Dungeons and Dragons Movie

I remember AD&D and Forgotten Realms back in 90’s when it was gritty, dark, sexual and bloody, like Conan was. This looks like a CW show. Definitely not what I was playing back in the day.
 
I don't think you will hear anyone talking about it after the writers announced they purposely emasculated the male characters. Yeah that's what I want to watch...
Hold on a second there! You make it sound like...like this is a *trend* or something in films. :mad:

I really really hope not. The trailer has so much fan service, gelatinous Cubes, Displacer Beast (though, shouldn't they be 2 feet over?), it would be an epic waste o money
 
Hold on a second there! You make it sound like...like this is a *trend* or something in films. :mad:

I really really hope not. The trailer has so much fan service, gelatinous Cubes, Displacer Beast (though, shouldn't they be 2 feet over?), it would be an epic waste o money
I'll go see it, but then, I actually paid money to see the last Dungeons and Dragons movie and that stank up the theater pretty bad.

I'm hopeful, but not optimistic. The fan service stuff does fill me with some hope, (although you just know there's at least one "We've got about a one in twenty chance!" joke coming). What makes me skeptical more than anything else is the tone. Like the last D&D movie the "feel" of it just screams 2023. Like Hollywood is still absolutely terrified of committing to the high fantasy tone of LOTR or Game of Thrones.

For those that missed it, the last one was closer to "Renn Faire! The Movie!" than anything resembling an actual D&D setting.

I remember AD&D and Forgotten Realms back in 90’s when it was gritty, dark, sexual and bloody, like Conan was. This looks like a CW show. Definitely not what I was playing back in the day.
I wish someone would tell Hollywood about Forgotten Realms. Crystal Shard would be great on film and Hollywood could actually make the elf black and the fans would LOVE it. The one famous Elven main character who is SUPPOSED to be black and Hollywood won't go anywhere near him.

Baldur's Gate could work well too, but it would require a movie director as good as Peter Jackson able to explain the Time of Troubles in an opening narration and have it make sense.
 
I'll go see it, but then, I actually paid money to see the last Dungeons and Dragons movie and that stank up the theater pretty bad.

I'm hopeful, but not optimistic. The fan service stuff does fill me with some hope, (although you just know there's at least one "We've got about a one in twenty chance!" joke coming). What makes me skeptical more than anything else is the tone. Like the last D&D movie the "feel" of it just screams 2023. Like Hollywood is still absolutely terrified of committing to the high fantasy tone of LOTR or Game of Thrones.

For those that missed it, the last one was closer to "Renn Faire! The Movie!" than anything resembling an actual D&D setting.


I wish someone would tell Hollywood about Forgotten Realms. Crystal Shard would be great on film and Hollywood could actually make the elf black and the fans would LOVE it. The one famous Elven main character who is SUPPOSED to be black and Hollywood won't go anywhere near him.

Baldur's Gate could work well too, but it would require a movie director as good as Peter Jackson able to explain the Time of Troubles in an opening narration and have it make sense.

I am planning to go see it with a buncha friends when it comes out.

we are so hopeful, but cautious. If it is good, I will prolly see again...maybe again

Just doing an old D&D Module would have be great! STart off low level, more movies as the characters progressed!!! No kid killing in the Village of Hommlet, tho! Expeditions to the Barrier Peaks, anyone?

Since we know there is a Barbarian, traditional AD&D is blown. I think it is more 5th addition, glass cannon, DnD.

And it would be nice if it occurred in a time where magic was plentiful! None of this SciFi channel crap where most of it is filmed in the woods. Cough! Cough! *BUDGET* Cough!

If characters are within their classes, then I don't mind if the female barbarian does the Hulk SMASH stuff. If all the guys are Homer Simpson, then yeah, it will get old. Teenage girl going to save the world...already been done!

I guess you could say I am Strahd-dle-ing the fence on this one.

Okay, I'll be here all week, try the fish!!
 

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If the goal of enforced diversity is to have characters more relatable does that mean this movie is meant to appeal to emasculated men?
 
