The D&D Movie vs. The D&D Game

[Grazzt]

What's next? A module? Completely ineffectual beholders? A ruby the size of a fist? Or am I just crazy?

Demiurge out.

Hope whoever writes the module (should someone ever choose to do so) remembers that in order to dismiss the beholders, all ya need to do is throw a rock or something to distract them.

 

[Grazzt]

You guys are being too hard on it. After all, it was a 2nd edition movie. Want proof? At the end, when everyone runs out to attack Profion (in initiative order, I might add) and gets thrown against the wall, they just sit there instead of getting back up. Why? One minute combat rounds, baby!

Seriously, consider that, and it makes perfect sense.

2nd edition? Hmm...that would explain why it sucked so bad then.

 

[DragonLancer]

I am one of the minority who quite like the D&D movie. I bought on DVD and I watch on occasion. I do stand up and say that it could have been a damn sight better... if it had a better budget, better director, scriptwriter...etc.

The point is, just sit back and enjoy it. Drop the suspension of disbelief and watch a fun movie. Yes, the beholders don't make sense, Damodar is lipstick wearing weirdo but its fun. Just enjoy it for what it is.

 

[johnsemlak]

you didn't convince your wife to camp out to watch the thing.

i'll never live that down.

A friend of mine's girlfriend went with us. My friend later told me the D&D movie was a constant point of 'reference' later on.

They eventually broke up (though AFAIK the D&D movie had nothing to do with it).

 

[Henry]

Fortunately, I just went with my gaming group, so was all suffered equally.

All kidding aside, I thought it was bland, but not absolutely terrible. The DVD extras showed all the stuff they cut out because they ran out of time and money, and I liked most of it.

KILLJOY (about the killer clown who murders hoods and drug-pushers) was a terrible movie. D&D the movie was nowhere near that.

I would like to see another one done for slightly more than the cost of a producer's pocket change, though.

As for another good idea from the movie, how about the scroll which itself is a treasure vault? That way, you've got to steal the scroll, AND then break in again...

 

[Rel]

[Bloom County]It was BAD. BAD, BAD, BAD beyond all possible realms of badness...Well, maybe not that bad. But lord, it wasn't good![/Bloom County]

Honestly, it was the sort of movie that just when you think it might redeem itself, it added yet another cringingly bad, cliche bit of tripe. But it did give us the whole "distract the Beholder with the stone" trick and this made an appearance in my game recently:

Rogue: "Oh crap! A Beholder! Somebody throw a stone!"

Rel: "Make a Fortitude Save."

Rogue: "Uh, 13?"

Rel: "You are the stone."

 

[Gnimish88]

Well, learning that they got screwed kind of explains some of what went wrong with "The Movie That Shall Not Be Named". I agree overall it was a bland movie. In addition to a budget of more the the producer's pocket change, additional time beyond the 15 minutes (or melee rounds) on the pot spent writing the script would also have been nice. Really should have given it a different name too. I had been waiting for A D&D movie, not THE D&D movie. I have not cringed that bad from a movie title until Attack of the Clones came out. Final complaint, whose idea was it to case a Wayans brother? Could not stand Snails. Okay I am done ranting. I supose I would have to agree, it certainly was not the worst movie I have ever seen. That exhaulted position still is held by Stone Cold.

 

[Eldren]

No doubt, the D&D Movie isn't the worst movie I've ever seen; that honor is held simultaneously by both Pulp Fiction and Battlefield Earth.


This being said, there are SOOOO many things wihch could have been done better in that film. Referring to the spells by name as the woman did just didn't seem to make sense. It seemed like a blatant plug of the game, and a reminder that the entire movie is based off of a game. It's really about the same as those old 1st Edition AD&D comic-strip advertisements you could find in the comic books at the time, where they were traveling about, and the Magic User cast a scroll of Dimension Door by shouting out Dimension Door! It's just bad.

I haven't purchased, or even rented, the DVD, so I can't comment on the deleted scenes or the alternate ending. But someone was saying the movie might not have been half bad if that stuff had remained, so I might have to wait for a $.99 Tuesday or something and pick it up.

Reapersaurus, your signature is creepin' me out.

 

[Nightfall]

D&D movie sucked but it's not the worst movie. Battlefield Earth and Starship Troopers are FAR worse.

 

[Knightfall]

I would like to see another one done for slightly more than the cost of a producer's pocket change, though.

It's already slated to go into production. Here are a couple of blurbs, one from ICv2.com and the other from Dragon Magazine. Note: I don't write 'em, I just post 'em.

Cheers!

KF72

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Dungeons & Dragons Sequel in '04
Joel Silver Will Produce

May 22, 2003
According to Variety, "Joel Silver's Silver Pictures will produce
Dungeons & Dragons: The Sequel for an early 2004 release." The first
Dungeons & Dragons film, produced by New Line in 2000, was, in spite
of a cast that included Jeremy Irons and Thora Birch, such a horrible
bomb that the first thing that Silver should do is to lose
the "sequel"---try to keep the D&D brand, but sever all connections
to the New Line film. Filmed on the cheap in Rumania, the first D&D
film was so dingy and colorless that it made the worst of its
contemporaries such as the murky and muddled Battlefield Earth look
like a Target commercial.

The fantasy revival led by Lord of the Rings undoubtedly has
something to do with the decision to make another D&D feature film.
While the D&D brand remains the "gold standard" in the world of role-
playing games, the next live action D&D film had better please the
game's core audience, and films like the LOTR trilogy have raised the
bar considerably since the first D&D film was released in 2000. More
competition arrives this summer in the form of a computer animated
interactive D&D feature that is by its very nature, much closer to
the actual experience of playing the game (see "A D&D Interactive
DVD").
=====================================================
Read this in the sidebar on page 6 of the Augest 03 issue of Dragon
Magazine.

Another D&D Movie?
It's happening again. Variety reported that Zinc Entertainment, a
division of Joel Silver's Silver Pictures, will produce Dungeons &
Dragons: The Sequel for an early 2004 release.

Matt(*) is already in line for tickets. If you see him in his lawn chair
and sleeping bag outside the theater, take pity -- please don't put
spare change in his coffee.

* I'm assuming 'Matt' is Matthew Sernett, Dragon's Senior Editor,
although it could also be referring to Matt Beals. Dragon's Prepress
Manager.
=====================================================