Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

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sharps54 said:
Not every movie can be as faithful to the game it was based on as Battleship was.
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I like the Mutant Chronicles movie. It's not entirely faithful to the game. The setting is condensed and simplified and it drops the 40kisms in favour of straight dieselpunk, but it worked. And when I eventually did run Mutant Chronicles, I some instances I went with the movie's take on the setting.

Also, Ron Perlman, Thomas Jane, Devon Aoki... what's not to like?
 
Gringnr said:
Wuxia movies are the D&D movies I always wanted tbh
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I watched a whole lot of Wuxia movies around about this time last year.

Some were briliant, some were insane, some were downright silly and made absolutely no sense.

It wasn't til I got to the Crouching Tiger sequel that I encountered a feeling of deep staleness* that was familiar, but I hadn't seen in any of the other Wuxia movies. When I looked it up online I discovered it was actually a Hollywood movie, which explained everything.

*It's hard to describe, sort of the movie equivalent of looking in someone's eyes and seeing nothing there. It's sort of unnoticeable until you watch a bunch of movies that don't have this quality and then come back and realise there's this utter deadness to modern Hollywood action movies.
 
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TJS said:
I watched a whole lot of Wuxia moves around about this time last year.

Some were briliant, some were insane, some were downright silly and made absolutely no sense.

It wasn't til I got to the Crouching Tiger sequel that I encountered a feeling of deep staleness* that was familiar, but I hadn't seen in any of the other Wuxia movies. When I looked it up online I discovered it was actually a Hollywood movie, which explained everything.

*It's hard to describe, sort of the movie equivalent of looking in someone's eyes and seeing nothing there. It's sort of unnoticeable until you watch a bunch of movies that don't have this quality and then come back and realise there's this utter deadness to modern Hollywood action movies.
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They run the range of quality that any genre movie would. So you have some real standout quality films and stuff that is more enjoyed by fans. In terms of films that have a D&D feel, wuxia is a genre with a lot of the tropes you expect in a D&D game. Some that I have found more gameable than others: Flying Swords of Dragon Gate Inn, Web of Death
The Four Trilogy, the 18 Bronzemen, The Brave Archer series, Buddha Palm, House of Traps, Come Drink with Me, etc.

In terms of quality, I recommend Reign of Assassins (great film), A Touch of Zen (patient viewing but a very well crafted wuxia film), The Blade, Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, Swordsman 2 and Swordsman 3 (the east is red), Last Hurrah for Chivalry, Master of the Flying Guillotine, Duel to the Death, Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, Lady Hermit, Bride With White Hair, New Dragon Inn, Wu Xia/Dragon, Magic Blade and Chang Cheh's The Assassin. I recommend Ashes of Time if you want good but surreal. There are a lot of other high quality films, these are just ones I think stand out a bit. Everyone's tastes are different, but those are some of the ones that landed really well with me.
 
Caveat: I've not seen the movie and have no plan to see it until I can watch it on my own TV at no additional cost.

Telling me the D&D movie doesn't follow the D&D game rules neither surprises me, nor disheartens me. In fact, finding out they actually tried to make the action follow the rules of a game would certainly keep me from seeing it. Now, I know very little about the movie - but I assume it is set in one of the major D&D settings. My only hope then is that the writer and director actually tried to stay consistent with narrative source material.
 
Johndesmarais said:
My only hope then is that the writer and director actually tried to stay consistent with narrative source material.
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It's set in the Forgotten Realms. All bets are off, all one-liners are on.
 
Haven't seen the latest D&D movie, and have no plans to until it is streaming but...

I have a problem with most game based films not because they don't slavishly follow the rules, but mostly because they tend to feel like the writers have never in their life played an RPG or even cracked a book of the source material.

For all its faults at least it was obvious Peter Jackson was a fan of Tolkien, and where I was unhappy I could still mostly put it down to creative differences.
 
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BedrockBrendan said:
My question is: why mess with perfection?
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In which Richard O' Brien plays Richard O' Brien... badly.

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I'll probably watch it. I've got an unlimited card, so I may as well, and the previews looked fun.

But... it's definitely the fantasy that folk have about what Playing D&D (Or any other RPG!) could be like, as opposed to what it is like; the sort of game that fosters people who compare a movie trailer to game mechanics.
 
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did that movie kill Thora Birch's film career?

After American Beauty and Ghost World I thought she was heading for A-lister status
 
CRKrueger said:
After D&D, she slid into obscurity doing a bunch of first less visible films, then indie films.
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Just googled her. I don't remember her face being that far down on her head


edit: oh, had no idea that was her in Wednesday
 
Toadmaster said:
For all its faults at least it was obvious Peter Jackson was a fan of Tolkien, and where I was unhappy I could still mostly put it down to creative differences.
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I guess he musta loathed the Hobbit, huh?
 
Dr Jack said:
I guess he musta loathed the Hobbit, huh?
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After seeing the behind the scenes stuff, I dont really blame Jackson for how the Hobbit turned out, he had no control in that situation, was basically pushed around to the point of a nervous breakdown by an army of suits, forced to begin filming with no script, piecing through the scraps of preproduction done for another director and filling in the gaps as best he could as he went along. It was a shitshow, an he was just brought back at the last minute to try and steer the garbage barge into dock.
 
TristramEvans said:
After seeing the behind the scenes stuff, I dont really blame Jackson for how the Hobbit turned out, he had no control in that situation, was basically pushed around to the point of a nervous breakdown by an army of suits, forced to begin filming with no script, piecing through the scraps of preproduction done for another director and filling in the gaps as best he could as he went along. It was a shitshow, an he was just brought back at the last minute to try and steer the garbage barge into dock.
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Don't come here spoiling a cheap joke with your "facts".
 
