Search - Dungeons and Dragons- Wrath of the Dragon God (Widescreen Edition) on DVD

Joshua C. (jconn) from ROME, GA
Reviewed on 1/21/2010...

Don't expect a masterpiece out of this. The plot is very weak, the special effects are of TV show quality, and the lack of great cinematography also makes it a typical low-budget film.

However, if you are totally fascinated by medieval-fantasy and role-playing games, and you have seen Lord of The Rings so many times that you are bored of it, then this is something you'll probably find entertaining and worth watching once.

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Much Better than the original

Fallensbane | Franklin, MA | 09/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit. The hero's consist of a Rogue, barbarian, fighter, cleric and wizard. Some funny moments involving the barbarian and the rogue were great. Special effects overall were fine. Nothing award winning but they did the job.



The traps in the film were good, one in particular I absoletly loved. We got to see what happened when spells don't quite work out the way you expected them to (oh oh).



We got to see more of the MM (Monster Manual) creatures in this one than the original (which was basically just a bunch of dragons).



I got to see my favorite creature cause some havoc (Magmin).



Now to put a rumor to rest. Damador is definately NOT a caster in this film. Though they do not say it outright there is a scene in the movie that hints heavily at this (btw I also have official WotC stats the state Damodar at the time of the original movie to be a lvl 7 fighter). So the rumours that Damodar is a lich/caster are false, though there is a lich in the movie.



Overall I think the movie was far better than the original. I could see plenty of spots for improvement but I think they are finally doing the right thing, seems like WotC's imput in the film was listended to this time.



The special features though few are good.



Rolling the Dice: The cast, director and some others talk about translating D&D to screen. There are also behind the scenes clips of stunts and makeup effects.



The Arc: Gary Gygax talks about the characters of the movie, their roles and what he thought of them. Clips of each character in action are shown in this.



Servant of Decay: This is the DVD-Rom special feature. It is a 20+ page 3.5 adventure set in the WotDG world. The adventure takes place in one of Malek's Vault's.



The Commentary: The commentary is the one feature that is lacking on this dvd. Personally I don't care about Wizards of the Coast ED Starks thoughts on it, I would have preferred to have heard from the cast of the film, from what I saw in the other special features it looked like they had a great time making this!

"

Solid sequel to a lackluster original theatrical release.

FilmPhan | N.Y., USA | 03/28/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I am a fan of the fantasy genre and have played Dungeons and Dragons way back when. Like most other folks who have fond memories of AD&D adventures, the film version based on D&D was a complete let-down. I wont go into a tirade about it, its been slammed enough!



Now comes a made-for Sci-Fi Channel sequel. I thought, yeah another Sci-Fi cheapie film with horrible production values and cartoonish CGI and wooden acting. I rented it anyway and was very suprised to find out how good it was. Granted, it was obviously made on a limtited budget, but it was above-average for a Sci-Fi Channel film. The film makers obviously had a love for the source material and took great pains to remain faithful to the spirit of D&D.



The plot is standard stuff: A city is in peril from a gathering Evil and a select few must become its champions and go forth on a quest to retrive a magical artifact and destroy said Evil once and for all.



All of the actors in their respective roles do a competent job of portraying their 'class'. However, the female Barbarian was more eye candy than anything else.



Bottom line: If you are a fan of D&D, rent it. The extras on the DVD are informative and entertaining, except the audio commentary. On the DVD I had, I could not hear Ed Stark( special projects manager for Wizards of the Coast) and the two other people on the track were in 'character' of a halfling thief and half-orc fighter. It got a bit annoying and there were gaps in the conversation.Maybe I had a defective disc, but I could not get through it all and shut it off."

Cool

Fastjack | None of your Business, Sorry | 01/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really liked this movie, It first came out on Sci Fi Channel so it was a low budget sci fi channel movie. But over all it was a lot better then the first one. The first one had a 100 mill dollar budget and it sucked. This movie was pretty cool done very will and fun to watch, Lionsgate / sci fi (NBC) done a lot better with a low budget. They actually followed what a group of adventurers

world be doing during a advurage adventure. It brung me back to the old days of DnD."