First look at the new Dungeons & Dragons film

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Ugh, I’ll take Harryhausen any day over CGI.
Good CGI that is inventive and not used to obfuscate the lack of story/character/ideas... is good. But that bear transformation in the preview? That's uninspired twaddle and looks like every other lazy CGI transformation scene. Same with the swooping dragon, might as well be a giant pidgeon.
 
Good CGI that is inventive and not used to obfuscate the lack of story/character/ideas... is good. But that bear transformation in the preview? That's uninspired twaddle and looks like every other lazy CGI transformation scene. Same with the swooping dragon, might as well be a giant pidgeon.
I think it looks okay, but it is a bit flat by today’s standards.

We have definitely seen more authenticity with effects in the Middle Earth films, as well as streaming shows like The Witcher and Game of Thrones.
If you are gonna do Dragons these days, then if you don’t match Game of Thrones then it’s time to go home.

So yeah it does feel like a bit of a step back in that respect.
 
So yeah it does feel like a bit of a step back in that respect.
I'm less about the technical quality than how it is used... like, a high quality dragon that looks just like every other CGI dragon... vs. something... different... moves different... does something different.
 
Hugh Grant is the villain right? While Rogues make a crucial part of D&D parties, Middle-Aged Caucasian British man is intrinsically Hollywood villain material.

I never cared for Grant as a lead in romcoms but he plays slimy pricks really well.
 
Hugh Grant is the villain right? While Rogues make a crucial part of D&D parties, Middle-Aged Caucasian British man is intrinsically Hollywood villain material.
Thieves not Rogues :wink: (That minor change warmed my cold heart although it might just be a fake out and they call them rogues in the movie)
 
Ok seriously, what would make you hopeful for a D&D movie? What do you want to see?

The Rock, Vin Diesel, Bruce Willis, Bruce Campbell, Robert Downey Jr, Johnny Depp, Michael Caine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Jean Reno, Morgan Freeman, Samuel Jackson, Eddie Griffin, Gal Gadot, Michelle Rodriguez, Lucy Liu, Kat Dennings, Salma Hayek, Cyndi Lauper and of course Ahrnold.

Lets see them fuck it up with that gang, they could just film reading the phone book and it would be better than most of the dreck they put out.

Cameos, voice acting bits etc for some is totally appropriate, or too many characters to keep track of, plus some of these people are getting a bit elderly, and you can only have so many old wise people in an action flick.

I would have included Max von Sydow, and Diana Rigg but they are inconveniently deceased.
 
I would want to see a D&D movie with special effects trying to replicate the glowy airbrushed light style of 80s fantasy movies. Those hand-drawn light blasts were awesome!
 
Maybe I’m the outlier here, if don’t expect a movie made for the general public to follow all the game rules of “x” edition, I expect it to generally follow the rules with a wide berth to allow for the rule of cool.

edit to add I actually don’t expect it to follow any game rules as much as reference the game through monsters and items and class archetypes.
 
So one thing to point out. Unless you are a 15-25 year old male. You are basically never the target audience of Hollywood.
Is that still true? I mean not sure 15-25 yr old males are still the largest segment of the moving going audience. Pay per view, generational demographics and streaming seem to all be factors shifting the absolute truism of 15-25 yr old males being the largest movie segment.
 
Is that still true? I mean not sure 15-25 yr old males are still the largest segment of the moving going audience. Pay per view, generational demographics and streaming seem to all be factors shifting the absolute truism of 15-25 yr old males being the largest movie segment.

When it comes to theatres, the major studios are definitely focused on that demo still, non-blockbuster film genres are strictly for streaming and the shrinking arthouse circuit.

The Top Gun sequel did gangbusters and appealed to a wider than usual demo but I doubt the studios will bother to learn anything from that.
 
When it comes to theatres, the major studios are definitely focused on that demo still, non-blockbuster film genres are strictly for streaming and the shrinking arthouse circuit.

The Top Gun sequel did gangbusters and appealed to a wider than usual demo but I doubt the studios will bother to learn anything from that.
This article at https://movio.co/blog/how-moviegoer-data-benchmarks-and-targeting-has-shifted-for-2022/ says the pre-pandemic majority demographic was Males 25-54 and now its Males 15-34. Not sure how legit the link is. They are advertising their analytics services. The Top Gun sequel is likely an anomaly. It's got action movie chops, 80's nostalgia, A high likelihood of scantily clad men, and veterans and Active duty military. It's got a very unique type of broad appeal and was more of a cultural event for a lot of different groups of people.

