First look at the new Dungeons & Dragons film

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The Winter Soldier was an adaption of a comicbook storyline.
Most of the MCU are rehashes of older, popular stories. It was when Feige got full control during Civil War (Which was based on one of the more recent and hated Marvel 'events' that isn't Spider-Man based) that it jumped over decades of actually good Marvel material to get into the modern, unsellable stuff.

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.
Not since the 80's. The Networks and Studios found out that women make the vast majority of entertainment consumers, as they tend to have the highest amount of free time, and often access to more money than men did (They tend to control the household finances). That's why there's been this female focus ever since.
I never cared for Grant as a lead in romcoms but he plays slimy pricks really well.
"Playing"?

Eh, it looks disposable. And not in a fun way. I didn't find it funny. Which is weird, because I'm very simple in my humour. I LIKE PUNS! One of the most low brow types of humour there is, and this couldn't get ME???

Hollywood, what are you doin'??
 
It was when Feige got full control during Civil War (Which was based on one of the more recent and hated Marvel 'events' that isn't Spider-Man based)
I didn't think Civil War was hated- just CW2? I mean, it wasn't universally liked, but it received decent reviews and sold decently.

Marvel’s Civil War was a massive crossover success, revitalizing the company’s flagging financials and drawing mainstream news coverage not seen since DC’s “Death of the Superman” storyline in 1992. Each issue of Civil War’s seven-part series dominated sales, with the first five issues of Civil War concluding 2006 as the five highest-selling individual issues of the year, eventually selling a staggering 1,885,514 copies in the year of its release.
 
I didn't think Civil War was hated- just CW2? I mean, it wasn't universally liked, but it received decent reviews and sold decently.
The first one was very much disliked. It had some high points absolutely, but it turned Tony Stark into something he never was, and made Captain America into an out of touch loser whose apparent lack of knowledge of pop culture America means his time is passed.

Worse the set up was incredibly dumb. Let's send a bunch of kids with a camera man to deal with a villain that the AVENGERS would have problems dealing with, because outside of Iron Man in a lab for a couple of hours, no one had the means to contain a living, talking, self-reforming FAE bomb, which has all the power of a nuke but none of the fallout.

And no one liked Death of Superman either, it's still touted by DC fans as a bad idea. The only reason both made money was because of the speculator market.

However, this thread is not about Marvel and it's inanities, but D&D and the fact that no one in Hollywood takes serious, thinking that Big Bang Theory, the show designed to mock nerd culture by disguising under cheap laughs and awkward nostalgia, as the height that D&D and it's ilk should reach.

Someone asked 'What do you want in a D&D movie'.

Something less self-referential. I get it most DMs don't really respect their players, thinking them stupid for not cluing in to the breadcrumbs that sometimes are bit too esoteric for their players to catch. As someone who spends 95% of his time as a GM for RPGs, I get it, sometimes I think I'm much smarter than I am. (Then I realized I failed Grades 4 and 9, and then dropped out of High School... Yikes)

I want a team of friends who know, trust each other to rib and play, but also know that when they're lives are on the line they all got each other's back. I want a plot that isn't epic, or a retread of LoTR's 'Evil Overlord threatening the country, planet, universe' again.

I want less Whedon Speak, and more real speak.

I'm sick and tired of the same old comedy trope of the heroes being the cause of the evil they now have to defeat.

I want something smaller, fun and with actual stakes that are relatable. Like maybe something in the vein of Conan's short stories, or the Beastmaster movie.
 
I honestly don't especially wan't a D&D movie. I don't object to the existence of one, but I have never in my lifetime of playing D&D thought, "Wouldn't it be awesome if there was some kind of movie of this?"

So I think there's kind of a bar to clear in that there's no real reason to make a D&D movie other than brand recognition.

I'd rather watch a fantasy movie unconstrained by the need to recognisably cleave to an IP
 
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I honestly don't especially wan't a D&D movie. I don't object to the existence of one, but I have never in my lifetime of playing D&D thought, "Wouldn't it be awesome if there was some kind of movie of this?"

So I think there's kind of a bar to clear in that there's no real reason to make a D&D movie other than brand recognition.

