About me:Hello everyone. Well now uni has finished and I've left my job, I thought I'd better start writing a...
Member since:12.01.2001
Reviews:48
Members who trust:17
Review rated by 11 Ciao members on average: very helpful
I really wanted to see Dungeons and Dragons ever since I saw the trailer. Filled with massive special effects, sword fights, sorcery and dragon or two it definitely looked a cracking film. This genre of film is right up my street so I couldn’t wait, however, I should have remembered that the trailers always look good and this film really underlined how a trailer can make a poor film look brilliant.
And what a dire film it is for all the media hype. The setting is a fantasyland where magic, dragons and all our imagination’s whims exist. A struggle in the hierarchy of a kingdom leads two thieves Ridley Freeborn, acted by Justin Whalin (Superman (TV series) 1994) and Snails, played by Marlon Mayans (Scary Movie 2000) into an adventure to recover a sceptre of great power that can control Red Dragons. They are accompanied by the Mage that got them into the trouble in the first place Marina Pretensa, performed by Zoe McLellen (Mr. Holland Opus 1995) and a gruff old Dwarf called Elwood Gutworthy (good Dwarf name), played by Lee Arenburg (Water World 1995).
Two
parties want the sceptre: the Empress Savina, acted by Thora Birch (American Beauty 1999) and the evil mage Profion, performed by Jeremy Irons (Lolita 1997). Both sends out their henchmen or women to hunt down the party; an Elf named Norda, played by Kristen Wilson (Dr Dolittle 1998), and Captian of the Scarlet Guard Damodar, acted by Bruce Payne (Warlock III 1999). The journey takes our intrepid party throughout the kingdom to search for the ‘Eye of the Dragon’ a key to the dungeon where the sceptre lies. The search means they eventually stumble into the Theives Guild’s leader Xilus, performed by Richard O’Brien (Crystal Maze (TV series) 1990) who posses it but can only relinquish it at a price.
Eventually the end scenes erupt as Dragons fill the sky and a battle between good and evil ensues, where only one winner can profit and we don’t have to guess which side that is going to be!
The film is pretty meagre from beginning to end. For a start the story line although discernible never seems to impose itself on the audience but instead seems on the verge of completely breaking down. Scenes in the film didn’t make much sense especially one where they appear to come to the eleven homeland. Maybe this is reflection on the game of Dungeons and Dragons where the story line is always fluctuating and never seems set in its ways but if so you can’t achieve this on screen without making your audience feel either lost or unhappy with the lack of consistency.
Worse than the story line, I feel, was the acting and use of characters. None of the actors imposed themselves on the film what so ever not even the well-known stars such as Jeremy Irons and Marlon Mayans. This left me feeling that there was no star to the film and no focal point on which to concentrate, which I think is an integral part to any film. Also the portrayal of the characters were poor. Most of the time it seemed the screenplay was produced for the 13-15 age bracket but then some of the dialogue was verbose and over used.
It also seemed like most of the characters were just filling holes in the film this is especially so with the Elf Norda and the Dwarf Elwood, who only seemed to be included because they were classic characters in any fantasy book and needed to be there. Other than that they seemed to have no roll and little in the way of decent lines. Jeremy Irons and Bruce Payne as the ‘bad guys’ were laughable as their portrayal of their characters was almost overacted and very poor for Irons’ acting achievements in other films. The empress was also woefully used and her scenes seemed an almost hybrid with its own style and that of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace with the palace scenes and the use of over the top costumes (check out the battle armour at the end) almost identical.
To try and save it I relied on the special effects to at least give me a spark of hope at one good point to the film and they didn’t disappoint. The backgrounds, city scenes and the Dragon battle at the end was truly awesome and the only high point to the whole film. They did let themselves down however, with the use of what looked like a biology lab skeleton with a piece of string to make the jaw move used to portray the undead maker of the sceptre, but a found this too funny to worry to much about it.
In all this film is at worse drivel and really dashed my hopes of a good fantasy film. Awful acting and a wishy-washy story line couldn’t be covered up by state of the art special effects. I really suggest to anybody that they take themselves to see another film if they see this showing at the cinema, a poor adaptation of a brilliant role-playing game, I would rather watch those kids in the cartoon Dungeons and Dragons.
Went and saw it and fell about laughing...it was that dire...COuldnn't agree more, but having said as much TSR tend to be a bit dodgy at the best of times...Great oip, shame about the movie
Excellent opinion Paul. I too was expecing some thing much better, and was very disapointed by this film. They would have been better off turning an episode of the cartoon into a film at leat they had good plots !
e-playing game first introduced in the 1970s. It delivers some of the same kind of fantasy and fun the game offered, as its youthful heroes journey through a magical kingdom ba...
e-playing game first introduced in the 1970s. It delivers some of the same kind of fantasy and fun the game offered, as its youthful heroes journey through a magical kingdom ba...
![Dungeons And Dragons [DVD] [2001]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78545805.jpg)
13.05.2001 21:31
Went and saw it and fell about laughing...it was that dire...COuldnn't agree more, but having said as much TSR tend to be a bit dodgy at the best of times...Great oip, shame about the movie
24.04.2001 17:18
Sorry Saul !
24.04.2001 17:17
Excellent opinion Paul. I too was expecing some thing much better, and was very disapointed by this film. They would have been better off turning an episode of the cartoon into a film at leat they had good plots !