I think the enforcement is at the studio level, somewhere in upper management that's dictating the casting criteria. The movie does seem a bit forcibly diverse to me. But as far as emasculating, I don't get the feeling of that from the trailers. Are there some scenes where the humor comes at the expense of Chris Pine's character? Sure, but then again, he is a bard and they're hardly known for being strong melee characters like any of the various fighter classes.
 
I could post links to the interviews that anyone could Google, but that would be beside the point.

In essence I agree with you that getting too far off the track with a discussion o
of perceived agendas serves nothing and can only be divisive. I'll own up to my own contribution to it in this case.
In the case of this movie since it's only based on the D&D setting and no particular novel or established characters from the game, I'm fine with the diversity, even if I'm still not used to it in a fantasy setting. It's only when they clearly go out of their way it like in a movie baes on historical events or a historical setting, or existing story where the gender and ethnicities of character are clearly stated but ignored.

As for this movie, I'm kind of on the fence about it. While there are some elements that look interesting in the trailer, it doesn't really get me all that excited to see it either. More than anything I think that it's partially Chris Pine's costume design, it just looks too modern real world to me and that ruins the immersion for me. I think that this is going to be a Redbox movie for me, this means that it's a mid tier movie, not worth seeing in the theater but interesting enough to rent and not wait for it to hit streaming first.
 
I think the enforcement is at the studio level, somewhere in upper management that's dictating the casting criteria. The movie does seem a bit forcibly diverse to me. But as far as emasculating, I don't get the feeling of that from the trailers. Are there some scenes where the humor comes at the expense of Chris Pine's character? Sure, but then again, he is a bard and they're hardly known for being strong melee characters like any of the various fighter classes.
Having seen it, it doesn't do anything emasculatibg.

Different classes have different skills, and our DnD group called them out ***shhh, quietly*** during the movie.

If I want to tear down a wall, I don't call on a librarian.

I was really happy with this movie, and I like playing old school AD&D. The movie is more 5th edition, but very enjoyable.

If you have ever had fun in a Role Playing Group, this movie is for YOU.
 
A very fun movie overall. It isn’t inaccessible if you don’t know much about D&D, the cast all were terrific, and there was a solid mix of visual and practical effects, surprisingly. It was refreshing to see a fantasy film that was just straight-up fantasy. It wasn’t trying to be an epic like Lord of the Rings (or failing to be an epic like Rings of Power), it wasn’t trying to be Game of Thrones, it just did its own thing. Great sets, fun props and costumes, totally worth catching in theaters. When I saw it, the theater was the most packed I remember a theater being since pre-COVID, which I take as a good sign.
 
I thought it was top-to-bottom fantastic. As someone who's been playing since AD&D 2nd, back in the late '80s, I was internally simultaneously weeping and vibrating out of my skin for how much they got Faerûn. All the references, all the visual callbacks -- the ruined city where the Helm was hidden was built by the Svirfneblin -- the Deep Gnomes -- nasty as any Underdark race, plus clever as gnomes. Xenk's description of how to cross the bridge was perfect. The mechanism that concealed the Helm was perfect. Seeing all the Svirfneblin statues gave me feels. Them using a painting of Volo of Waterdeep for their portal was perfect. I loved seeing Elminster and having Mordenkainen name-dropped. The displacer beasts and mimic and gelatinous cube were perfect. All the spells and the dragon fire followed the game rules except for a couple places where they deliberately bent the rules for narrative need. The byplay and humor was exactly like what my better gaming groups were like.

I've seen it twice so far and I want to see it at least once more in the theaters before it's gone. I am well pleased with how much it's made at the box office. I appreciate that the filmmakers deliberately avoided "franchise-building". While they had notions of where things could go in a potential sequel, they focused on making this one as good as they could make it. And damn I want to see more now.
 
