Remember, you can’t spell “lawful good” without “awful goo”.
Which is what you get when the gelatinous cube nibbles just a little bit off the paladin from both ends.
I know one thing for certain, this Dungeons and Dragons movie will be exponentially better than the Dungeons and Dragons movie release in 2000.
That was an atrocity to the fantasy movie genre. Luckily Fellowship of the Ring righted that ship the next year.
MtM
Given that D&D is a role-playing game and not a fully-fleshed out story (like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Chronicles of Narnia, erc) being adopted to the screen, I suppose my question is what makes this a “D&D” story as opposed to “generic fantasy story referencing locations, monsters, and other canon from the D&D universe”?
Know what I mean?
Like if you didn’t slap the “Dungeons & Dragons” logo on this, it’s just a bunch of random heroes chasing some magical McGuffin to prevent some wizard from unleashing mayhem.
There are a ton of Magical Monsters and Spells and locations that were created specifically for D&D. Many of them actually cameo in the trailer.
I think how long CR ended up going for each campaign is also what gets me. I just watched two, two hour streams of people demoing a soon to be released game, and that was okay. While I liked the first story arc of CR, when they went to one I didn’t like and it went on for 15+ episodes is when they lost me.
What I will say after reading comments on the movie trailer is that it is definitely for current DND players. I didn’t recognize the town (Neverwinder), that the bad guys were Red Wizards (a specific group in Forgotten Realms), and several of the 5E spells they used, like green flame blade. I have used FR for decades but not having played Neverwinter recently or 5E material on it, I don’t know the images they used. No excuse for not thinking Red Wizard, though. 
LOL to the Lawful Good → Awful Goo → what the gelatinous cube nibbles a bit from the paladin! Well done!
Well, I can say there is a reason for why the 2000 movie was so bad. Source: ENWorld Thread on the trailer
For those that don’t want to read it, Courtney Solomon got the rights to all things DND for the movie in perpetuity, before WotC bought TSR. (This had other interesting effects.) WotC sued saying that was ridiculous and would get the rights back if no movie is made every five years. Further, WotC had script approval. CS knew that WotC could not okay any script for that time then get them back, so went back to an approved script he had, which was several drafts back by Lorraine Williams, and made that. Now, that doesn’t excuse how bad it was, nor that CS didn’t seem to try and work with WotC to make a decent movie, or sequels. I don’t know if that’s how the film industry works but it does explain a fair number of bad movies.
Again, I’m cautiously optimistic.
No. I mean, if it’s referencing D’nD-specific spells, iconic monsters and Forgotten Realms locations, it’s not generic, is it?
i.e. 95% of D’nD games.
I don’t hate the 2000 movie.
As a Work of Cinematic Art, of course, it sucks.
As a cinematic representation of a D&D game . . . well, I’ve played in worse.
Hell, I’ve refereed worse.
Besides, it has Doctor Who as the Grand Druid, and Riff-Raff as guildmaster thief!
Night City has a robust public transportation system that’s the safest on the west coast. Uh, mind the combat zones though.
Sigh…
@Alessan, to be clear, I do have one game set in Luskan currently. My previous games were in the Cormyr area and Daggerdale/Anauroch.
I do agree with that map! They are really ignoring a lot of the realms. Maybe so they don’t have to release another Cormyr book?
I didn’t recognize Neverwinter from the trailer scene on the boat showing the town. I hope I would have recognized Waterdeep. I say that, though, and didn’t really recognize the cities in the various BG3 trailers, either. I apparently haven’t been paying attention to that stuff, since I am using 3.X sources for my FR games.
Don’t get me wrong - I was sighing at WotC, not you. Until your post, I had no idea that the movie was set in Neverwinter, and I was expressing my exasperation with the fact that, for some inexplicable reason, the powers that be seem terrified of wandering away from the Sword Coast… even in a movie.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 1950 iirc, and I bet there are other , earlier examples of a portal into a Fantasy realm- ERB?
First few were crap, they they got both serious and good.
My experience is that it was 5e, the kinder, gentler, easier D&D edition, that caused the resurgence, but Critical Role helped- except few of the D&D players I know watch it.
The classes are a certain giveaway. To me, it was D&D.
I hated the racism in Dragonlance with the “kender” the “tinker gnomes” and especially the “gully dwarves”. But the writing was damn good.
Distinct classes. Certain monsters.
The trailer has had a very positive response from D&D fans, so my own tepid reaction to it, as someone who likes fantasy but is not a tabletop gamer, must not be a reliable indicator. I guess this movie will be for an audience that doesn’t include me.
Seeing the owlbear sold them at least one ticket to me.
FX looks pretty good, but I wish they had picked anyone other than Chris Pine to star. I know a lot of fans like him from Star Trek, to me he is a B-actor with a really wooden acting style. Add on my near irrational dislike of anyone that sports the magical beard stubble that never grows and that translates to me waiting until it comes out on a streaming service I have.
Oh, and you guys are a bunch of nerds.
OK, that just got forwarded to my D&D group.
Ah, thanks for the clarification! Yes, it’s annoying how much only the Sword Coast exists now for FR.
mordecaib’s response?
Yep!
I thought this was a fun interview with the cast.
Regé-Jean is clearly the HC gamer there, the way he casually dropped “campaigns” into it before they were even asked about playing.