Movie reviews and discussions
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Who else has watched the Dungeons and Dragons movie?
Who else loved it? It was funnier and better-paced than it had a right to be! Also I thought they utilized (and partially made fun of) many D&D tropes while they were at it. Great chemistry between the group members, too.
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@Arkandel said in Movie reviews and discussions:
Who else loved it?
Meeeeeeeeeeeeee.
It was just top to bottom really well-done and fun. Hoping it does well enough to get a sequel, I would love to see that party again.
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@Third-Eye I also think, assuming this does well at the box office - which it definitely seems to be - then that success opens the door for different ‘kinds’ of movies. Same as RPGs themselves can.
So while this was an adventurous, light-hearted movie in its heart there’s no reason they can’t have other parties unrelated to it with grittier plots set in the Forgotten Realms, or which explore different corners of Faerun.
Somewhere there’s a Hasbro exec with dollar-sign-eyes smiling like a fool at the prospect.
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Yeah we watched it, and found it quite fun. I appreciated how everything just worked, top to bottom. A fun flick that knew how far it could reach for humor and emotional impact and did just that.
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Watched it yesterday, loved it. Very fun, great chemistry between the characters, fun use of the IP elements without bogging things down, exciting action sequences and humor that didn’t damage the overall tone. Would love to see a sequel!
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I was really surprised by how good it was. Trailers I saw made it look like it was a going to be a terrible train wreck like failed “funny d&d-like” show from syfy back in the early 00s.
But it was actually really enjoyable.
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Just got out of the theater! I love it. Opening up with a character explaining their backstory to a DM-insert NPC who’s telling them to get on with it sets the mood excellently. The characters are likeable, the story’s pretty good, the action is inventive and inspiring, and all the actors are doing good work, though I’m a bit disappointed at how little they gave Sophia Lillis to do. I think my biggest criticism is that I wonder how much this movie could possibly appeal to anyone who isn’t already a D&D fan given that the lack of exposition seems to assume a baseline amount of familiarity with the material, so in that regard the movie’s choice to omit any kind of divine magic (despite having two divine characters) feels like a craven capitulation to a group of prospective critics who already think D&D is a satanic guidebook anyway so who cares what they think?
Let’s call it 8/10. I had a good time and would definitely watch it again.
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@GF Inyook my niece and nephew (18 and 20), and they both really enjoyed it despite never having touched a D&D book in their life.
Which one is Sophia Lillis?
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@Cobalt The tiefling druid. There were just a couple too many scenes for my taste where her character was standing around looking lost because the screenwriters or editors (my intuition says editors, but I can’t back that up at all) decided her primary character arc should be learning to like-like a guy she’d been too mean to.
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@GF We’ll have to disagree there. I thought she was fantastic and her arc more read to me that she was learning to trust outsiders. Plus, she was just the type of sarcastic curmudgeon I loved.
Personally I found the ex-thane paladin to be the weakest character.
Cobalt@Under the Stars
cob.alt@Discord
Cobalt#3811@mas.to -
@Cobalt I disagree about the paladin, but only because I found him hilarious in a very meta way. How many games I have been to where someone rolls too high for their starting stats and plays a paladin who’s literally too good for the rest of the party? It cracked me up.
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@Cobalt said in Movie reviews and discussions:
@GF We’ll have to disagree there. I thought she was fantastic and her arc more read to me that she was learning to trust outsiders. Plus, she was just the type of sarcastic curmudgeon I loved.
Personally I found the ex-thane paladin to be the weakest character.
@GF said in Movie reviews and discussions:
@Cobalt I disagree about the paladin, but only because I found him hilarious in a very meta way. How many games I have been to where someone rolls too high for their starting stats and plays a paladin who’s literally too good for the rest of the party? It cracked me up.
These two things are not mutually exclusive.
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@Coin No, but in the context of me already saying I think the druid is the weakest character…
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I’m looking forward to seeing this film, but I’m worried that my absolute love of The Gamers film series will marr my appreciation.
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Renfield was awesome! It was exactly what I wanted dumb fun and a bloody good time! Seeing Evil dead on Sunday! SO PUMPED!
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@BloodAngel Part of me is very excited to see the new Evil Dead movie and part of me is very worried I won’t be able to stomach it.
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@GF Fair! It’s been my favorite movie series since I was a teen. I even loved the remake and the show. But my S/O has the same worries.
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That cheese grater though
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I loved Evil Dead Rise. Felt fresh and enough like the old one to make me happy! My S/O got through it way better than they thought they would and liked it. But I loved it, she has only seen the first evil dead before, so not addicted like myself.
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I was disappointed by Evil Dead Rise, and can’t recommend it. The spoilers that follow don’t mention anything specific, but do speak in generalities that might give away more than you want to know. I’m mostly spoilering it because I feel kind of guilty about being so negative about a movie I was looking forward to.
Long story short, I was bored throughout the whole movie. The editing made it seem almost like the TV cut of an R-rated movie. I enjoy the Evil Dead movies because they are all transgressive in some way and do not flinch from showing us the violations they visit upon their characters, often breaking horror movie rules to do something truly shocking and upsetting. This movie kept the violence at arm’s length. Hell, several of the kills literally happen off-screen, which, after the visceral brutality of especially the movie’s predecessor, I found underwhelming at best.But more substantively, I just don’t think it’s very well made. I felt the scares were all telegraphed so far in advance everything felt predictable, and that’s an absolute death knell for horror. The movie had good ideas it seemed to not have either the budget or the technical skills to achieve, judging by how it was edited to never let us see the monsters, the attacks, the kills. The writing kind of grates, with characters regularly expositing their relationships in dialogue or inserting references to previous movies at the absolute worst spots like it’s actively trying to pull me out of the moment and make me say, “Oh yeah, I also remember when that guy said that thing thirty-five years ago.”
The actors are doing their best but seem to be getting no direction, just standing around making faces at something off-screen instead of doing anything interesting. The setting is interesting enough, moving things to an urban location and coming up with new ways to isolate the protagonists from any help, which makes it feel super weird they include five or six minutes of the Deadites going back to the woods for no apparent reason. There are big changes to the lore that are potentially intriguing but feel wasted here because things that could have been surprises for the audience get explicitly listed off to the audience by NPC exposition.
The whole thing feels like a giant misfire to me. I really hope everyone else enjoys it more than I did.
