As a long-time D&D nerd, I thought this was a very enjoyable adaptation. The main thing to remember is that D&D isn't so much a story as it is a setting for stories. Several different setitngs, actually. The one this movie takes place in is The Forgotten Realms, which is easily one of it not the most popular ones. I think this movie did a great job of creating a fun story that takes place in that world. The snark level, the one-liners, and bickering all reflect what is the most common way people play D&D as well. These writers knew what they were doing, and they did it while also making it 100% accessible to people who don't know anything about D&D. I really didn't think it would be this good.

To your point about the portal staff being convenient, that's actually one of many examples of this movie really mirroring the tabletop experience. The party walked themselves into a dead end and the dungeon master (the person running the game) threw in a useful magic item that would allow them to proceed. I actually heard someone make a similar point about Xenk (the paladin): he has the feel of an overpowered NPC that the DM threw in just long enough to help the party get unstuck. They were even a bit tongue-in-cheek about it: "you're kind of better than us at everything." This movie is enjoyable whether or not you've played the game, but if you have, it really FEELS like the game, even if they stretch the rules in places (that's also something we all do at the table 🙂).

The bit where Regé-Jean Page walked away across the shore was a partial blooper: he didn't hear the director call cut, about halfway to the rock, so he just kept going. He figured that his character would never stray from his chosen path, so he just climbed the rock and continued going.

A lot of people believed the Hither Thither staff to be bad writing. Imagine the movie is a DnD session. The party has arrived at the bridge. The DM is explaining this difficult puzzle the party has to solve to progress. Somebody rolls a 1 (or they just screw up) and the bridge collapses. Now they have no way to cross and the DM has to come up with something. "You know what, that staff you got, it's a hither thither staff." Adventure continues. So glad you included the council member saying "Jarnathan!" again. Subtle humor, cracks me up.

17:52 I LOVE their relationship. For once they don't make the man and woman who spends time together become romantically involved. They love each other, 100%, but in a platonic, familial way. And those scenes show it so well, he knows how to cheer her up. She was feeling down about her ex husband and when he starts singing to her she starts to smile. Holga makes snarky remarks about Edgin, but the amount that she cares for him is obvious. When Forge and Kira were talking about the tablet and calling it the tablet of riches, Edgin could have stood up for himself fine but Holga made sure to speak up and try to defend him. Those two in this movie really have a super sweet relationship.

"what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" "I'm bad at math." *dies*

The Legend of Drizzt is set in the same universe as this movie. The prison is set in Icewind Dale, a major set piece in the books

Jarnathan is such a D&D name, it makes me feel like Abed Nadir wrote this screenplay. I could definitely see Jarnathan alongside Brutalitops, Zippideedoo and Hector the Well-Endowed.

The Legend of Drizzt is actually set in the Forgotten Realms universe of Dungeons and Dragons. D&D has a SHOCKINGLY large world and influence on almost every aspect of modern fantasy, probably just as large as Tolkiens work. So many games, movies and other properties are loosely set, or entirely set, in the Realms of D&D

37:19 - The group in the cage are dressed as the characters from the animated Dungeons and Dragons series!

Watching the movie, it was the sneaking the painting into the carriage scene that felt the most D&D to me. The DM designs a whole castle and lets the characters get familiar with its layout already (at least 3 of them have already been inside it), plans a couple waves of guards for them to try to sneak or fight their way past, has them go on a short quest to get a magic item that will allow them past the last obstacle, and gets ready for the big "break into the castle" adventure... but the players decide to put a portal on a painting and sneak it into the vault instead. And the DM thinks, "Uh... wait... what?!" then takes a deep breath, rethinks their plans, and just goes with it. Because the majority of the time, the players come up with far more interesting and fun (and often bizarrely elaborate) plans than you would for them, and it's a blast!

As someone whose only D&D experience is through osmosis from other media like Stranger Things I never felt lost with this movie. They did a great job of not alienating non players & it is truly one of my favourite in theatre experiences this year.

I knew he was going to resurrect her, and it was still a powerful scene. It shows what Edgin was giving up to save her.

This movie was great. Never played D&D, but I did play other RPG’s. And this is exactly what I picture a group would imagine their characters would do in a game-all the quipping, improvising, and fails that somehow become successes despite themselves. Lol Such a fun story with such fun characters.

