D Cartoon from the 80's. The producers listened and lo and behold up they pop as contestants in the great games. Nice.
Will it Suceed?
Well if the runours are true and it cost $150 Million to make then it needs to turn $300 Million in order to break even. With the recent debacle over the OGL and the social media backlash, I'm not so sure that it will. Unlucky timing perhaps because without that cloud hanging over its head it should have been a no brainer choice for every D&D fan out there to go see it.
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