I'd rather watch a fantasy movie unconstrained by the need to recognisably cleave to an IP
Right. D&D is a medium. "A D&D movie" is like "a books movie" or "a TV-show movie". Fine, but which TV show?
 
I get all that but on a practical level I think a good or even decent D&D movie (say Willow level of competence) in the 80s would have helped keep the hype built up from the steam tunnels incident, which made such a difference in sales, rolling for a bit longer.

So Gygax had the right idea even if his chosen script reads like a disaster.
 
This movie isn't aimed at D&D fans, it's of necessity aimed at a much wider audience. Sure, there will be plenty of the trappings of D&D, but making an "authentic" D&D movie is not the goal here. Making money is. Compare the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies to Eastman and Laird's original comics. They're miles apart in tone and content. This movie studio prays they'll be so lucky. I'm just happy to see a displacer beast. Really, though, I probably won't see it, because it's not aimed at me. It's aimed at the average blockbuster movie enjoyer. I also love comic books, but I've seen maybe 2 or 3 Marvel flicks. Same reason, they're not aimed at me, which doesn't bother me. I'd honestly just rather read comics. Whatever. I hope it makes a mint. But, I guess I never outgrew that teenage contrarian streak that tells me that the more popular something is, the more it's probably going to suck. So, I can't really get worked up over the commercial bastardization of anything, as it's really just part of the cycle of life, IMO. Lissen, youngsters, you think you know disappointment? You think you know the pain of your hobbies and interests being processed into a bland paste for mass-market consumption? I was there when The Black Album was released! It was a dark day, I tell you...
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I guess what I want out of this is something light hearted, fun, actiony and with cool monsters. I want something with mixes if serious and silly. Because what I'd like is to be able to point to it and say "yeah this is sort of what it's like in our heads when we're playing D&D" in response to what is D&D and why play it? From my non gamer friends.
 
"A Dungeons & Dragons Movie"?
A movie primarily about quick recovery, levelling up, gaining new talents, new career paths, and spending loot?

Maybe the question should be more about the setting(s):
  • " What do we want to see in a Forgotten Realms movie?"
  • " A Greyhawk movie?"
  • " A Dragonlance movie?"
  • " A Ravenloft movie?"
  • " A Spelljammer movie?"
  • " A Dark Sun movie?"
  • " A Planescape movie?"
  • " A Feywild movie?"
  • " A Magic: The Gathering movie?
I may have left a few out, but you get the idea
 
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"A Dungeons & Dragons Movie"?
A movie primarily about quick recovery, levelling up, gaining new talents, new career paths, and spending loot?

Maybe the question should be more about the setting(s):
  • " What do we want to see in a Forgotten Realms movie?"
  • " A Greyhawk movie?"
  • " A Dragonlance movie?"
  • " A Ravenloft movie?"
  • " A Spelljammer movie?"
  • " A Dark Sun movie?"
  • " A Planescape movie?"
  • " A Feywild movie?"
  • " A Magic: The Gathering movie?
I may have left a few out, but you get the idea
I do think there's a D&D theme. We have our overland and underground exploration bits. Faction management. Looting. Specialty monsters. Murderhoboism. I mean if character has living relatives I think we're in some freakish parallel universe.
 
I do think there's a D&D theme. We have our overland and underground exploration bits. Faction management. Looting. Specialty monsters. Murderhoboism. I mean if character has living relatives I think we're in some freakish parallel universe.
The parallel universe where Emo-Goth pre-teens aren't charge of writing all the character background?
 
"A Dungeons & Dragons Movie"?
A movie primarily about quick recovery, levelling up, gaining new talents, new career paths, and spending loot?

Maybe the question should be more about the setting(s):
  • " What do we want to see in a Forgotten Realms movie?"
  • " A Greyhawk movie?"
  • " A Dragonlance movie?"
  • " A Ravenloft movie?"
  • " A Spelljammer movie?"
  • " A Dark Sun movie?"
  • " A Planescape movie?"
  • " A Feywild movie?"
  • " A Magic: The Gathering movie?
I may have left a few out, but you get the idea
I think we can all agree that Ravenloft would be a horror movie.

