Well, I finally watched this movie yesterday, with 0 expectations and I actually enjoyed it. I’m surprised to learn it jas >90% score on Rotten Tomatoes as I wouldn’t rate it that high, but I found it very compelling; I was actually looking forward to how they would come out of those bad situations this time. Characters were strangely well developed with backstory that didn’t make my eyes roll. Sure, not original, but well told. I was expecting a Netflix movie type (dull and somewhat boring) and ended up with a good pic. Hoping for a sequel.
It’s a great movie! Now watch it again and remember it’s D&D. Soooo much of the movie plays out like a campaign. For example, the battle sequences at the end play out over 6 second intervals. You can see where a concentration roll was missed and the statue freezes. You can see when they miss their important rolls and fuck up their plans. The scene in the graveyard when they’re asking questions, the risen dead start out with heavy in-character accents, but they’re just talking in a regular modern voice by the end, just like a DM would probably do in a home game. There are so many amazing Easter eggs throughout the entire movie. You can tell that it was created by people who actually know and love D&D.
Edit: fun fact. The scene where Zenk leaves the party and Chris Pine is talking about him walking straight over the rock was completely ad-libbed. But it was so perfect, they left it in.
Speaking of Zenk, he’s clearly a DMPC that was introduced because the DM was annoyed by the players derailing the plot.
I hadn’t realized these things! That’s pretty cool.
Another Easter egg is that you can see the party from the original D&D cartoon that was popular in the 1980’s in the background when they’re in the labyrinth.
As a DM I can totally imagine having to pull stuff out of my ass when they rode the cube down to the under belly of the area lol
Ooh! Ooh! They reached the max capacity of a gelatinous cube when they pulled that stunt. One more person and it wouldn’t work!