One of the things I love about this movie is the use of practical effects, miniatures/bigatures, animatronics, it feels real and quirky and lived in.

Oooh, excited to see this! As someone who has run a D&D game for the better part of five years: this movie is REMARKABLY accurate to how games actually go. You can tell where they rolled low, rolled high, when the DM is clearly fucking thing them ("The corpse says, 'I didn't,' and immediately dies.") when the DM was expecting them to NOT be able to fuck something up and had to pull something out of their ass to keep the plot moving when they do (the bridge and staff) etc. Just a really fantastic rendition of the hobby.

The Legend of Drizzt is actually a D&D property set in the Forgotten Realms, same as this movie. The Underdark they go to is the same one that Drizzt is from, just a different section of it. In fact, they were originally planning on having Drizzt show up to help the party but decided not to go in that direction this time around and replaced him with Xenk.

As an adaptation this movie is incredible. Overall the feel of it mirrors the feel of playing in a D&D campaign, from seeing game mechanics realized in live action like the spellcasting (both the casting of the spell with their necessary components like words and gestures, and the actual effects), to the situations so many players have experienced (like accidentally wasting your questions on a Speak With Dead Spell or one impatient player not waiting to solve a puzzle and setting off the bridge trap). Just as important to me, though, one thing that makes this a successful adaptation is where it diverges from the game to create a better film experience while remaining true to the spirit of the game. Perfect example of this is the displacer beasts-the panther-like creatures in the maze. In the game they appear to be a few feet away from where they’re actually standing, so attacks are more likely to miss targeting the illusion. That wouldn’t translate to the screen. So, they created the decoy projection effect which worked wonderfully, and still keeps the theme and spirit of the displacer beast. Brilliantly done. It’s full of things to recognize if you’re familiar with the game, but those things aren’t required knowledge. Very much enjoyed your reaction!

As an avid D&D player/DM, this movie felt VERY much like an actual gaming session. If you know how the game works, you can tell when the characters roll well and when they roll poorly. And part of the point of playing the game is how you react to the poor rolls. D&D is from the early to mid 70s. It has influenced a lot since, but the granddaddy of fantasy is The Hobbit/LOTR, which influenced D&D and everything else. I suggest finding a group to join and play with, then re-watching this movie with some experience under your belt, to see how it feels then.

Yeah, this film is super fun and everything plays out like a table top campaign. What's great is that it works for those that have never played but has a ton of stuff for those that have. It's crazy how well they balanced that. And, I agree, the fight choreography is probably way better than it had a right to be for a film, like this. You'd think that's where they'd really save budget but they really went for it and we're all thankful for it.

A lot of other comments already did a good job giving a bit of more info on the easter eggs. One of my favorites is Simon is a wild magic sorcerer, a class in the game that has a % chance of something random happening when casting a spell. From turning into a potted plant, to exploding, to turning blue or summoning an unicorn. In the movie they expressed that by making him use a roulette when casting spells and having a chance of not casting the wanted spell! Also the fat dragon is part of canon. He got spoiled by evil dwarves and fed slaves in exchange of keeping the forge going. (there is a story that the creator of the game created the fat dragon when he was about to introduce a dragon and his fat cat jumped on the table) Also! The cat with the hologram is called a displacer beast they are usually described as blurry and hard to hit. The chest is a mimic and the ooze cube all three stable monster in Dnd. The final battle is my favorite because 1 expose the concept of concentration which is needed to keep some spells going and that they take turns hitting her which is how dnd works. A round lasts 6 seconds from the first person to the last taken their turn. They made sure to choreograph the fight so it looks like they are taking turns while keeping the flow!

