Dungeons & Dragons

Rated PG-13
New Line Cinema
Director: Courtney Solomon
Staring Justin Whalin, Marlon Wayans, Jeremy Irons and Bruce Payne
Matt's Rating:
Jeff's Rating:

Review From Matt

As I walked into the dark theater with my hot dog and drink, I already was wondering if this movie was going to work. Granted I am a role player and have had my share of Dungeons & Dragons® campaigns and adventures. Despite my set ways I was going to give this movie a chance.

Dungeons & Dragons® takes place in a world with magic, men, and monsters. Mages and commoners are not equal in any respect. Adventure can happen to anyone at anytime or anywhere, even two hapless thieves. Bent on wanting to become the envy of all thieves Ridley Freeborne (Justin Whalin) and Snails (Marlon Wayans) break into the Magic School for Mages. This begins a whole adventure for the two. Between searching for a jewel, avoiding the bad guys and jumping into a mystical map they seem to pull through.

With in the first 10 minutes I was beginning to feel like I had seen this movie already, but with a different setting and characters. Picture an all powerful megalomaniac, a large powerful right-hand warrior, and a young princess who begs the mage council to regard all mages and commoners to be equal. All this while wearing a rather familiar clothing pattern of another princess we may all know. The movie drops you in the characters live like you knew them for years but don't. The one and only character that nearly fits his role is Elwood the once great dwarf warrior. With his large appetite, lack of manners, and fear of horses he makes any dwarf mother proud. For those Star Trek fans out there you may find that Norda's character may seem more like Tuvoc's sister than an elven hunter. The movie basically felt like they took a campaign module and slapped it into a screenplay. More could have been done with it.

Though it sounds like I totally hated all aspects of the movie, this is not so. Once I got past the Star Wars feeling, the over acting, and the lack of a diversity of monsters, I was free to enjoy the wonderful graphics animation, and the surprise cameo appearance of Tom Baker (4th Doctor of Doctor Who®). The movie did have some plot twists that were unusual, but enjoyable.

After years of disagreeing with critics on movies and seeing the movie anyway, I now know how it feels to be on the other side of the fence. See the movie for yourself and decide. My review is based on what I saw.

Review From Jeff S Cochrane

Dungeons & Dragons® is a fast paced, action-packed adventure movie based on the role-playing game of the same name. The two main characters, Ridley and Snails, are a pair of thieves living in The Empire of Izmyr who get embroiled in a plot to usurp the rule of Empress Savina, a young idealist who wants to bring equality to the common, non-magic using folk, of her empire. The action escalates with scrolls, sword-play, magic, a trap-laden maze, and a quest for a magic artifact called the Rod of Sevrille which gives the user the power to control red dragons, and culminates in a massive battle between wizards and dragons in the city of Sumdall.

As a former gamer I was pleased to see all the familiar trappings of a Dungeons & Dragons® game. Many familiar spell effects, monsters, and character types abound. The special effects were slick and the fight choreography for the most part well done. On the surface this should have been a really good movie. However, surface seems to be all that is really there. The movie is marred by a deplorable abundance of over acting. Many of the characters are cookie cut right out of cheap fantasy novels, and the action moves along at such a fast pace it leaves me feeling rushed and unable to savor the feel of the fantasy world it is trying to evoke. There are a couple of unexpected plot twists which could have given the movie more depth, and an appearance by Tom Baker of Doctor Who® fame as an elven elder really shines. Unfortunately, the movie couldn't rise above its confusing and derivative plotline.