Sun, 17 Sep 2006
Dungeons and Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God - Short Review
When I was at school I was an avid Dungeons and Dragons player, over the
years I've lost contact with most of it (the occasional novel, issue of
Dragon or, very rarely, a source book is as close as I get these days)
but one of the few things I did see was the first Dungeons and
Dragons film. Which was BAD. But I'd waited so long that I watched
it. And I own a copy on DVD that I one day plan to watch again. Honest.
Tangent: how the hell did they get Jeremy Irons in the film? That's
magic!
I didn't even know they'd done a sequel until a friend of mine came back from the US recently, and I'll be honest, the idea of another one didn't fill me with joy. Fortunately, this time none of the behind the scenes crew survived from the first one and only one of the cast (Bruce Payne as Damodar) carried over. And to be honest his character is completely different so they might as well have recast and renamed it.
So is it better than the first film? Yes! Do you need to have seen the first film to follow this one? Nope, it's completely stand alone. Is it worth watching? Yes. It's a pretty enjoyable adventure that will feel familiar to anyone who's played the game (the characters are all class stereotypes) and will tick enough of the fantasy film boxes for most moviegoers to tolerate it. The cast are pretty solid (although nothing special) and the story has enough depth to carry it through some not very special effects.
Score: 7/10 - best of the films I've seen this weekend (it's been a long weekend!) and the best D&D film I've seen. Although I'm an un-ashamed fan boy. I'm still waiting for a really cool on-screen dragon though.
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Posted: 2006/09/17 13:33 | /movies | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
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