I didn't expect much from another Dungeons And Dragons movie, not after the 2000 film, and especially not with the state that cinema and streaming has been in recently. I figured we would run into the usual problems that happen when Hollywood decides to adapt a geeky franchise to the big screen for mass audiences. Sure, they would adopt some of the surface trappings, use some familiar names and so on, but ultimately the writers tend to lack respect and affection for the source material when it comes to this sort of thing.The trailers did little to get my hopes up. It looked like, on top of the usual adaptation issues, it would be full of the kind of storytelling problems we've been seeing in big budget movies and shows in the last few years. Comments from the directors seemed to confirm it. Coupled with the backlash against D&D's owner, Wizards Of The Coast, for the OGL nonsense, and I fully intended to give this one a pass.
Then I started hearing good things from sources that I respected. So when the chance came to watch the movie on streaming, I went ahead and did so. And I enjoyed it.
Now my fears were not completely unfounded; some of the issues I had been expecting were indeed present, though not to the degree I had feared (more in the spoiler section). But where I had been expecting a generic fantasy story with some D&D window dressing - a couple of familiar spell names and monsters, a Beholder perhaps - what I got was a movie that really seemed to me to understand Dungeons and Dragons.
I'm not just talking about the official fiction of D&D, although that was here too; iconic places, spells, and mosters were all there for the knowing fans to enjoy. No, more importantly, and much more impressively, was how the movie understood the way the game actually feels to play. I'm not all that knowledgeable about Dungeons and Dragons, but I know a little. I've played some pen-and-paper RPGs in the distant past (though not D&D specifically) and more recently I've watched a lot of youtube videos about D&D: groups of friends playing together, animated retellings of players' craziest adventures, comedic videos riffing on various elements and tropes, and I've even read some webcomics centered around the game. So I think I have a bit of a feel for it.
And so much of what I've seen was reflected in this film. The unlikely collection of unrelated individuals, each with their own Tragic Backstory, the crazy improvised plans that use bizarre abilities in novel ways, the random macguffins the party picks up in weird places, the swingy dice as characters fail at easy tasks and succeed at impossible ones, the way the Dungeon Master sets up a path for the players but they refuse to take it and end up making things much harder for themselves, that one Non Playable Character the Dungeon Master controls directly who is way cooler and more capable than anyone in the party and solves a bunch of their problems for them, and of course the under-developed Big Bad Evil Guy who it turns out was behind everything the whole time. This really felt like a story you would actually see played out on the tabletop, making it feel like an authentic Dungeons And Dragons experience. And that's pretty impressive.
The movie was funny, the effects were good, and the action was very creative and enjoyable. The story focused on its characters first and foremost, and so felt engaging and mostly succeeded in connecting on an emotional level - though I suppose the larger stakes felt a bit tacked on at the end. The characters themselves were likeable so you could root for them and enjoy watching them, though they didn't all have as much personality or get the same degree of character development. The actors were suitably cast and did a good job. There was some creative camera work, especially in scenes where large spells were being cast; some might feel the big swooping camera moves were a bit overdone, but that I found it all novel and entertaining.
Overall I would give it a 7/10: it's an entertaining and well-made film. If you're a big Dungeons And Dragons fan you could probably add a point or even two to that score. If you're not, well, it's a fun movie, but you probably won't find it particularly special, and it still does have it's flaws.
Even though the film follows a party of four, the true primary antagonist is of course Chris Pine's Edgin. His character is the most fleshed out, as is his story - the main plot of the movie centers around it in fact. His desires are the main motivation for most of what happens, giving him the most agency as it's his decisions that push the story forwards. He makes mistakes, but is a very sympathetic character as those mistakes are understandable. He is flawed, but his character arc as he faces those flaws and improves himself is engaging.
He is also almost completely useless in a fight. I get that he pulls everyone together, he makes all the plans - and a few of them even work, but I really don't see a reason why he couldn't have had some combat ability as well, especially when he's introduced as being a former member of an order that fights for justice. In D&D combat is typically almost inevitable, most players are going to have a character who can at least fight a little bit - and Bards are a class with decent combat ability. So yeah, watching him fail to make himself useful when the chips were down was a little frustrating.