I think Dark Sun would fit better as a TV show with a Conan like character having adventures of the week.

I bet Planescape could be a great planes hopping Noir Detective movie.

I feel Spelljammer would work great as Pirates of the Caribbean BUT IN REALMSPACE!

Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance are too bog standard for me to really care about.

I have no idea what a Feywild movie would look like. Maybe game of thrones style court politics with the seasonal courts?

I don't know enough about Magic: the gathering to form an opinion on what would be a good movie fit for it.
 
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For a movie that does an rpg justice, check out InSpectres. Small budget, big fun. YMMV.



That doesn't look like InSpectres at all. I mean the whole schtick of InSpectres is what would happen if a reality TV show was following a Ghostbusters franchise. Whenever I've run/played InSpectres, the best and most memorable bits have been the confessionals. Did this movie have those?
 
That doesn't look like InSpectres at all. I mean the whole schtick of InSpectres is what would happen if a reality TV show was following a Ghostbusters franchise. Whenever I've run/played InSpectres, the best and most memorable bits have been the confessionals. Did this movie have those?
It did indeed.
 
I do think there's a D&D theme. We have our overland and underground exploration bits. Faction management. Looting. Specialty monsters. Murderhoboism. I mean if character has living relatives I think we're in some freakish parallel universe.

This pretty much describes every D&D game, I played in the early 90's. One excuse I could use for the almost no character background, is that the games never ran for very long. So it would have been a waste of time.
Now I like my characters to have all sorts of connections, to the game world.

About this D&D movie, it looks like a fun and entertaining movie to me. But I also liked the previous movies, so that probably isn't saying much. This looks a lot better production wise than those.
 
I do think the tone of the trailer is just a product of modern day Blockbusters post MCU. We probably can’t get a LOTR feeling movie in the modern landscape.

That's sad. You'd think a series that grossed almost 3 billion would inspire similar films, particularly in copycat Hollywood. But all they see is that The Northman flopped.
 
I do think the tone of the trailer is just a product of modern day Blockbusters post MCU. We probably can’t get a LOTR feeling movie in the modern landscape.

That's sad. You'd think a series that grossed almost 3 billion would inspire similar films, particularly in copycat Hollywood. But all they see is that The Northman flopped.
While the LOTR rings films are much better than this current crop of films let's not forget that it had Dwarf throwing and Legolas the agile superhero.

The rot was there then.
 
The issue wasn't having some humour it was that the jokes weren't any good.

Which is strange as Jackson's Dead Alive is a horror comedy classic.

But then I found Tolkien's occasional attempts at 'whimsy' in LotR rather painful as well.

The humor wasn't the problem, I was referring to the action more appropriate to a Marvel movie. When they added the Six Flags River Escape ride to the film they broke me. I like much of what they did with the films, they had really great casting, but the action was so over the top and out of place. It would be like making the French Connection but replacing Gene Hackmen with prime 1980s action Schwarzenegger.
 
Not to worry, Lord of the Rings is probably overdue for a remake.

Really, the Willow TV show did okay at showing some group dynamics. It came together okay in the end, but the plot of the ending was painfully generic.

Still, one thing I liked is that they didn't ramp the scope of the action scenes up to the ridiculous. All too often things are so over the top that Bugs Bunny would walk away and complain about how unrealist they are. They didn't do a single, every blow strikes down a foe, no matter how well armoured fight.

I think ideally a D&D movie would be goofy but played straight. No laugh track, "no badum tish!" I mean there'd be a beholder riding an owl bear through a dimension door but everyone would treat it as normal and dead serious because as ridiculous as it looks, anyone playing the game is going to take that encounter seriously.
 
I find it hard to imagine what a D&D movie would be like that I would actually want to see at this point.

Maybe one that involved two 20th level wizards doing battle with each and finding out that with every move they make their enemy has anticipated them and already prepared a counter move. Also they don't really want to kill each other anyway because then what would there be left to do?

Or maybe turn the DCC funnel into a film and we see lots of adventurering parties constantly dying horrible and hilarious deaths except for a few survivors who finally get together with each other to form the party which will be end up being the heroes of the second movie (which would naturally suck so hopefully never get made).
 
