[Movie] Dungeons & Dragons - again?

[hentzau]

I think Joe M was producing this movie and at one time wrote a script.

It makes me happy that John Francis Daley (Sam from Freaks and Geeks) wrote and directed it. Geeks make good!

[Smoove_B]

New trailer.

[Skinypupy]

New trailer.

Still looks fun. I can guarantee my kids are going to LOVE it.

[Unagi]

Pretty sure I will too.

[Jaymann]

I will watch it, but man I do not care for Chris Pine.

[El Guapo]

So who picked Led Zeppelin for the D&D trailer?

[Daehawk]

I will watch it, but man I do not care for Chris Pine.

Blasphemy.

I didn't watch the first D&D movie. I watched the trailer and ran far away. It looked horrible and I never heard one good thing about it. I admit this one looks better but I dont hold much hope. Though I would watch it. One day.

[hepcat]

So who picked Led Zeppelin for the D&D trailer?

Blame Taika Waititi

[Max Peck]

Are those generic red wizards, or are they the Red Wizards of Thay? Is this a Forgotten Realms film?

[Unagi]

Fun scene with a portable hole there. And then I wonder if that is an Immovable Rod there at the end.

[hepcat]

Heh….immovable Rod.

[Isgrimnur]

Are those generic red wizards, or are they the Red Wizards of Thay? Is this a Forgotten Realms film?

Gizmodo

io9 has the first details on The Druid’s Call and The Road to Neverwinter, two prequel novels penned by E.K. Johnston and Jaleigh Johnson, respectively.

Sounds like Forgotten Realms to me.

[hepcat]

Will Hogwarts be featured?

[Jeff V]

Will Hogwarts be featured?

It would be ransacked by the adventuring party just because it was there.

Decades ago, I DM'd such a situation. The players encountered a castle and proceeded to pillage it for no good reason. Well, it turns out the owner was none to pleased...and pretty buff in his own right (not to mention his retinue). Over the next several years, we migrated from D&D to ICE to Runequest...still, that castle owner hunted them. One by one, the perps were eliminated, except for one, who actually began life as a Ranger in D&D (and later went to actual ranger school in the army), but became decidedly evil in the other systems. During the final encounter, that castle owner had a specially-enchanted sword that did triple damage against only that character. The rest of his party was sufficiently intimidated by the retinue to stand by idlily as the former ranger with the ogre-nipple shield was dismembered. When the player said "I had no chance to survive, did I?" I replied, "you shouldn't have attacked his castle."

[Skinypupy]

Early reviews seem to be extremely positive, which is certainly encouraging.

Cannot wait to take the kids to see this.

[hepcat]

I'm actually looking forward to a Dungeons and Dragons movie. Go figure.

Of course, Chris Pine is a major reason. Talk about range. He's able to play the goofy comedic role, while also able to do far more serious stuff (see Hell and High Water for an example of how good he can be in a dramatic role).

[Octavious]

They must be super confident to allow reviews to post 2 weeks before the movie comes out. I thought it looked like it would be good. Only negative is Hugh Grant. I fucking hate that dude. Not sure how much he's in it.

[hepcat]

The subtitle for the film, which keeps getting cut off in ads, is Dungeons and Dragons: The Hugh Grant Experience. So I suspect you're out of luck.

[Daehawk]

Was it him or Eddie Murphy who got arrested with the transvestite hooker? I get them mixed up.

[Jaymann]

Was it him or Eddie Murphy who got arrested with the transvestite hooker? I get them mixed up.

It was Hugh Grant. That Murphy was the hooker has not been substantiated.

[Octavious]

I don't know how he still gets any work. Just Google him and there's a billion stories of how much he sucks at being a human being. Jon Stewart labeled him as the worst guest he ever had. The hooker thing... So many things. I'm super excited that we have a good dungeon movie though. It's such good source material that it's amazing how it gets cocked up every time.

[Daehawk]

You'd think if we can have an amazing Lord of the Rings we could have a decent DnD movie.

[Skinypupy]

I don't know how he still gets any work. Just Google him and there's a billion stories of how much he sucks at being a human being. Jon Stewart labeled him as the worst guest he ever had. The hooker thing... So many things. I'm super excited that we have a good dungeon movie though. It's such good source material that it's amazing how it gets cocked up every time.

Now I would love it if we could actually get a good D&D video game. BG3 looks to be the first good D&D game since Neverwinter Nights 2…which came out in freaking 2006.

[Octavious]

The Pathfinder games are quite good. I mean I guess it's technically a spinoff, but let's not kid ourselves it's DnD.

[Blackhawk]

I really hope it's good.

But I also wish that the D&D movie that's finally made that's actually good wasn't a summer comedy.

[ImLawBoy]

Hugh Grant was in Paddington 2, so you can't just write off a project because he's involved.

[TheMix]

Was it him or Eddie Murphy who got arrested with the transvestite hooker? I get them mixed up.

It was Hugh Grant. That Murphy was the hooker has not been substantiated.

[Skinypupy]

The Pathfinder games are quite good. I mean I guess it's technically a spinoff, but let's not kid ourselves it's DnD.

I tried both of the Pathfinder games. I know it’s overly picky, but the whole “we’re really close, but not quite D&D” bugged me more than it should have, for some reason.

I also tried Solasta. Great combat, shame everything outside of that was complete and utter garbage.

[El Guapo]

I really hope it's good.

But I also wish that the D&D movie that's finally made that's actually good wasn't a summer comedy.

Based on the trailers, it's really hard for me to see how it can be good. It can certainly be entertaining, and it can be not bad but...like it's hard to see how it's not the D&D equivalent of the Abrams Star Trek movies.

[Skinypupy]

I really hope it's good.