TristramEvans said:
After seeing the behind the scenes stuff, I dont really blame Jackson for how the Hobbit turned out, he had no control in that situation, was basically pushed around to the point of a nervous breakdown by an army of suits, forced to begin filming with no script, piecing through the scraps of preproduction done for another director and filling in the gaps as best he could as he went along. It was a shitshow, an he was just brought back at the last minute to try and steer the garbage barge into dock.
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He could have just said, “no”
 
Toadmaster said:
I have a problem with most game based films not because they don't slavishly follow the rules, but mostly because they tend to feel like the writers have never in their life played an RPG or even cracked a book of the source material.
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Which I think is the point those glibly chiming in to voice their lack of surprise that the movie didn't follow the rules seem to be missing. People who complain about how films based on games feature stuff that wouldn't be possible in the game aren't complaining that the film didn't insert game terminology like Proficiency Bonuses, or broke down the fights into rounds or whatever. What they're really complaining about is that the film makes things up that don't follow the source material, like the writers never even bothered to familiarize themselves with it before writing it. Like why the hell would a paladin have a sword that can change in size from a dagger to a long sword. What possible benefit would that provide, and WTF does that have to do with that class/role? How tha hell does it help reinforce it? That's sort of thing.

OBVIOUSLY nobody expects references to game terms to show up in the film. What they're complaining about is that the film has fuck all to the with the source material.

PS/Disclaimer: I haven't watched the film either and don't plan to yet, until it drops to the interwebs.
 
sharps54 said:
He could have just said, “no”
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I too, would've said "no" to whatever millions of dollars Jackson got for directing another blockbuster film, regardless of how bad* it turned out in the end. :thumbsup:

*which wasn't even that bad, just kinda ill conceived and longer than it should've been.
 
VisionStorm said:
Which I think is the point those glibly chiming in to voice their lack of surprise that the movie didn't follow the rules seem to be missing. People who complain about how films based on games feature stuff that wouldn't be possible in the game aren't complaining that the film didn't insert game terminology like Proficiency Bonuses, or broke down the fights into rounds or whatever. What they're really complaining about is that the film makes things up that don't follow the source material, like the writers never even bothered to familiarize themselves with it before writing it. Like why the hell would a paladin have a sword that can change in size from a dagger to a long sword. What possible benefit would that provide, and WTF does that have to do with that class/role? How tha hell does it help reinforce it? That's sort of thing.

OBVIOUSLY nobody expects references to game terms to show up in the film. What they're complaining about is that the film has fuck all to the with the source material.

PS/Disclaimer: I haven't watched the film either and don't plan to yet, until it drops to the interwebs.
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From all reports that is not the case with the new D&D movie. The people I know that saw early screenings said there are a number of Easter eggs in there and obvious nods to people that play the game.
 
VisionStorm said:
I too, would've said "no" to whatever millions of dollars Jackson got for directing another blockbuster film, regardless of how bad* it turned out in the end. :thumbsup:

*which wasn't even that bad, just kinda ill conceived and longer than it should've been.
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I’m not saying it would be a smart financial decision just saying he had the option.
 
For the first contemporary D&D movie they should of went with Forgotten Realms: The Lost Mines of Phandelver
Then they could of followed up with some of the other campaign books
Just a thought
 
I don’t expect combat to look like the game (everybody stands around waiting until everyone on both sides has taken an action, people moving in 5’ steps, everybody acting at full strength until the last blow causes them to drop dead, etc) because that would be obviously dumb. But I would like it if magic worked like it does in the game - spells must be chosen and prepared in advance by studying books, can only be used a limited number of times, require standing still and speaking an exact verbal formula while making specific uninterrupted gestures and being disturbed while doing so causes the spell to fizzle, new spells can be learned from books or scrolls but are sometimes too complex or difficult to use, etc. But, then again, I don’t even know that magic even works like that in the game anymore.

Put another way, a faithful film adaptation of Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth might be pretty neat.
 
Seeing D&D’s quirky magic items brought to life would also be fun: trapped/cursed items (stuff like boots of dancing or a horn of bubbles or delusion items where the user thinks some magical effect is occurring that isn’t), items that need a command phrase to activate and they have to look for or otherwise puzzle out what the correct phrase is, using trial and error to puzzle out the functions of unknown items, intelligent magic swords that talk and argue with their owner, someone drinking a second potion while the first one is still in effect and having disastrous side effects, and so on. Seeing stuff like that on screen would be cool and fun for me. If these are the types of “Easter eggs for gamers” that people are alluding to being in the movie that will make me happy.
 
I've seen the movie, and I have two things to say:
1) It's a very entertaining action-fantasy movie that should appeal to a broad audience.
2) It's actually very close to what an actual 5E game in a high fantasy setting looks like.
 
CRKrueger said:
Oh Jesus was that horrific. Who in their right fucking mind thought that would be a watchable movie? "Hey everyone, you know which one is the goofy sidekick because he's wearing that fucking hat."
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I mean, it at least had the redeeming quality of getting to watch Jeremy Irons devour scenery as no man has ever done. Other than that, yeah, it was horrifically bad.
 
I'd like to see the movie. I am a little miffed that Jeremy Irons isn't reprising his ground breaking role as Profion. I know the cast of animated television series Dungeon and Dragons is making a cameo but I didn't see Uni in the trailer so it should be fine. :thumbsup:
 
EmperorNorton said:
I mean, it at least had the redeeming quality of getting to watch Jeremy Irons devour scenery as no man has ever done. Other than that, yeah, it was horrifically bad.
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It is hard to recapture how it felt to watch that when it came out. I feel like I really wasn't expecting the scenery chewing from him at the time
 
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