Pitch me your ulitmate D&D movie

[DM-Rocco]

Because Stuntmen Gotta Eat!

Yeah, but it was a CG thing, no stunmen

 

[GammaPaladin]

I disagree. I think a fantasy film needs to be played seriously otherwise the audience won't take anything seriously. This is the difference between the first and second D&D movies. The first is played for laughs and ends up nothing more than a joke.

I agree with this. Seriously, I understand that for D&D players, they look at the movie and say, "It's too serious! This isn't D&D, when we play, we joke and laugh!", but to the average person, who has enough trouble just suspending disbelief of the absurd fantasy world in the first place, if you add in a comic relief character, then they start to see the entire film as a corny joke.

Not the impression you want to give.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey DM-Rocco mate!

Out of curiousity what did you think of D&D2 movie?

Yes, a little. However, there was enough suspension of desbielf that one or two over the top moments didn't totally ruin it for me. Oh, and Sam and Frodo weren't fighting with lightsabers an inch above a lava lake. In the real world, they would have died that close to a lava flow, just from the ambient heat

Sam and Frodo were not Jedi Knights either.

Actually, it hit his hand, a metal hand. Notice he used his other hand to use the force to pull the weapon towards him? At least that seemed plausable.

Jedi can absorb energy (including blaster bolts and to a degree force lightning)...this is all outlined in the RPG books as far as my memory serves (I'm remembering WEG's d6 Star Wars RPG).

 

[Klaus]

I disagree. I think a fantasy film needs to be played seriously otherwise the audience won't take anything seriously. This is the difference between the first and second D&D movies. The first is played for laughs and ends up nothing more than a joke.

I'm not saying it has to be played for laughs. But the characters all talk in such a forced sobriety, like they were proclaiming the coronation of King Arthur or something. They have to be more... "natural", I guess.

 

[diaglo]

Still, it was a surprisingly entertaining effort.

it was not great. i own it on DVD.

but i camped out for the first one to be one of the first in the US to see it. i still owe my wife for that one. i dragged her to it. but heck, i thot it might be good considering i had the screen savers and was scoping out the site before the release.

midnight showing of D&D the movie was ... ugh. i think i still cry over that piss poor movie. edit: but less so than i cry over what D&D has become.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Howdy Klaus!

I'm not saying it has to be played for laughs. But the characters all talk in such a forced sobriety, like they were proclaiming the coronation of King Arthur or something. They have to be more... "natural", I guess.

I think this was more a result of the dearth in acting talent than any major flaws in the script. Though I still wince when I hear Damodar's "...many a year" jive.

The only good actor of the bunch was Roy Marsden (who played head wizard Oberron), though some of the others were passable.

But even so, the second movie was leagues ahead of the first in atmosphere. Even the actors you would normally bank on (like Richard O'Brien, Tom Baker and Jeremy Irons were absolutely dreadful). You can only blame the director (sorry Courtney...if you're reading this).

 

[Upper_Krust]

Howdy diaglo!

it was not great. i own it on DVD.

Snap!

but i camped out for the first one to be one of the first in the US to see it. i still owe my wife for that one. i dragged her to it. but heck, i thot it might be good considering i had the screen savers and was scoping out the site before the release.

midnight showing of D&D the movie was ... ugh. i think i still cry over that piss poor movie.

Camped Out. CAMPED OUT! LOL! By the bristling beard of Gygax art thou insane!?

At the very least your over-exuberance has cheered me up no end. Congrats!

edit: but less so than i cry over what D&D has become.

4E FTW! Stop being such a dinosaur macetail behemoth.

 

[Klaus]

Howdy Klaus!



I think this was more a result of the dearth in acting talent than any major flaws in the script. Though I still wince when I hear Damodar's "...many a year" jive.

The only good actor of the bunch was Roy Marsden (who played head wizard Oberron), though some of the others were passable.

But even so, the second movie was leagues ahead of the first in atmosphere. Even the actors you would normally bank on (like Richard O'Brien, Tom Baker and Jeremy Irons were absolutely dreadful). You can only blame the director (sorry Courtney...if you're reading this).

Acting talent is a part of it, but in the end the director has as much (or more) say on how it turns out than the actors. The actors must be allowed to convey the message of their lines with their own words, to hammer out stuff that *reads* okay but *sounds* terrible.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey everyone!

Something caught my eye in the Wired article on Gary Gygax.

He was a fan of the Conan the Barbarian books by Robert E. Howard and wanted to try to capture that sort of swashbuckling action in a war game. (Interestingly, he loathed the major fantasy touchstone of the time, J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. "It was so dull. I mean, there was no action in it," Gygax says. "I'd like to throttle Frodo.")

I knew I wasn't the only one to think it too slow.

 

[Set]

I was thinking about how cool Against the Giants would be as a live-action movie. Basically, use just the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl because of the somewhat more easily-recognizable idea of titanic vikings. Death-pale giants with dark eyes dressed in mammoth skins and saber-toothed-tiger pelts, carrying axes the size of Volkswagons.. man, that is one great image. Now imagine fighting that with your little sword.

You have one classic adventure movie right there. Open with a frost giant raid on a village, showing just how unstoppable and physically powerful a true giant really is. The desperate plea for heroes, and the half-crazy nutters who show up to take on an entire community of beings four times their size. The old dwarf campaigner who fought the last giant incursion, the kid with Something To Prove, the wizard who secretly wants an artifact the giants have in their possession, the priestess who lost everything and has no reason to live, etc.

Huge big set-peices. Fight on a crumbling ice bridge. "Release the hounds!" as the giants let loose their white saber-toothed-tiger hunting cats. The eeriely-beautiful glacier rift and fantastic ice caverns. Frost giant warriors on mastadons, bay-bee. The artifact that causes their glacier to dissolve into a volcano. The frost giant king with his white dragon ally.

Black screen dedication to Gary at the ending, of course

I want to see this one! Badly!

Even the characters sound awesome, I was thinking that a world-wearied priest sounded perfect.