First look at the new Dungeons & Dragons film

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apparently, it has no meta anything. no fourth wall breaking,
 
I saw the trailer when I went to see the Ant-Man. It looked like fun. But then I like action/comedy movies and I am not particularly invested in D&D.
 
I will watch it when it ends up on one of the 8million streaming services my housemate subscribes to.
 
The D&D movie I'd like to see but never will:

A fantasy-horror anthology film (à la Tales from the Crypt, Heavy Metal, etc.) with each segment detailing a different group of adventurers exploring a shared, single location: a classic "megadungeon" in the style of Castle Greyhawk, Castle Blackmoor, Undermountain, etc. They adventure in search of treasure, knowledge, power, and glory -- no mighty McGuffins, world-threatening archvillains, or wannabe-Marvel fantasy superhero nonsense.

At least one segment ends in a TPK, with everyone felled by various traps, monsters, dissolved by green slime/gelatinous cube/acidic black dragon breath, etc. Other groups might encounter some of the same traps or weird features (and be warned by the bodies of those slain in earlier segments), surviving the dungeon with varying casualties and treasure hauls. It ends on the note that many mysteries, dangers, and treasures remain. The parties' explorations will include ample displays of dungeoneering technique, with clever tactics and creative use of utility spells, iron spikes, 10' poles, sacks of flour, and other mundane equipment-list items.

Rated "R" for violence, fear, and intense fantasy images. "Dungeons & Dragons" wouldn't even be in the title due to its association with previous film flops, but people who play D&D will recognize the film for what it really is.
 
The D&D movie I'd like to see but never will:

A fantasy-horror anthology film (à la Tales from the Crypt, Heavy Metal, etc.) with each segment detailing a different group of adventurers exploring a shared, single location: a classic "megadungeon" in the style of Castle Greyhawk, Castle Blackmoor, Undermountain, etc. They adventure in search of treasure, knowledge, power, and glory -- no mighty McGuffins, world-threatening archvillains, or wannabe-Marvel fantasy superhero nonsense.

At least one segment ends in a TPK, with everyone felled by various traps, monsters, dissolved by green slime/gelatinous cube/acidic black dragon breath, etc. Other groups might encounter some of the same traps or weird features (and be warned by the bodies of those slain in earlier segments), surviving the dungeon with varying casualties and treasure hauls. It ends on the note that many mysteries, dangers, and treasures remain. The parties' explorations will include ample displays of dungeoneering technique, with clever tactics and creative use of utility spells, iron spikes, 10' poles, sacks of flour, and other mundane equipment-list items.

Rated "R" for violence, fear, and intense fantasy images. "Dungeons & Dragons" wouldn't even be in the title due to its association with previous film flops, but people who play D&D will recognize the film for what it really is.
You're right that it's highly unlikely to happen but I could see it working. The dungeon would be the most important character. Start with a bunch of brave chosen one heroes who get TPK'ed to set the tone. Maybe it would work better as a TV show.
 
You're right that it's highly unlikely to happen but I could see it working. The dungeon would be the most important character. Start with a bunch of brave chosen one heroes who get TPK'ed to set the tone. Maybe it would work better as a TV show.
I think it would be more successful if it's pitched and developed as "fantasy horror" instead of high fantasy. Heck, if all those ridiculous Saw movies could be made... This not-D&D movie's sequels could focus on various deeper levels of the dungeon. Crypts, myconid fungal forest, shrine of the Kuo-toa, etc.
 
The D&D movie I'd like to see but never will:

A fantasy-horror anthology film (à la Tales from the Crypt, Heavy Metal, etc.) with each segment detailing a different group of adventurers exploring a shared, single location: a classic "megadungeon" in the style of Castle Greyhawk, Castle Blackmoor, Undermountain, etc. They adventure in search of treasure, knowledge, power, and glory -- no mighty McGuffins, world-threatening archvillains, or wannabe-Marvel fantasy superhero nonsense.

At least one segment ends in a TPK, with everyone felled by various traps, monsters, dissolved by green slime/gelatinous cube/acidic black dragon breath, etc. Other groups might encounter some of the same traps or weird features (and be warned by the bodies of those slain in earlier segments), surviving the dungeon with varying casualties and treasure hauls. It ends on the note that many mysteries, dangers, and treasures remain. The parties' explorations will include ample displays of dungeoneering technique, with clever tactics and creative use of utility spells, iron spikes, 10' poles, sacks of flour, and other mundane equipment-list items.

Rated "R" for violence, fear, and intense fantasy images. "Dungeons & Dragons" wouldn't even be in the title due to its association with previous film flops, but people who play D&D will recognize the film for what it really is.

One of the streaming services could run with something like that. Use the thieves world model, setting some basics then open it up for different producer/director/writer teams to do their own episodes.
 
The D&D movie I'd like to see but never will:

A fantasy-horror anthology film (à la Tales from the Crypt, Heavy Metal, etc.) with each segment detailing a different group of adventurers exploring a shared, single location: a classic "megadungeon" in the style of Castle Greyhawk, Castle Blackmoor, Undermountain, etc. They adventure in search of treasure, knowledge, power, and glory -- no mighty McGuffins, world-threatening archvillains, or wannabe-Marvel fantasy superhero nonsense.

At least one segment ends in a TPK, with everyone felled by various traps, monsters, dissolved by green slime/gelatinous cube/acidic black dragon breath, etc. Other groups might encounter some of the same traps or weird features (and be warned by the bodies of those slain in earlier segments), surviving the dungeon with varying casualties and treasure hauls. It ends on the note that many mysteries, dangers, and treasures remain. The parties' explorations will include ample displays of dungeoneering technique, with clever tactics and creative use of utility spells, iron spikes, 10' poles, sacks of flour, and other mundane equipment-list items.

Rated "R" for violence, fear, and intense fantasy images. "Dungeons & Dragons" wouldn't even be in the title due to its association with previous film flops, but people who play D&D will recognize the film for what it really is.
Should be based on Castle Gargantua. I always run it with the PCs starting in the dungeon, and trying to get out. Sometimes they manage it.
 
apparently, it has no meta anything. no fourth wall breaking.
While it isn't fouth-wall breaking, I'd say the tired trend of mocking your own setting that recent Marvel movies engage in is a form of meta. The "Why five questions? That seems arbitrary." line is the kind of premise questioning that gets in the way an audience actually engaging with the setting.

I'm fine with the movie just being a goofy comedy, so I'm not upset by it. I just don't buy the idea they aren't being meta.
 
So does the clip show an old an tired joke everyone's heard before because that's genuinely the best they can manage in the whole film, or was that chosen precisely because it's old and tired in order to reassure the audience that they can safely see this film insulated from from anything new or surprising that might unsettle tem in some way?
 
So does the clip show an old an tired joke everyone's heard before because that's genuinely the best they can manage in the whole film, or was that chosen precisely because it's old and tired in order to reassure the audience that they can safely see this film insulated from from anything new or surprising that might unsettle tem in some way?

Too true, sometimes all the good jokes are in the trailer, sometimes the worse jokes are in the trailer.
 
Still needs a scene:
Party comes across an magic inscription. Nobody can figure it out. Then the barbarian says "Oh that's [insert magi-babble]." Everyone looks at the barbarian for a couple seconds before he says "What? I rolled a 20."
 
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