The problem facing any
medieval/ fantasy film released today is it will invariably be compared to
Lord of the Rings, a big budget movie with a celebrated cast.
Dungeons and Dragons
is neither. Based on arguably the world's most popular role playing game,
the film is hamstrung by lack of a big budget - the same fate that befell
the first installment. This is a great pity since the game has a strong
brand name and so much more could be done, as is witnessed in Lord of the
Rings when one has money to spare. Consequently the wardrobe looks low
budget, the cast is virtually unknown - aside from Bruce Payne who plays
the evil sorcerer Damodar - and the special effects vary from quite good
to laughably bad. To top it all off, the storyline is essentially the Lord
of the Rings trilogy rolled into one movie.
The evil sorcerer
Damodar steals a black orb to wage war on the kingdom of Ismir and a
warrior, barbarian, cleric, elf wizard and rogue are assembled to retrieve
the orb and save the kingdom in a classic good vs. evil battle.
If you're a fan of the
fantasy genre and don't mind the made-for-tv look, then you will enjoy
this. If not, give it a miss.
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