19:19 I know, confusing isn't it? We are used to seeing dragons that breathe fire. In Dungeons & Dragons lore, there are different varieties of dragons, there are dragons with scale colors based on basic colors like red and blue, they are called "chromatic dragons", and there are dragons with scale colors based on metals like gold and silver, they are called "metallic dragons". Red and gold dragons breathe fire. That dragon in that flashback scene, Rakor, he is a black dragon, and black dragons spit out corrosive acid. Blue dragons spit bolts of electricity, green dragons breathe poisonous gas, and white dragons breathe freezing ice. 23:09 There's a good reason why when you hear "Underdark", you think of Drizzt. This D&D movie is set in the same D&D world as R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books, the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. In fact, the directors of this movie originally wanted Drizzt to appear in this movie, but they had to abandon all plans of Drizzt appearing. It's for the best, I mean the books are still going strong, there should be a new book coming in a couple months, you don't want to contradict anything Bob Salvatore has cooking up for the character. 26:43 To tell you the truth, Themberchaud is the very first obese dragon ever, and there is a reason why he is like that, but I'll give you the short version. He was born and raised in the Underdark by a monastic order of psychic Underdark dwelling dwarves, they used Themberchaud and other dragons before him to light up their forges so the dwarves could temper their weapons and armor with ease. They kept Themberchaud happy by feeding him slaves that tried to stand up against them. When Themberchaud got older, he eventually realized that the real reason why the monastic order that raised him kept feeding him is because they were trying to kill him off, as they don't let the dragons they use to keep forges on fire reach a certain age (dragons get more powerful the older they get, red dragons like Themberchaud are the strongest of the chromatic dragons). In other words, yes, that is how he is supposed to look. He wasn't THAT overweight in the Out of the Abyss adventure, but this movie is set a few years after that adventure, so it makes sense for him to gain more weight. 33:05 I LOVED that part! The whole theater erupted in laughter when that happened! 33:44 I wish I could tell you what the chanting is, but, as a guy who has played D&D related video games like Baldur's Gate for the past 13 years... I honestly don't know. I'd say its an original score. 36:43 Mimic. I HATE those things.

25:00 "It's a Ither-Tither staff ... / How convenient !" Yes, sometimes, the DM has to do something when the players screw up... in any other movie, this scene would have been a "deus ex machina" and bad writing... in a DnD movie, it's very accurate because in almost every game session, something like that happens.

This movie is how you cater to both fans and non-fans. It has a ton of references and inclusions for players, as well as just perfectly capturing the FEEL of a campaign with the tone and the DM needing to send in Xenk as an NPC to save the party. But it’s also super enjoyable for people who have never played it before! The people who made this movie are clearly fans, but they’re also extremely talented filmmakers

"Did this influence other fantasy? Did other fantasy influence this?" Yes. "This is definitely a post-Deadpool film." Deadpool's end credits scene was a duplication of the end credits scene from Ferris Beuler's Day Off, so that film should be the one given credit.

As a player, they did a pretty good job with the dnd. The story takes place in Faerun, an official dnd campaign setting, so as a player you recognize the places (Revel's End prison, Neverwinter, Baldurs Gate, etc), the races of creatures (Doric as a tiefling, dragonborn council member, Jarnathon the aarakocra, the tabaxi cat people), the magical beasts (owlbear, intellect devourer, rust monsters (blink and you miss early on), axe beaks (big ostrich like birds), mimic (the bitey treasure chest), displacer beast (the magic maze panther), the gelatinous cube they jumped into). And you recognize lore. Szass Tam and the red wizards of Thay are actual Faerun big bads. Themberchaud, the fat dragon, is a canon dnd character. You recognize what they get right, like spells that they cast or how black dragons have acid breath, not fire. And things they bent on purpose to make the movie fun, like technically druids can't be owlbears bc they are monstrosities, and wow she'd have to be an insanely high level to wildshape that many times in a row. But who cares bc it was dope to see in a movie. But, as you noticed, none of that is necessary to enjoy the movie. It just means for us players they brought dnd to life in a spectacular way without making that a barrier for entry to anyone else.

That isn't just Bradley Cooper. it is a Mini-Cooper.

I've been playing D&D and various other table-top roleplaying games like it for something like 30 years and in particular I'm a huge fan of the forgotten realms (the setting this takes place in). They did an amazing job and I love this movie! Whoever wrote the script was very knowledgeable about the lore and all the exposition is very spot on (and I do understand it getting tedious, but there's so much stuff involved.) Fun fact: I first learned about that chunky dragon like 20 years ago when I was meeting some new friends to start a D&D group and we were sitting around swapping entertaining info. His name is something like Themberchaud, this city of evil dwarves that live in the underdark used him to light their forges in exchange for regular food and he got fat... I also really enjoyed the paladin, the way he played a Lawful Good (we jokingly call it lawful boring) character with no irony and all seriousness was perfect.