I thought it was top-to-bottom fantastic. As someone who's been playing since AD&D 2nd, back in the late '80s, I was internally simultaneously weeping and vibrating out of my skin for how much they got Faerûn. All the references, all the visual callbacks -- the ruined city where the Helm was hidden was built by the Svirfneblin -- the Deep Gnomes -- nasty as any Underdark race, plus clever as gnomes. Xenk's description of how to cross the bridge was perfect. The mechanism that concealed the Helm was perfect. Seeing all the Svirfneblin statues gave me feels. Them using a painting of Volo of Waterdeep for their portal was perfect. I loved seeing Elminster and having Mordenkainen name-dropped. The displacer beasts and mimic and gelatinous cube were perfect. All the spells and the dragon fire followed the game rules except for a couple places where they deliberately bent the rules for narrative need. The byplay and humor was exactly like what my better gaming groups were like.

I've seen it twice so far and I want to see it at least once more in the theaters before it's gone. I am well pleased with how much it's made at the box office. I appreciate that the filmmakers deliberately avoided "franchise-building". While they had notions of where things could go in a potential sequel, they focused on making this one as good as they could make it. And damn I want to see more now.
How do you feel in regard to accusations/rumors of emasculating the male characters? I didn't get any impression of that based on the trailer, but I know that there had been accusations of that based on comments made by the writers or director of the movie. Did you see any sign of that in the movie or, if there was, did it fit the story? Basically, did you feel that it was a legitimate complaint or much ado about nothing?
 
I thought it was top-to-bottom fantastic. As someone who's been playing since AD&D 2nd, back in the late '80s, I was internally simultaneously weeping and vibrating out of my skin for how much they got Faerûn. All the references, all the visual callbacks -- the ruined city where the Helm was hidden was built by the Svirfneblin -- the Deep Gnomes -- nasty as any Underdark race, plus clever as gnomes. Xenk's description of how to cross the bridge was perfect. The mechanism that concealed the Helm was perfect. Seeing all the Svirfneblin statues gave me feels. Them using a painting of Volo of Waterdeep for their portal was perfect. I loved seeing Elminster and having Mordenkainen name-dropped. The displacer beasts and mimic and gelatinous cube were perfect. All the spells and the dragon fire followed the game rules except for a couple places where they deliberately bent the rules for narrative need. The byplay and humor was exactly like what my better gaming groups were like.

I've seen it twice so far and I want to see it at least once more in the theaters before it's gone. I am well pleased with how much it's made at the box office. I appreciate that the filmmakers deliberately avoided "franchise-building". While they had notions of where things could go in a potential sequel, they focused on making this one as good as they could make it. And damn I want to see more now.

There are so many times in that movie where it just feels like a fun RPG, like an old-school, hexagon map, Sharpies, painted miniatures with a DM behind a screen, fun moments.

****SPOILERS*****

When Holga is asking the guard about his axe, and the guard ask Holga, "we're about to cut off your head, and THIS is what you are worried about?"
And Pine does the exact same muppet nod everyone of us has done during a gaming session, when another player is ready break out their can o' whoop...

The dragonfly as a DM hint. An omen.

Speaking to Dead, and screwing it up.

The Paladin rolling a one fighting the assassins.

Chris Pine's "I'm the champion of failures speech." Talk about XP!!!

I actually went back and watched the old Dungeons and Dragons movies, Jeremy Irons and the blue-lipped Anti-Paladin, and the dragon-under-a-mountain movie, this movie is FINALLY a really, really Great movie for us gamers.
 
How do you feel in regard to accusations/rumors of emasculating the male characters? I didn't get any impression of that based on the trailer, but I know that there had been accusations of that based on comments made by the writers or director of the movie. Did you see any sign of that in the movie or, if there was, did it fit the story? Basically, did you feel that it was a legitimate complaint or much ado about nothing?
I had never heard any of that, except a couple mentions on here. I don't know what people were expecting? When I say perfect, I mean perfect.

Xenk is a paladin. He is utterly a paladin. I don't know whether I want to kiss him or smash his face in. And I'm not gay. Absolutely exemplar performance, there.

Forge is... well, Hugh Grant. 'Nuff said.