But I also wish that the D&D movie that's finally made that's actually good wasn't a summer comedy.

Based on the trailers, it's really hard for me to see how it can be good. It can certainly be entertaining, and it can be not bad but...like it's hard to see how it's not the D&D equivalent of the Abrams Star Trek movies.

I think “good” is relative for a D&D movie.

If it’s not a complete and total trainwreck and is decently entertaining, I’ll consider that a success.

[Carpet_pissr]

I really hope it's good.

But I also wish that the D&D movie that's finally made that's actually good wasn't a summer comedy.

Based on the trailers, it's really hard for me to see how it can be good. It can certainly be entertaining, and it can be not bad but...like it's hard to see how it's not the D&D equivalent of the Abrams Star Trek movies.

Sounds like someone needs to define ‘good’ for us.

[Smoove_B]

I don't know anything about good movies, but you can now purchase 6" action figures of all the original 1980s D&D cartoon characters.

[Blackhawk]

It can be good, but it'll likely be forgotten like most other action comedies (that don't say "Marvel's" before the title.)

In an era with The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, and Game of Thrones, I was hoping that they'd do something that showed the depth of story and worldbuilding that D&D is capable of. Not GoT serious, but more than a slapstick trailer-bait film.

[Blackhawk]

I don't know anything about good movies, but you can now purchase 6" action figures of all the original 1980s D&D cartoon characters.

Hey, baby - wanna see my four-inch barbarian?

[Isgrimnur]

How many campaigns have you seen that don’t devolve into slapstick comedy?

[hepcat]

Hugh Grant was in Paddington 2, so you can't just write off a project because he's involved.

The British version of Cocaine Bear.

[Zarathud]

I don't know anything about good movies, but you can now purchase 6" action figures of all the original 1980s D&D cartoon characters.

Hey, baby - wanna see my four-inch barbarian?

Impact Miniatures has a Chibi set of the D&D characters.

[Jeff V]

I really hope it's good.

But I also wish that the D&D movie that's finally made that's actually good wasn't a summer comedy.

Based on the trailers, it's really hard for me to see how it can be good. It can certainly be entertaining, and it can be not bad but...like it's hard to see how it's not the D&D equivalent of the Abrams Star Trek movies.

Step away and look what you objectively have to work with. It's kind of like using Fantasy Football as a basis for a sports movie. Both games are all about stats, chance, and increasing the former to decrease the latter. How many of you really remember D&D modules back in the day? Open door, kill Stink the Rat, take his bling. Go to the next room, oh look, it's Goober and Gomer, the Goblin twins. Hack, hack more bling! Level up! Woohoo! And don't forget, the characters have their behavior bound by rules -- sure, your paladin might WANT to rape that sexy snake woman, but he just can't -- not allowed. All the worse is that your brother -- who is an assassin and of course could rape the sexy snake woman, is afraid of snakes.

This is far different from having an intricately woven classic story that also has reams of scholarly material written on it for subject matter, as was LOTR. And still there were liberties taken and not everyone was pleased with the results.

[Blackhawk]

How many of you really remember D&D modules back in the day? Open door, kill Stink the Rat, take his bling. Go to the next room, oh look, it's Goober and Gomer, the Goblin twins. Hack, hack more bling! Level up! Woohoo! And don't forget, the characters have their behavior bound by rules -- sure, your paladin might WANT to rape that sexy snake woman, but he just can't -- not allowed. All the worse is that your brother -- who is an assassin and of course could rape the sexy snake woman, is afraid of snakes.

This is far different from having an intricately woven classic story that also has reams of scholarly material written on it for subject matter, as was LOTR. And still there were liberties taken and not everyone was pleased with the results.

Oh, I remember the D&D modules from back in the day. I have a whole stack of 'em. I have also read, played, and run D&D modules written since then, and I know how far D&D (and tabletop RPGs in general) have come since then. Many campaigns have elaborately plotted stories, well-rounded villains with complex motivations, and ethical quandaries. Whole books have been written on how to improve storytelling in the games and the industry largely moved away from the pure 'dungeon crawl' approach decades ago (albeit with some 'retro style' games still being popular.)

And FWIW, there has been more written on some of the subjects in this film than most people would believe. The setting alone has been around nearly 50 years, and has had (off the top of my head) around 300 novels, ~40 video games, at least a dozen board games, hundreds of resource books and articles, and a number of comic book series written about it. Hell, I can think of four video games that take place in the same city as the film. Of course, most of that doesn't have the scholarly oomph that writings about Tolkien had, but it's a hell of a lot more than what's represented by a few 40-year-old modules.

That isn't to say that I think that a D&D film should be a deep, serious, and elaborately plotted story that people will compare to Game of Thrones. D&D isn't that, either. But it could be something more than what the trailer suggests it is, something with a little bit of weight to it. Something more along the lines of the first Thor film - full of humor, but as seasoning on a real story. The humor needs to be part of it, no question, but that's only one tiny aspect of what's possible. It's also relevant that this is intended to launch a connected 'universe' of films and TV series (assuming Hasbro doesn't keep screwing things up. If it makes it past one film, this could pigeon-hole future sequels into the comedy genre.

Of course, all we've seen is the trailer. There could very well be more to it than what they showed. And I'll probably enjoy it one way or another - but I'd prefer to see the game and the setting treated with a bit more respect.

[Blackhawk]

And don't forget, the characters have their behavior bound by rules -- sure, your paladin might WANT to rape that sexy snake woman, but he just can't -- not allowed. All the worse is that your brother -- who is an assassin and of course could rape the sexy snake woman, is afraid of snakes.

Oh, and FWIW, there are plenty of paladins who could choose to rape the sexy snake woman without violating their vows now. Not that most players or DMs would be OK with that kind of crap.