Dungeons and Dragons in Film
Here we discuss the various attempts and fails to bring the Dungeons and Dragons IP to the Silver Screen.
Dungeons and Dragons (2000 film)
In the land of Izmir the mages rule and everyone else is oppressed by them, apparently. The Empress wants to change that while evil mage-guy Profion (played by Jeremy Irons hamming it up like it's overtime at the meat smoking plant) wants to keep it this way. Problem is that the Empress has a septre that lets her control Yellow Dragons. So Profion set out to get another septre that would let him control Red Dragons. A couple of Rogues (a white guy called Ridley Freeman and his 90s comedic black sidekick Snails) get caught up with a apprentice mage named Marina in a plot to get that Staff while being harried by Profion's blue-lipped minion Damodar and his discount warrior dudes.
It's pretty bad. Not awful, not vile and it might have some "so bad it's good" charm, but it's still bad. It also came out a year before The Fellowship of the Rings. Still it got some Made For TV sequels.
Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God/Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of Elemental Might (2005)
A straight-to-TV sequel to the above, which goes to show just how well the original film sold. That said, absolutely nobody from the past one returns except for the creepy blue-lipped lackey. Said lackey, somehow managing to cheat death via DM fiat, manages to steal a powerful artifact and awakens a sealed dragon to destroy Izmir. To counter this, a party is assembled of the most basic variety - a Fighter, a Wizard, a Cleric, a Barbarian, and a Rogue - to find this orb and steal it back before the dragon can wake up.
Due to this having less of a budget, it's clearly got less going for it, but it makes the crap we get a touch more tolerable. It feels like the people behind this one actually seemed to be more aware of D&D than the last bozos, and thus are able to integrate a lot more lore and flavor to it. That said, it's not nearly as memorable for being so awful, it's just bleh.
Dungeons and Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness (2012)
Another straight-to-TV film from Germany that has absolutely no ties to the previous ones despite being called D&D 3. Notably a lot more grimdark, focusing more on a hero being forced to join some criminals. It's all focused on the titular book, which in this film was actually made when an insane necromancer wanted to become immortal and got his flesh flayed to transform into the book's pages. In hopes of finding his missing father, a young knight of Pelor has to join with a part of various shades of Stupid Evil that are hired by a dark lord to re-create the book. Notably, it manages to portray a rather decent character arc by having him bend his morality and his oaths in order to survive.
Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (2008)
A straight-to-DVD animated adaptation of the first modules of the Dragonlance setting, with hopes of a full series. The fact that his movie was just so awful saw those plans go up in smoke. And not the hammy sort of awful like the 2000 movie. It's just very lazily done, with notable sore spots being the very egregiously 3D like on the Draconians, shitty animation, and a janky framerate. Also has some absurd fixation on boobs. Most notably, it had quite a few high-profile voice actors including Keifer Sutherland and Lucy Lawless.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Coming soon to a theatre near you on March 31st.
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