Michelle Rodriguez's Holga, in contrast, is a powerful fighter who, on several occasions, takes out multiple opponents practically single-handedly. While there are a couple of instances when she says things that on the surface sound stupid, in context they almost feel like trolling: she never actually comes across as stupid herself.
She's never really scared, never really makes mistakes; she has no real flaws. She doesn't grow or change over the course of the movie. We do get a glimpse of her personal life outside of her relationship to Edgin, but it's only a glimpse, it really doesn't tie into anything or affect the character or the movie in any real way, and it's surprisingly drama-free considering how difficult a situation it was. Overall she was likeable, but not particularly interesting.
Justice Smith's Simon joins the two later, and is presented as a bit of a comedic sidekick. He lacks confidence and courage, tending to mess things up. The movie spends very little time on his backstory; we arguably know even less about him than Holga.
But it tells us just enough for us to root for him, to cheer for him as his character grows and changes. Despite the way he is initially presented, he is not a burden; rather he is a valuable and, by the end, reliable member of the party. He is entertaining, but also likeable and relateable. I actually think he was my favourite of the four.
Finally we have Sophia Lillis' Doric. She is introduced through an action scene where she single-handedly defeats multiple armed and armoured soldiers, and throughout the film her shapeshifting is shown to be a powerful asset. She also has the least personality and development of the four.
Don't get me wrong I still liked her, but... after the film was over I tried to think about what I know about her, and drew a blank. Her backstory is delivered through a couple of lines of exposition that I have completely forgotten, her character development is that she went from not trusting humans (because the only ones she met were trying to destroy her home) to accepting that actually not all humans are bad. Which didn't feel very impactful seeing as she didn't act particularly antagonistic towards our human protagonists when they first met, agreeing to fight alongside them without very much resistance, and she didn't really seem to overtly change the way she treated them over the course of the movie.
So what we have are two women who are basically perfect, and who are kind of boring, with rather little personality or character development. And two men with flaws and weaknesses, who are interesting and have engaging characters arcs. It really illustrates the problems with a lot of the writing we've been getting from Hollywood for the last few years. Fortunately the film managed to avoid the trap of making the women actually unlikeable; it's surprising how many movies make that mistake.
Edgin's wife Zia was unrealistically perfect as well. You can chalk that up to him being an unreliable narrator I suppose, but Robin Williams talking about his character's wife's imperfections in Good Will Hunting was far more moving to me than watching clips of Georgia Landers' Zia being this inhuman angel.
Speaking of Edgin's family, it was annoying watching Edgin get berated by his daughter Kira, when she's never done anything or faced any difficulty or opposition in her life. Especially when she doesn't treat Holga the same way even though Holga was right there with Edgin every step of the way. Somehow it's Edgin's fault but not Holga's? Do you see what I'm getting at here? And of course part of Edgin's character arc involved apologising to his daughter and admitting that he was wrong. Of course.
Overall I didn't actually care about Edwin's family. I did care about him and feel for how much he loved his family, I was invested in his desire to save/re-unite them, but I actually didn't care about them. It's kinda weird actually.
Once again I enjoyed Hugh Laurie as a villain. He's not very menacing, but is enjoyably charismatic. You almost don't want anything bad to happen to him even though he was complicit in attempting to kill thousands; I think him surviving but ending up in jail was a fair compromise and a satisfying conclusion.
The whole "only one thing can bring one person back to life" macguffin felt a touch contrived, especially when it's first brought up, but I will admit it was fairly well woven into the plot - Red Wizards were established as being dangerous and tied into the plot in a major way, it was shown that the dead could be brought back to life under certain conditions, and in the end the tablet was made to be a part of an important character moment. So overall it wasn't just a lazy writing convenience, they did put the work in.
I'll admit I did enjoy the cameo of the kids from the old cartoon a great deal (even if it did take me a moment to recognise why that party looked so familiar). I'm not sure that it's "canon" that it was actually them, but it's kinda fun to think that they are still out there, having adventures. I tend to be quite jaded these days about what often feels like cynical nostalgia-mining, but for some reason this one worked for me. Perhaps it's because the whole movie felt authentic, or maybe it's because it wasn't thrown into our faces but rather just a subtle little nod in the background. In a way I think that made it feel more genuine and less manupilative. At least to me.
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