Rate Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God (DVD Release Status: In Flux)

KenM · Oct 9, 2005

EDIT: Double post.

Rel · Oct 9, 2005

Mark CMG said:
This level of quality (or a little better) was what I had expected/hoped to see from the first movie, so I'm not disappointed. I'd also hoped that we'd be seeing a regular release schedule of D&D movies, maybe once every couple of years. It doesn't concern me whether they are released through theatres or not, just as long as they do what they can to make enough revenue to support continuing the franchise. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

It probably won't ever happen, but I think that the ideal medium for filmed D&D entertainment would be a weekly, 1-hour TV series that follows a starting party of 1st level characters as they rise through the levels to attain greater power, wealth and importance. It would (hopefully) solve a major weakness in the films, which is that I feel no connection or empathy for the characters. It could be liberally sprinkled with D&Disms and they could also make a companion "Adventure Path" of books to release to let DM's and players try their hand at some of the adventures the characters on the show partake in.

DrkLrdK · Oct 9, 2005

That actually sounds like a good idea, especially the getting to know the main characters, which works alot better in the TV medium. The 'Adventure Path' serise of books that would follow the shows, would also be a killer idea. But, like you said, probably won't ever happen.

Mark CMG · Oct 9, 2005

Rel said:
It probably won't ever happen, but I think that the ideal medium for filmed D&D entertainment would be a weekly, 1-hour TV series that follows a starting party of 1st level characters as they rise through the levels to attain greater power, wealth and importance. It would (hopefully) solve a major weakness in the films, which is that I feel no connection or empathy for the characters. It could be liberally sprinkled with D&Disms and they could also make a companion "Adventure Path" of books to release to let DM's and players try their hand at some of the adventures the characters on the show partake in.

That might be so if your conception of the "ideal medium" includes the same characters being used from tale to tale, and having the adventures progressively leveled. I prefer seeing new groups each time with out-of-sequence adventures. I'm happy with a high-level adventure one year followed by a low-level adventure with totally different characters a couple years later, followed by yet another group in a medium-level adventure. I'm not interested in seeing Herc an Iolaus , or Xena and Gabby, wandering from town to town, finding love and adventure around each bend. Not that that was bad but it's been done. I prefer the longer form stories with a larger variety of characters.

Rel · Oct 9, 2005

DrkLrdK said:
That actually sounds like a good idea, especially the getting to know the main characters, which works alot better in the TV medium. The 'Adventure Path' serise of books that would follow the shows, would also be a killer idea. But, like you said, probably won't ever happen.

Welcome to ENWorld. I guess I'm honored that your first post was to comment on something I posted.

Rel · Oct 9, 2005

Mark CMG said:
That might be so if your conception of the "ideal medium" includes the same characters being used from tale to tale, and having the adventures progressively leveled. I prefer seeing new groups each time with out-of-sequence adventures. I'm happy with a high-level adventure one year followed by a low-level adventure with totally different characters a couple years later, followed by yet another group in a medium-level adventure. I'm not interested in seeing Herc an Iolaus , or Xena and Gabby, wandering from town to town, finding love and adventure around each bend. Not that that was bad but it's been done. I prefer the longer form stories with a larger variety of characters.

An advantage of the ongoing series rather than the "one off" is that much of your character development is already done. The movies thus far have spent a considerable amount of time setting up the personality and motivations of the characters in ways that were not terribly compelling IMHO. To some extent this is the same with the plotline that they must start and finish during the course of the movie.

Obviously characterization and introduction of the central conflict can be done well in a two hour movie (it happens all the time) but most big films these days have at most 2-3 main characters that the story focuses on. For a D&D movie you've got a party of at least 4 and apparently they like to go with 5-6. The net result is that I don't have a good feel for any of them really and don't care what happens to them. I wind up looking only for the D&Disms in the movie, watching for how crappy the cheap visual effects are done and seeking holes in the plot.

Contrast this with something like Firefly where the character personalities and the situations and coversations generated from them make for very enjoyable viewing. You can spend a lot less on flashy visual effects and sets if you throw in a few more minutes of witty banter between characters who the audience actually cares about.

That's just my perspective though and I certainly contend that it isn't the "one true way" to make visual D&D entertainment. But so far I've seen what they've done with the movie format and I think it's at best "ok".

Menexenus · Oct 9, 2005

It probably deserved a "7", but I gave it an "8" anyway because I'll probably watch it again. (Not because it was entertaining enough to deserve a second viewing, but rather because I'm an unrepentant D&D geek and want to make sure I caught every reference.)

It was definitely better than the first movie.

And I agree with those who have said that the ideal mass-media forum for D&D would be a weekly TV series where you can follow the exploits of an adventuring party and really begin to care about them (ala Firefly). Xena and Hercules show that this model isn't completely outside the realm of reality/marketability.

KingOfChaos · Oct 9, 2005

Menexenus said:
And I agree with those who have said that the ideal mass-media forum for D&D would be a weekly TV series where you can follow the exploits of an adventuring party and really begin to care about them (ala Firefly). Xena and Hercules show that this model isn't completely outside the realm of reality/marketability.

Could give some of us with story hours a chance at becoming script writers