As a massive dnd nerd and film major I had so much with this movie

To answer your question about airspeed of unladen swallow...do you mean african or european? You also asked what the dragon was breathing during the battle scene. Looked like a Black Dragon, and in D&D they breath acid. Fun fact, Chromatic Dragons are evil, and are colors like red, black, green, white, an so on. Metallic Dragons are good, and colors like gold, silver, bronze, copper, etc. I just watched this movie last night and was quite pleased. So thankful it wasn't as bad as previous D&D movies. Always hoped after the success of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, hollywood would put actual effort into fantasy films. Still hopeful one day we'll get a live adaptation of the Dragonlance Chronicles.

Most of the times you were talking about “terms you wouldn’t know because you don’t play” are like… names that were already established in the movie, real terms (things like “Druid” or “paladin” are real words outside of D&D), or something that’s like.. just a name (“lord of neverwinter” you don’t need to understand what neverwinter is, just to know that it’s a place that’s worth having a lord-of)

I’ve watched some D&D stuff here or there but I didn’t know 75% of the names and places they mentioned. I loved it. I think you’re trying to hard to remember every single little thing. You don’t need to know any of it to follow what’s happening.

There was a lot asked in questions at the end of the video.... so... As an adaption. It was fine. There were a lot of callbacks to D&D from the monsters, the magic spells, items, etc. You can look at it as a, "so, what if we took the premise of a group of players and put that into a movie". You had the character giving their backstory, etc. You had the DM (Dungeon Master) inserting an overpowered DM NPC in the form of the paladin to help complete the quest. Were there liberties taken? Yes. The druid shouldn't have been able to morph into an owlbear, but, in this case, the rule of cool won out. So yes, it was fine. As for what inspired what. You saw Guardians of the Galaxy meets D&D with how everyone interacted. You saw the Hulk and Loki scene with the wizard and druid in owlbear form. So yes, there were a lot of "people liked this so let's do that" in this movie. As for D&D, Tolkien helped inspire D&D. D&D has basically been its own thing since, with everyone referencing Tolkien instead of D&D when it comes to fantasy. The convenient. Yeah, that happens in D&D, as well. The group does something which would bork the quest, so the DM improvises a way the group can get out of it, hence, Simon borks the bridge and voila, the walking stick is a hither/thither staff. Then, the rules get... vague... during the campaign. At first, the hither/thither staff might get across that small chasm, then, it reaches from the bay to the balloon. The whole "oops" happens. In the cemetery, Pines character asks questions that don't pertain to the corpse, but, are counted. Well, dig up another corpse. So, the writers definitely looked at the movie as a group actually playing the game and how that would translate into a movie.

One of the things I loved most about this movie, was the inclusion of the characters from the 80's animated series.

Something that doesn't seem to get mentioned a lot, is that this movie doesn't have a typical love story, and I love that. Right from the beginning, they made it that Holga and Edgin were more brother and sister than being in love.

Love to see you broadening your scope and watching something I imagine you wouldn't normally consider!! There isn't much quite like a pure fun movie!! I had such a good time with this movie!! Glad it blew everyone's expectations out of the water!

The fat dragon is from fairly early D&D canon. Apparently, Gary Gygax (game creator) was playing a game when a cat jumped on the table and started causing havoc. Gygax decided it was like a fat dragon and created Themberchaud (spelling?), a dragon raised in captivity and fed to obesity by evil dwarves who wanted it to provide fire for their forge. Obesity was to make it harder to escape through narrow tunnels.

In the script, Rege-Jean Page's role actually was going to be Drizzt, but he was replaced by the character of Xenk at the last minute.

Edgin keeps bringing up Jarnathan even during his tragic part of the backstory is such a player behavior.

