As a very long-time role-player, I could
go on an on about how this movie lets down the basic mechanics of
the D&D game, but I won't bother. It would take way too long and
not mean much to non-gamers.
On the otherhand, there are plenty of faults that everyone will
understand in this movie:
-
I was unaware that Jeremy
Irons could overact *that* badly! He should have done something
much more like Scar from The Lion King.
-
Other than *dead* thieves,
in what universe do good thieves ever get away with talking loudly
on the job, being clumsy, and wandering about in the enemy camp
with bright lights??
-
Marlon Wayans should *never*
be allowed to act in anything but official Wayans productions. I'm
not fond of his acting style to begin with, but he was totally wrong
for this movie. He's much wrose than Jar Jar Binks, but at least
we don't have to put up with him for the entire movie.
-
Elwood (What kind of name
is Elwood for a dwarf?) is a one-dimentional, awful example of bad
manners. His character description on the website says that he is
a singularly bad examply of dwarvenkind, but at no time in the movie
is this explained or do we even see another dwarf.
-
Speaking of Elwood...Why is
it that everyone else carries decent quality weapons, yet Elwood
is stuck with an axe that has a cross-section of a full inch! Dwarves
are master metalsmiths, and Elwood should be ashamed to be seen
with such a prop.
-
Costuming was really hit or
miss. Some of it was nice and some of it was ridiculous. The best
piece in the whole movie is a doublet that is hanging on a wall
in a trasure chamber.
-
Over all, the acting was pretty
flat. At no point did I feel involved with the lives of these people.
There was no suspension of dibelief for me.
Despite all of these flaws, the movie
does have some nice points.
- The CGI parts were done quite well.
I especially liked the dragons in claw-to-claw combat. - Bruce Payne
as Damodar was the one bright point of acting in the whole movie.
I quite enjoyed both his delivery and his fighting. The metallic blue
lipstick could definitely go, tho.
- It was very nice to see Tom Baker as the elven healer. A bit part,
but I've always loved Tom's work.
Perhaps one day, they'll get a sword
& sorcery movie, that starts with such rich background as D&D,
right, or at least entertaining...
|