My uneducated guess is that there are 2 things contributing to the younger age demographic. 1) It's illegal to just be a teenager in public, So you and your friends go and see a movie together to get out of the house that you were trapped in for 2 years. 2) The older demographic invested in their home entertainment systems, have newborns, and more movies are releasing direct to streaming, making that home system even more valuable.
 
This article at https://movio.co/blog/how-moviegoer-data-benchmarks-and-targeting-has-shifted-for-2022/ says the pre-pandemic majority demographic was Males 25-54 and now its Males 15-34. Not sure how legit the link is. They are advertising their analytics services. The Top Gun sequel is likely an anomaly. It's got action movie chops, 80's nostalgia, A high likelihood of scantily clad men, and veterans and Active duty military. It's got a very unique type of broad appeal and was more of a cultural event for a lot of different groups of people.

My uneducated guess is that there are 2 things contributing to the younger age demographic. 1) It's illegal to just be a teenager in public, So you and your friends go and see a movie together to get out of the house that you were trapped in for 2 years. 2) The older demographic invested in their home entertainment systems, have newborns, and more movies are releasing direct to streaming, making that home system even more valuable.
And the older demographic no longer keep up with new movies because they've learnt they so rarely appeal to them.

There's an element of self-fulfilling prophecy to all of this.
 
And the older demographic no longer keep up with new movies because they've learnt they so rarely appeal to them.

There's an element of self-fulfilling prophecy to all of this.
I would say more of a positive feedback loop rather than self-fulfilling prophecy. The movies aiming a little bit younger are doing better, so more resources are poured into those versus the ones aimed at an older demographic. Also, the younger demographic is more likely to spend money on merchandising (Where the real money for the movie comes from). They are more likely to buy t-shirts, posters, and lumps of plastic in volumes that matter.

You see Ridley Scott yelling at clouds when no one goes and see's The Last Duel (Which is an extremely good movie). Why he shocked that his nuanced film about rape trial testimony with a decent action scene at the end wasn't a blockbuster hit like Gladiator is something I cannot comprehend. Not to mention the bizarre costuming choice with the half visors that signalled to the history nerds that the movie may not be very accurate.
 
"What will the target audience think?'

Does anything think that gamers are the target audience for this? I'm not saying gamers won't like it, but let's be real. Hollywood is targeting people that have heard about D&D on Stranger Things and The Big Bang Theory more than people that play the game.
 
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"What will the target audience think?'

Does anything think that gamers are the target audience for this? I'm not saying gamers won't like it, but let's be real. Hollywood is targeting people that have heard about D&D on Stranger Things and The Big Bang Theory more than people that play the game.
And rightly so gamers are not only a small piece of the audience but likely to be critical no matter what.
 
And rightly so gamers are not only a small piece of the audience but likely to be critical no matter what.
This is a fan movie though. They're not targetting gamers they're targetting D&D fans.

D&D fans don't tend to be particulaly critical, the fandom is still too new (or at least the current wave, which is what counts - just go have a look at Enworld).

The more recent Hollywood strategy seems to be one of trying to appeal to fans in order to create buzz around a movie in the hope that this helps them appeal to non-fans too (in contrast to the old strategy of guttng fan works in the hope of mass apeal and generating big fan backlash).
 
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This is a fan movie though. They're not targetting gamers they're targetting D&D fans.

D&D fans don't tend to be particulaly critical, the fandom is still too new (or at least the current wave, which is what counts - just go have a look at Enworld).

The more recent Hollywood strategy seems to be one of trying to appeal to fans in order to create buzz around a movie in the hope that this helps them appeal to non-fans too (in contrast to the old strategy of guttng fan works in the hope of mass apeal and generating big fan backlash).
I think in particular the crowd that are regular D&D Beyond users who follow Critical Role etc that's probably the main target audience here, as well as the crowd that wants to see more things like MCU/Guardians/Thor etc (they're not mutually exclusive)

So it will probably successful grab these people
 
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