You asked about the game vs the movie? WELL one example was the bridge collapse. The paladin who helps them is what's called a "DM PC" (Dungeon Master Player Character). They're a character the DM uses to get the players pointed in the direction of the quest, or back on the rails if they start wandering off course, and often give them stuff (items, clues, etc.) they need to do so. They ALSO tend to be awesome at everything (they're often Mary Sues) and players tend to resent the hell out of them for that, and because it's their.game. So DMs tend to use them sparingly, and have them leave a.s.a.p. In the case of the bridge collapse - if you look at the paladin's face during that scene, just imagine that's the face of your DM sitting across the table from you. As is his expression when the sorcerer triggered the collapse. Unlike a video game, there are no save points in D&D - what happens, happened. So Simon destroyed the DM's puzzle and that's probably where they called it for that session; to give the DM a chance to figure out how tf to salvage it now. And that's where the Hither-Tither staff comes in - at the start of the next session, the DM probably said something like "Holga - Simon just noticed that the walking staff your ex gave you when you talked with him was actually a Hither-Tither staff, and you can use it to cross the gap." This happens quite a lot. Well written adventures will give at least a few options for defeating or bypassing any challenge, but many adventures have challenges that only have one solution. Which is unfortunate. ALSO sometimes the dice just want you to die. Being a DM is less about being a good storyteller and more about being a good babysitter :)

I like how the common praise is that it feels like an actual D&D game. There are nat 1s and 20s, moments where the DM was bullshitting just to continue the story, players are goofing off throughout it all and somehow succeeding in their idiotic plans, and the exhausted DM relents to let them get away with it because they rolled high enough or it fits in-character.

27:37 "This movie is starting to drag a little bit". Said during the scene with the dragon. And you didn't say "drag on". Your license to pun is hereby revoked. 😛

To answer your question, yes there is supposed to be subtitles for when they are speaking Thayan.

Drizzt is from the Forgotten Realms. This movie is set in the Forgotten Realms. Under the umbrella D&D setting, there are several settings (usually just different fantasy worlds). Like the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Eberron, Dark Sun, Mystara, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, etc. Those brands, in the last five decades, have seen many D&D adventures and campaign modules, but also videogames, books, comic books, cartoons, Magic the Gathering cards, etc.

The dragon in the graveyard scene is a black dragon. It's spewing acid. Probably high molar sulphuric acid. Worse than fire because it takes longer to reduce a person to sludge, and it hurts just as much.

Awsome reaction like always, the "fat" dragon its called Themberchaud and he appears for the first time in D&D in Drizz't Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark in 1999 which was a 2nd Edition supplement for the Forgotten Realms setting, but in 2015 an adventure called "Out of the Abyss" came out and it was where he got well knowned in D&D in general. And he was basically raised as a living furnace, sitting in place using his breath to heat up metal while being given endless food. That's why he's a lazy chonker! It was really cool seeing him on screen. And a fun fact that Themberchaud was first conceptualized when Gary Gygax (Co-creator of D&D) was running a game and a cat jumped onto the table during the session and started knocking things over, he improvised and used the cat as a fat dragon, who later had their lore expanded to become Themberchaud. God i grew up playing D&D and i love this movie hope it gets a sequel. Keep up the amazing work.

Hi Jacqui! I just realized now you mentioned "The Legend of Drizzt" and asked if it influenced D&D or vice versa. Good Question! Actually, Drizzt Do'Urden is one of the legendary characters in this- the movie's- setting of D&D, the world of Faerun. Drizzt was first published in the D&D novels known as the "Icewind Dale Trilogy" back in 1988. He instantly became a fan favorite, and more books were published with him as the lead character. Incidentally, the ice prison they escape from at the start of the movie is located in Icewind Dale.

16:40 “Are there supposed to be subtitles here” Yep I have no idea why it’s not showing for you but she basically said “the druid is probably working for the thieves that escaped and to follow them. Also these guards behind us failed to catch them (basically ‘kill them’)”

As far as influence, bit of both. Dnd was the product of Lord of the Rings and tactical tabletop wargames, but instead of controlling armies, you play as heroic individuals. But it has gone on to influence the culture, too, and be in turn influenced. Like you mentioned Drizzt. He's a many decades old famous dnd character. The Icewind Dale trilogy takes place in Faerun, the most well known dnd campaign setting. That prison where the movie starts and ends, Revel's End, is in the far north of Icewind Dale. And there are many other novels set in Faerun or simply influenced by the genre. As well as movies and video games. I think most dnd players see a movie like Guardians of the Galaxy and relate to it as a dnd party. A wild assortment of bumblefucks using chaos and mayhem to doofus their way into heroics bc 9/10 the plan fails and you have to improvise your way to awkwardly save the day. So is this movie reflective of the media being changed or did it change the media? Yes. It goes both ways. The game has evolved over several editions, influenced by changing culture, but it has also influenced culture and, as such, media. You can even see that with dnd as a game becoming way more mainstream in the last decade or so, with the rise in popularity of actual plays like Critical Role and Dimension 20. And CRs animated show based on their first campaign, The Legend of Vox Machina. If you watch animated shows it is well worth your time. It is... not for kids. They do change things for the shift in media, but it stays pretty damn true to the campaign so it's a good example of translation from actual gameplay to show if you want that kind of vibe check to compare to this.

