blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
I thought the Midnight movie fell through...
What would make a Good *D&D* Movie?
- Thread starter Hussar
- Start date
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
"Good" by what standard and who's judging?
I don't think it is possible to make a good D&D movie.
I don't think it is possible to make a good D&D movie.
BLACKDIRGE
Adventurer
robberbaron said:
Sure, but you'd need an Ocean's 11 type cast to pull it off.
BD
I don't think "good D&D movie" is an appropriate denomination, it would just be a good movie that is incidentally set in the D&D universe.
I suggest this: action, characters, and story, in that order. You start off with a scene of the main characters hacking their way through some abandoned town full of old stone buildings and ruins. They reach the orc lord, they fight him and they get the magical ring that they came for. One of the characters says something like "good, step 4 complete." You want to suggest continuity, back-story, but you don't want to spend too much time on it. Of course, this initial sequence is peppered full of special effects.
Next, you develop the story through the characters. One character goes to bed and dreams of how the evil mage killed his sister. Another, while searching through the treasure, is remembered of why he fights when he sees an emblem of his kingdom. The (mandatory) hot elven sorceress can play the group's Delilah, or she can be the naive girl who is very competent but not street-smart (there's your comic relief right there). You drive the story forward through the characters' actions, you set the background through their introspections.
Look, for example, at the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade intro movie. Regardless of whether you like the setting or not, it has a huge background. Did they use it? Hell no. They briefly presented the two new races and then they slammed you with an orc slicing a naga in two, followed by equally awesome hacking and slashing. Look at Final Fantasy: Advent Children. A lot of back story, and now way to cram a summary of one hundred hours of game play into a movie. They did the only thing they should have done: packed a whole lot of action sequences where Squall rides his motorcycle, sword-duels, and defies gravity, all at the same time.
Action, characters, story. Of course, no one would mind if it had these and all the other things the LoTR team had
.
I suggest this: action, characters, and story, in that order. You start off with a scene of the main characters hacking their way through some abandoned town full of old stone buildings and ruins. They reach the orc lord, they fight him and they get the magical ring that they came for. One of the characters says something like "good, step 4 complete." You want to suggest continuity, back-story, but you don't want to spend too much time on it. Of course, this initial sequence is peppered full of special effects.
Next, you develop the story through the characters. One character goes to bed and dreams of how the evil mage killed his sister. Another, while searching through the treasure, is remembered of why he fights when he sees an emblem of his kingdom. The (mandatory) hot elven sorceress can play the group's Delilah, or she can be the naive girl who is very competent but not street-smart (there's your comic relief right there). You drive the story forward through the characters' actions, you set the background through their introspections.
Look, for example, at the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade intro movie. Regardless of whether you like the setting or not, it has a huge background. Did they use it? Hell no. They briefly presented the two new races and then they slammed you with an orc slicing a naga in two, followed by equally awesome hacking and slashing. Look at Final Fantasy: Advent Children. A lot of back story, and now way to cram a summary of one hundred hours of game play into a movie. They did the only thing they should have done: packed a whole lot of action sequences where Squall rides his motorcycle, sword-duels, and defies gravity, all at the same time.
Action, characters, story. Of course, no one would mind if it had these and all the other things the LoTR team had
.
Ed_Laprade
Adventurer
Yeah. I was irked that there wasn't a cleric with heal spells in the first one. But I was really po'd when there was a cleric in the second one, and he got offed before he had a chance to cure anyone! I suspect that they are worried about offending the holy rollers, but with the pagan cleric, magic spells, &etc., I don't know why that be such a sticking point. So maybe I'm just paranoid or something.blargney the second said:
Insight
Adventurer
Ed_Laprade said:Yeah. I was irked that there wasn't a cleric with heal spells in the first one. But I was really po'd when there was a cleric in the second one, and he got offed before he had a chance to cure anyone! I suspect that they are worried about offending the holy rollers, but with the pagan cleric, magic spells, &etc., I don't know why that be such a sticking point. So maybe I'm just paranoid or something.
There's no reason a druid couldn't heal someone, or a bard for that matter. I seriously doubt any "holy roller" would even notice such a thing, much less comment on it.
WayneLigon
Adventurer
Ed_Laprade said:Yeah. I was irked that there wasn't a cleric with heal spells in the first one. But I was really po'd when there was a cleric in the second one, and he got offed before he had a chance to cure anyone! I suspect that they are worried about offending the holy rollers, but with the pagan cleric, magic spells, &etc., I don't know why that be such a sticking point. So maybe I'm just paranoid or something.
Well, sometimes the cleric gets taken down first, and that's just the way the dice roll. Of course, that would tend to lead to a subsequent TPK - not that I've seen that happen in a recent session of Savage Tide or anything...
Anyhow, I've been thinking that what I might like to see more than a good D&D movie is a good D&D television series. A good, character-oriented ensemble show with the right mixture of action, drama, and humor could serve D&D well. Long story arcs seem pretty comparable to campaigns, no? It would also afford the writers extra time to drop in iconic elements of D&D at a more leisurely pace and provide less temptation to cram as much as possible into two hours (although I haven't seen enough of the movies to know if this proved to be a problem).
