Friday, February 6, 2009

Somebody please make a Dungeons and Dragons Movie that Doesn't Suck

This is really a plea. The first Dungeons and Dragons movie wasn't very good. It had a few things that were nice to see, finally, in a movie about the subject, but that's about all you could say about it. The second one was better - it had more of what I would call the classic elements of the game - a party of adventurers, the use of some staple spells and skills, iconic monsters and such, but even that still could have been better.

You'd think with all of the creative talent floating around Hollywood and all of the rich source material available within the world that someone could come up with a halfway decent film. Maybe the problem is that the person with the rights just can't connect up with the right people.

I saw the animated Dragonlance first installment, and THAT sucked. I had such high hopes for it, and yet the animation was lackluster and it just did not capture the spirit of the books or the game. It reminded me of the low-budget, crappy cartoons that were made for saturday cartoons in the 1970s to 1980s.

There's nothing physically preventing an awesome Dungeons and Dragons movie from being made. There's certainly no lack of imagination on the part of the people who play the game. I found the super low budget, and tongue-in-cheek The Gamers (official site) to be far superior and more entertaining than anything else put out on the game. I look forward to seeing the sequel - The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, which one of these days I may actually have time to sit down and watch. I borrowed the DVD from someone in my gaming group - he got an autographed copy of the DVD - he went back to their booth every day and got every single last person who worked on it and was at Gen Con to sign it. Which may simply have been everyone.

In a similar vein, I'd like to see a good video put out on the game itself - a documentary that explains the game and shows how it is played - both to show that it isn't evil and also to show just how much fun it is and how it works. Maybe one of these days I'll try to do something like that. Yeah, right. Well, maybe.

2 comments:

armagh444 said...

The first Dungeons and Dragons movie wasn't very good.

Understatement, much?

It reminded me of the low-budget, crappy cartoons that were made for saturday cartoons in the 1970s to 1980s.

I skipped watching it because the trailers put me entirely too much in mind of some odd hybrid of Heavy Metal and the wretched Bakshi animated LOTR.

DBB said...

I'd recommend seeing The Gamers: Dorkness Rising - that is a truly excellent D&D themed film. (I posted on this today).