One of my favorite DnD-ish games I had was Baldur's Gate:Dark Alliance for the Nintendo Gamecube. Baldur's Gate was mentioned along with Harpers.. The Gelatinous cube.. The Beholder(pictured in the credits).. The Displacer beast (the one that projected a likeness of itself).. I was really really geeking out over these!

Thank you Critical Role for making D&D popular again, and making this possible ;) Even the writers said thank you with the "fresh cut grass" line.

With some of the terms yes it's a lot of new info, but a few could be known from other things, 'Paladin' for instance didn't actually originate in DnD, it came from the history/myths surrounding Charlemagne. His Elite French Knights, the equivalent of King Arthur's Knights. Games later used the concept as a character class.

When Edgin can't get free of his ropes he is rolling his dice badly. When he cheers up Holga while playing music he is using Bardic Inspiration.

By the way, there were three adventurer parties that were in the maze. Theirs, one that gets all the killed scenes, and the third is the party from the D&D cartoon from the 80s!

HOLY CRAP! Giles's kid is an actor! That is so epic!

Never played D&D but was not bothered by the exposition throughout the movie. They always did it in fun and interesting ways, never felt overloaded. Fantasy has a lot of explaining in it, *cough* Lord of the Rings *cough*.

I love Holga barely ever using her actual weapon in the movie. Very true of barbarians. Anything is a weapon to them. Even a teddy bear.

As a longtime D&D player, I think one of the things this movie really did well was balancing the movie so that it's accessible to non-players while pulling lots of elements from actual D&D lore to please vets like me. That's something the D&D movie from 2000 really messed up. It was basically a generic fantasy movie with the D&D name slapped on it. I think they had ONE unique D&D monster appear for like 2 seconds, and that was it. This movie was actually set in one of D&D's most well-known settings, used existing place names(Neverwinter, Waterdeep, etc), existing factions(Emerald Enclave, Lord's Alliance, Red Wizards of Thay), and a bunch of creatures straight out of the Monster Manual. You're right that the dragon in the flashbacks wasn't breathing fire. That was a Black Dragon, their breath weapon is acidic, not fire. Even the chonky Red Dragon was pulled from lore, Themberchaud actually is quite obese due to reasons we don't need to get into. :) I'm so psyched that they included my favorite D&D monster, the Displacer Beast(the six-legged panther in the maze). Their schtick is that the "displacement" effect makes them appear not quite where they actually are, making them difficult to hit. HOW that effect is represent mechanically in the game changes with pretty much every new version of the rules that has come out. But they've been one of my favorites from the very beginning of the game. Even much of the magic you saw was based on actual spells from the game. Probably the one place where they played fast & loose with the "rules" was with the Druid's shapeshifting. They gave her more flexibility with it especially in her big escape sequence, but I don't care because it looked AWESOME.

44:10 "You can be a good man AND a moron" So you're telling me there's a chance...

In Dungeons and Dragons, there are 10 common forms of dragons: Red, White, Blue, Black, Green (chromatic aka evil), Gold, Silver, Copper, Brass and Bronze (metallic aka good). Red, Gold and Brass breath fire, Blue and Bronze breath lightning, Black and Copper breathe acid, Green breath poison gas; White and Silver breath frost. The dragon in the Evermoors is a Black dragon so it was spitting Acid, and Themberchaud is a red dragon which can breath fire. Simon's growth of power comes from him finally starting to believe in himself, because Sorcerer's use Charisma as their spellcasting stat since their magic comes from within. (Wizards use Intelligence, as they must study and wield magic like a math problem or computer programming. A wizard can spends years learning to produce a Fireball and understand how it connects to the very weave of magic and the multiverse itself, Sorcerers just say "I don't know, I got mad and ended up throwing a fireball.")

