To be clear, we’ve had a thread about the whole situation, and if you want to speak your piece there, you’re welcome to. It’s just off-topic for this thread.
All good here. Thanks for the clarification. Not a topic on which I have any specific knowledge or informed opinion.
Since I had no clue what the acronyms in the OP meant at all (thank you @kenobi_65 for actually explaining) they have no relevance to me seeing the film. The trailers make it look like some silly fun and since I have A-List and see an average of 8 films per month, yeah I’ll see this one.
The trailer makes it look like hot steaming garbage. Like a video game cut scene or something.
My kids (boys 8 and 11) are pretty hyped up about seeing it after watching the commercials, so I imagine I’ll see it at some point in the theater. Maybe even the matinee on its opening weekend, if things fall into place.
I figure it can’t be that bad, considering the cast, and the number of Monster Manual call-outs I’ve spotted thus far.
Conversely to some opinions, I thought the trailers looked like fun and the movie strikes a fun tone between respecting the source material and making an adventure comedy.
As a bonus, my wife is actually interested (mainly because she liked Pine in Star Trek) so I’d be a fool to turn down the chance to see it in theaters with an enthusiastic date partner.
I haven’t been back to theaters since covid, and this doesn’t look like the one to change that, but I’m very much looking forward to seeing it when it hits streaming. The trailers look like a lot of fun, and it’ll be cool to see (what appear to be) faithful renditions of classic D&D monsters.
I’m already intrigued, for example, by the way they show the displacer beast projecting its false image with its tentacles. I don’t know if that’s original to this movie, or if it’s a part of D&D lore than I was unaware of, but I really dig that way of imagining the creature.
The Empire review gave it four stars, which to be honest is three stars more than I was expecting.
I might not get around to seeing it on the big screen, but I’m sure I’ll catch it on streaming when it comes out.
The OGL kerfuffle has no bearing on whether I will see the movie. It looks fun but I’m not sue I will go to the theatre to see it. If it arrives on a streaming service I subscribe to I will almost certainly watch it.
Brian
I’ll see it in a theater. I’m hoping that I can get a crew from my games to go. Despite my new aquisition of a giant TV, I still like going to the movies. I do not care about the OGL fiasco and don’t fully understand it, despite Kenobi’s helpful explanation.
My son is big into D&D so we will most likely see it in the theaters. I think seeing an owlbear on the big screen is worth it.
I think that fear should be going entirely the other way.
Since you asked -
I am not aware of the issues. Until this thread I’ve never heard of them.
But, this movie doesn’t appeal to me at all. Never played D&D. I’m not the target audience.
Yeah, I definitely agree. In my 40 years of playing D&D I’ve never seen a displacer beast described that way. In the clip, the beast appears in two locations–its actual location and an illusory location–but in every source I remember seeing (including in the current monster manual) the text says something like,
in other words, it only appears once.
But the new way of imagining it is wonderful, and that’s the kind of thing I really love seeing in an adaptation: figure out how to take the source material and twist it in a delightful manner.
I’m not expecting this to be the next Everything Everywhere All at Once. It ain’t gonna redefine excellence in cinema for me. It’s not going to give me a rich metaphor for growing old or for having children or for life itself. But I fully expect it to be a bunch of big dumb fun. And my wife, a hardened non-gamer, is excited to go see it with me and the kids.
I specifically mean Mario will reduce the D&D film’s box office. The way I wrote it, it could look like I meant the other way.
Yeah, I got you. I meant Mario should be the one worried, I am seeing a lot of buzz for this movie and mostly complaints about Mario.
“Darn, I’m a gamer and I can only go to one movie this spring…”
Can you imagine other flavors of fans (super-hero, for instance) saying that?
IF Mario and D&D were both great, I’m sure people’d go to both. If one of them was sub-par (lookin’ at you, Plumber Boy…), they might be light on an audience no matter what else is playing.
Some people just go to the theater once in a while and choose between what is available at the time. I think being released sandwhiched between Deadpool 2 and Infinity War massively hurt Star Wars: Solo box office. Mario ain’t either of those though.
…Mario is gonna be BIG. Real big. There were mostly complaints about the Avatar sequel yet it made just under 3 billion at the box office. There is a disconnect between the “discourse” surrounding any given film and the reality on the ground. Mario is gonna be just fine.
And the new D&D film looks really good.
Thanks everyone!