Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Excellent, a Must See

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

I originally caught this film at the cinema during the height of my enthusiasm for the tabletop game called Dungeons & Dragons that this film shares its title with. The trailers looked interesting and, of course, the marketing made sense since this was probably Newline's build up to Lord of the Rings the following year. Maybe that left no money or creative juice for this film - what ever the reason for the sheer badness of Dungeons & Dragons, I'm profoundly grateful that Newline did not take the same approach to making Lord of the Rings.Where to start?! The characters are really not characters at all but just archetypes and clichés thrown together. It's a little like the laziest ever roleplaying session: here's a thief, here's a mage, here's a dwarf. What's your thief like? He's black and he steals stuff. What's the mage like? He's evil. They are like cardboard cutouts with no life or chemistry.The plot is infantile and generic at the same time. Evil wizard wants to rule the world because of his lust for power and the characters (for lack of another word) join forces because they are there and need stuff to do. Again, this reminds me of a lazy roleplaying session. They have no motivation beyond the fact that it says so in the script. So, I was not invested in any of them and could not have cared less if they lived or died.The acting was awful: Stiff in most cases but, as for Jeremy Irons, completely over the top. I suspect he worked with what he had in terms of script. Still, my award for cringe-worthiness goes to Bruce Payne for playing Damodar as both stiff AND over-the-top.Considering the breath-taking visuals of Lord of the Rings only a year later, the visual effects of this film are disappointing to say the least. It has dragons even right there in its title but the ones you get to see look more like hand puppets than anything else! Costume and set designs are like cheap Xena-rip offs. Some weapons literally look like plastic toys.Finally, I was especially unhappy with how the film turned out because I had been looking forward to seeing one of my favourite games come to life. In this film (like in many game adaptations) I see no appreciation of the source material. I'll admit there are dragons and also a few dungeons in a generic high fantasy setting with elves, dwarfs and orcs. That's where any similarity ends. It was at its worst a quick cash grab with the name of a big franchise and at best an attempt to show that Newline could also do fantasy. I assume it left both fans of the game and fans of fantasy films in general dissatisfied. Recently, I found it again on Netflix but after watching some five minutes I remembered how bad it was and stopped. No need to waste another 107 minutes of my life.

I hate to love and I love to hate this film.I liked this movie but I also found it to be a disappointment at the same time. Being a fan of Dungeons and Dragons I found the movie to be somewhat of a let down. What I disliked about the movie was the modernism aspect - that was a bit unnerving. What I was wanting from a movie about Dungeons & Dragons was a feeling of being in the middle ages or the hyborian age (maybe a cross-breed of the two). I was looking for something more of the quality of "Lord of the Rings".I also wanted a feeling of being pulled into an ultimate quest - a Dungeon & Dragons adventure of the lifetime which I felt the movie lacked quite a bit. It felt to much like any other sword and sorcery movie and not enough like the Dungeons & Dragon franchise.What I liked about the movie was the idea of a movie based on D&D. I also enjoyed some of the special effects and costuming. I felt the movie was cheesy yet not all that cheesy like "The Sword and The Sorcerer" (which I actually like despite the cheesiness). There is a comical merit to this movie that only fans of Dungeons and Dragon could appreciate if they would give the movie another chance.Although Dungeons & Dragons (2000) received some of the worst critic reviews, I still think the movie is fairly good and unfairly rated way too low on IMDb. No the film is not all that good but it does have entertainment value.7/10

To understand the pain this movie brings, imagine slowly taking off your own finger nail, multiply it by ten and then have it last for 107 minutes. Where to start, where to start. For one, the acting is tedious. Everyone brings a hokey performance, especially Jeremy Irons (I do not blame him). The story is bland, the development almost nonexistent, and the ending is the worst. There is zero payoff by the end, it technically just slaps the viewer in the face. The side characters do not need to exist, for they bring no purpose to the plot whatsoever. There is no end to the complaints one can state about this film, from blue tongues to the overacting craziness, plus the worst CGI dragons of all time. Don't watch this unless you enjoy crappy films or want to torture one of your friends.

Though not a good movie as the acting is hammy, the characters somewhat stereotyped or annoying but I find this movie is a perfect example of an actual game of D&D where people are role playing, yes the script is terrible but so are most attempts at conversation between PC's and NPC's in a D&D game, yes some jokes don't work or are obvious what's going to happen, but that happens around the table, yes it blatantly rips some scenes from other movies, yet again speaking as both a game master and a player that happens all the time in D&D games and yes, the villains are ridiculous and immensely incompetent but again that happens all the time in actual D&D games. I choose to view the movie in one of two ways, either as a cheesy movie to laugh at with friends, or to view it as the minds eye of a bunch of people around a table playing dungeons and dragons. Yes it's by no means a good film, but for me it falls in the "So bad it's good" category with the above relations to an average d&d game as a pleasant side note.