Edgin... Chris Pine was definitely the right call there. They nailed the Harpers. I'm a D&D nerd, so during their most fraught moments in the film, I had the Harpers' Chant rattling around my head -- "We are the Harpers. We are the Lord Protectors of the Realms, Fools, all―but the Gods look down and smile glory upon us. Weep for us, watch for us, and hope in us. We shall not fail thee." As a group, they were well-intentioned do-gooders. There have been places and eras where that's been sneered at as less than manly. I reject that take. He was a devoted father who lost his wife. Nothing unmanly about that, either. Maybe people referring to how he was knitting in prison to pass the time? Still not unmanly. Good way to pass the time.

Simon is a half-elf. Anyone who's played D&D knows they kinda get **** on by both sides. Why it's a common race for PCs. They don't fit in, so seek out adventure away from society. He's also got the problem of being a scion of the great wizard Elminster Aumar (I remember getting the Elminster's Ecologies box set when it came out in '94 -- so much raw material for a DM's worldbuilding...). He definitely came into his own by the end of the film, but he's also still an awkward young man.

Ranging out from that, we get into decidedly secondary characters... Marlamin's a good-hearted Halfling homebody. Szass Tam is a pretty quintessential lich. His assassin is a pretty quintessential assassin. Elminster feels like the characters I read in the books. The nobles from Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep seem pitch-perfect to me. We only got brief glimpses of Bobby, Hank, Eric, and Presto, but they seem normal to me.
 
Finally got around to seeing this (it's steaming free on paramount + now).

I enjoyed it. Very funny..BUT, it made me realize something. See, I enjoyed it, but it's also pretty stupid. That's not new, as such, the stupid fantasy movie was practically its own genre in the 80s and I loved it. I think people get confused now because technology can make these movies look like Oscar contender blockbusters, when at heart, it's a good old fashioned sword-and-sorcerer movie.

On the "emasculating" thing: It's unfortunate that they said that in the interview because it made me actually LOOK for it and I didn't see anything that really bothered me. Yes, Michelle Rodriguez character is super hero level fighter while Chris Pine is kind of...not so much...but she's the fighter, and he's the bard. It actually does fit. She always follows his lead. And she's nowhere near the only superhero fighter in the movie. She's not even as OP as the (male) Paladin they run with for a while. Frankly, I'm just not seeing what they were talking about.

In the end, the plot is fairly stock: they have to look for the thing to find the guy, to get the thing that will get them the stuff. But there's a few twists...a couple of the plans just dont work at all.

What makes it work is that the humor is actually spot on. It's not so much Lord of the Rings as...Sword and the Sorcerer meets Princess Bride. With GENEROUS amounts of Forgotten Realms references.

Even the diversity wasn't too forced...the wizard is elven and black, but they make a point of saying he's half elf. Honestly an elf having a kid with a black human is perfectly within the forgotten realms canon. It works just fine.

I recommend this one. Good light hearted fun.
 
I finally watched it and D&D was huge when i was a kid...IDK...I didn't really like the movie at all. My wife watched it with me and i was sure she would hate it but...she actually liked it. The reason it didn't resonate with me is because they were just spitting off one liners and cheap laughs way too much where it felt more like a Monty Python movie, which is why my wife liked it. Yeah, it was way too obvious to me that the men were wimps in this movie while the women were dominant. Growing up, even as a kid, D&D had a more serious tone as i remember which is probably why they tried to lighten it up some. I might be wrong, just an observation. My favorite part of the movie was the Easter Egg callbacks to the animated characters because i really liked that cartoon. The fact that they made toys for this movie was somewhat laughable. All i can picture is kids in their bedrooms playing video games while their parents break out the new figures and tell jokes for the remainder of the night because i can't imagine any kids playing with them at all.
 
I liked it. Though, if felt a little sterile in places where they had huge opportunities to create great drama. Some things just felt too easy. But maybe that's true to the game... where... people flip in a moment, because they are players and not really the characters in that exact moment, so they have clear oversight and not chaotic in the moment. I don't know. There were just a few places towards the end, where they could have played things a lot more dramatic and emotional instead of just... okay... we are doing THIS now, jolly-ho.
 

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