I find it hard to imagine what a D&D movie would be like that I would actually want to see at this point.

I have low expectations, so undoubtably I'll be disappointed. :tongue:


Sad really, there are decades of D&D modules and novels they can pull from, so I expect they will hire somebody with no knowledge of fantasy literature to churn out yet another drab script.
 
Well, for myself I'd want it set in Greyhawk.

We start with an establishing scene of the classic map by Darlene on a table with a skull candle, dagger, and maybe the wand of orcus. In the background two people are making out, we pan into the shadow and it's Iuz and Zugtmoy making out and giggling. We shift frame through a glowing crimson pentacle on the wall into the nine Hells, Asmodeus and Dispatcher are explaining their plan to invade and seize the Flannesses region at long last. A cringing, grovelling Dretch limps away with the drink tray after a bit of mean spirited abuse and prays "Saint Cuthbert, one such as I has no right to gaze upwards at the heavens but grant thine fallen servant's prayer and warn them. The camera follows into a tear in his eye and spins out into a beautiful, immaculate glass cathedral where a scarred and beaten man kneels before an altar to Pelor, his hand resting on a battered cudgel. He raises an eye to the sungod's image in the stained glass and we pan back to a dark stone cathedral where a young priest in armour kneels before the altar his hand resting on a mace. He rises, looks into the ajoining chamber where fat priests are drinking and laughing and making sneering comments about their parishoners. The young priest sighs, shakes his head, and walks away out the side door. He walks down the street and a cloud passes overhead, casting the scene in shadow. A beautiful girl in tan leathers is leaning in a doorway hefting a sack of coins. She turns to the young priest and smiles and comes over, asks why he's looking so serious, after all, it's not the end of the world and he looks her right in they eye and says, "but it is, it really is." The scene shifts to a quiet tavern, there's a dwarf in plate armor, an ugly, female, half - orc in scale mail, the priest, the girl from the doorway, and a gnome in an elaborate robe talking and looking at a crudely drawn map on the table. We cut to them travelling up a mountain path in the rain. Their guide takes payment, pointing them to an ill used rocky path over looked by a skeleton nailed up on a post. The guide turns and leads the pack mules away and we follow the path up, passing the heroes as they march single file, and there is a disturbing cave, like the collapsed entrance of a forgotten temple ahead of them.
 
Maybe one that involved two 20th level wizards doing battle with each and finding out that with every move they make their enemy has anticipated them and already prepared a counter move. Also they don't really want to kill each other anyway because then what would there be left to do?
I do believe you just described Magic: The Gathering: The Movie
 
What I want:

The fighter beats the crap out of stuff with a sword but misses seven times in a row shooting a bow, then goes and sits down to let everyone else fight the flying monster because he can't hit anything at range.

The atheist cleric saying "wtf should I know if that's an evil holy symbol? Ask the brainiac with the knowlege skills."

The fighter always knowing stuff about magic and the wizard almost never does. They just chalk it up to "lucky" and nobody ever questions it.

Nobody wants to go anywhere on a boat, they detour 500 miles on horseback instead.

Party comes to a cliff, they all look at the wizard who says "I didn't memorize a fly spell today." They all cuss and start climbing, half way up everyone falls off. They try again and this time everyone but the cleric falls off half way up. The cleric says "I don't have any rope." More cussing.
 
The latest trailer looks like a desperate attempt to include Every Single Thing, Effect, Monster, Joke, Surprise, Action Scene , so I wonder if the movie will hold any more surprises. Or maybe the rest is just 90 minutes of 'The heroes go shopping for equipment'.
 
The latest trailer looks like a desperate attempt to include Every Single Thing, Effect, Monster, Joke, Surprise, Action Scene , so I wonder if the movie will hold any more surprises. Or maybe the rest is just 90 minutes of 'The heroes go shopping for equipment'.
The humor seems like the kind of jokes that would be fine if your buddy across the table made them, but nothing I would pay money for. And as it seems like everything in the movie is treated like a joke, with no attempt to have serious stakes, there isn't any other reason to see it.
 
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