I know that I'm relatively behind the release date of what seems like a first iteration of a novel "Dungeons and Dragons" series, but 1) I didn't have much time for movies lately and 2) I didn't really trust the subject. So it took a while to decide watching this. But probably both 1 as well as 2 had a subjective contribution to my final impression = it was clearly beyond my expectations.
To clarify a bit point 2 above, I'm not a complete stranger from the D & D universe. Sometime, like 15-20 years ago (when my amounts of free time were different) I had some contact with the video games niche placed in the same fantasy setting, which originate from board games started long long ago. The contact was enough to realize that the bunch of repetitive quests like talking to character X who can be found in tavern Y for finding the object Z from location Q were usually mingled in a gordian knot, making hard to believe that this kind of stuff can be easily adapted for a screen story. But it seems it can. If there's something to appreciate most about this movie it's the screenplay. In a fantasy universe that's pretty common with what we know already = people, dwarfs, druids, good wizards, bad wizards, dragons, etc, somehow we can find a story that's not told so many times to bore you. For the connoisseurs it keeps the D & D feeling using a series of nuances like: the ensemble of different characters typical to a game - "the party" - where each has specific abilities, the NPCs = non-playable characters who you can add temporarily to a party but at some moment they go on with their lives, the classic quests mentioned above, and others. For who's not familiar with the D & D lore, these nuances are difficult to observe but don't bother either because the movie adds anyway an excellent dose of humor set in such manner to mock all aspects that would bore even an experienced gamer = why a spell meant to interogate zombies must really force you to ask 5 questions when you need only 2, why do you need a path more convoluted then everything you've seen in a Indiana Jones movie to cross a trapped bridge, and again many others.
I didn't really say much about the subject, right? That's because the subject is typical to D & D, meaning exactly what I was mentioning above - we have the heroes of the story trapped in untangling some tangled threads of what proves to be a diabolical plot of a necromancer to corrupt the living world via an evil witch, who raises to power with the help of a crook that manages to usurp the throne of... Whatever, it really doesn't matter that much how many threads we have but more how these are tangled, with anything that comes by along the script = acting, sound, camera, for which the description here is useless; it's better to watch the movie. It's refreshing ;) And I'm not really in a moment to say this about anything, no matter how subjective I might be after my low expectations.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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