Fear not Ranger. Barbarian, Magician, Thief! Cavalier and Acrobat. I am Dungeon Master, your guide in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons.
Admittedly I'm not too sure if I would have liked an actual live-action recreation of the classic 80's cartoon going by Hollywood's track record on these things. I mean take a look at the small cameo we get of the classic team in this new movie. Yes we do actually see Dungeon Master's teen team pop up in this wannabe franchise. I'm sure it will have flown over younger viewers heads but to those in the know it was a fleeting moment of joy. But taking a closer look and you can see how Hollywood always manages to mess things up. Firstly the team are bizarrely older than they are supposed to be. Bobby the barbarian, Diana, and Presto all looked like middle-aged parents in costumes. Hank and Sheila looked okay but Eric they somehow managed to race-swap...sigh! Why Hollywood? The actual costumes looked pretty good though, Hank the Ranger especially.
As for this movie, well it's a pretty bog-standard mission (or level) based mcguffin search scenario. Find a person to ask for information, follow information to specific location for an item or another person. Go to next location for another item or another person etc...Eventually it all leads to end of movie showdown with end of movie big boss. That isn't necessarily a problem with this movie though as it's based on the Dungeons & Dragons franchise and that's what you tend to do. However, it does come across as somewhat overly basic and more like a generic videogame adaptation.
Visually speaking it was a mixed bag really. Like many movies these days the effects swing from being impressive in one scene to downright terrible in another. Case in point here; whilst there are some really good makeup and prosthetics effects for various fantasy characters along with some really nice-looking sets, there are also some blatantly obvious greenscreen shots and God-awful CGI. I still don't get how this happens in these big-budget movies. An obvious greenscreen shot or sequence always pulls me out of the movie, or moment.
The casting was poor all around in my opinion. Once again there seems to have been an outright obvious push to make the movie as diverse as possible whilst sacrificing quality choices. Most actors here are unknown to me but their acting skills didn't really impress, nor did their appearances in their costumes. Justin Smith, Rege-Jean Page, and the overly-used tough female character actress Michelle Rodriguez all looked completely out of place. Smith was a Black half-elf apparently, was this to rub in the faces of all the LotR's fans? I'm sorry but Elves aren't Black and neither are Dwarves. And yes I didn't like Pine's casting either, for me his face just didn't fit his character or this world. The only casting that did work for me was Hugh Grant as the slimy smarmy double-crossing Fitzwilliam, a far better villain than the actual main villain.
There were other aspects I found all too silly. I really didn't like the overweight dragon which was obviously CGI. Was this for comedy purposes? Swing and a miss. I also cringed at the all-too-common trope of using bald men with head tattoos as some kind of villainous horde of cult-like er...villains. How many fantasy movies have used that lazy idea? Geez!! Alas we also got the same for the main female baddie, bald with head tattoos...ugh! Because a powerful female sorceress has to be bald with head tattoos? She also turned out to be a really weak villain and got a blatantly nasty looking CGI ending courtesy of the CGI owlbear.
I couldn't really decide whether I liked this movie or not really. Some aspects I really enjoyed such as the various D&D species/races you see throughout, some of which looked great. I liked the settings or locations throughout, a nice range that showcased the world or realm. The hero roster was a good selection and overall the plot moved along nicely. But apart from the few things I've already mentioned there was a little too much that brought the movie down in the end. Close but overall not quite enough to grab me.
5/10
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