I love this movie; one of the best of 2023 so far. I had no problem with the pacing except maybe the surprise cameo by Bradley Cooper's Marlamin. I think they moved the story along fine. As long as they did the quippy lines are enough for me. They don't have to escalate things. I think the repetition is part of the game - missions/quests is pretty much it. That is the fun playing with your friends. If you know the terms, I think it will be more funny, but as someone who never played the game, I was fine not knowing all the terminologies.

I'll toss in another recommendation for The Legend Of Vox Machina. This movie was definitely a pleasant surprise, and the writers did a solid job making it feel like a real game, but Vox Machina just dials it up. Plus the cast is absolutely stacked.

In fantasy (and sci-fi) storytelling there suspension of disbelief is a more organized layer that acts as a barrier of entry of sorts to the world. Exposition is the core way to pull newcomers through that barrier of entry - playing the that comes from sprinkles over each session in stories that often last dozens of sessions. In Star Wars films there's the opening crawl, in Lord of the Rings you get Galadriel giving a voice-over history, in this you have Edwin giving his personal history. It's tedious in all cases but the richer the setting and more involved the magic system is the more tedious it will be and people have been growing Dungeons and Dragons for decades and is understandably on the dense end of that spectrum with the Star Wars Expanded Universe(s) as well as comic universes (while the films are gaining I mean the actual comics). If they are smart about it they can do a loose sequel to this with 10-30% familiar things to alleviate some of that and trust their audience enough to not have to go too much into depth rehashing concepts established in this movie. Ideally a tangential character like Zenk takes a fresh set of characters (maybe Doric reprises since she had less focus and the others cameo here or there) on another adventure to deal with an enemy type already established on a small level in this movie like the black dragon from the war or some Illithid, a species that keep intelligence devourers as pets.

I love how she needs to point out any exposition scene as if they’re somehow a bad thing. She also definitely is looking for things to dislike in it

"Paladin" has been a term used to describe particularly noble and holy knights since Charlemagne. It's used in the fantasy genre (often for knights who wield holy magic), but it's not unique to D&D in an way. Just FYI.

The humor wasn't based on Deadpool. It is based on people playing the game and constantly trying to one up each other. Zinging each other and trying to roleplay the best and most interesting character is part of the fun. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings had a very heavy influence on Dungeons and Dragons but they were doing it for decades before any of the other modern fantasy stuff which was influenced by it. Shorter would have taken away a lot of the feel of playing the game being on the screen.

This was SO much better than the first two D&D movies.

"Is that an African or European swallow?" Thoroughly enjoyed this film, especially given the absolute shitness of the previous attempt from decades ago. Zero downsides to this for me, also the sneaky inclusion of the party from the old D&D cartoon series in the finale's arena was a very nice touch. :]

Yes, it is the same Underdark as the R. A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt, and the green city they passed is Menzoberranzan 👍

Evil dragons - color coded for your convenience! Red dragons breath fire, Black acid (like the one in the flashback), Blue dragons have lightning breath, Green poison gas, and White cold breath. The good dragons (metallics - Gold, Silver, Bronze, Brass, and Copper) I don't remember as clearly. Having the acid-breathing black dragon in the trailer was the first real indication to me that there was going to be a certain underlying faithfulness to this movie. Loved it, top to bottom!

23:11 If I heard you correctly, you said the “Legend of Drizzt.” If that is what you’re talking about, you are absolutely right! This movie and those books take place in the same setting!

Since nobody else really commented on this. I'm not an expert, but from my understanding, D&D was originally heavily inspired by fantasy books, including The Hobbit/LOTR, but also a bunch of others. Over the years, I think there definitely has been a "chicken/egg" effect. Fantasy is sort of this super "open source" kind of world-building platform/style, and a lot of it has likely inspired each-other. D&D is currently on it's 5th edition, so there may have been things added in the versions, apart from just rule adjustments, that maybe were inspired by newer fantasy stuff, and that stuff may have taken some inspiration from D&D. It's just become this big overlap where everyone has kind of agreed on the basic things you typically see in a High Fantasy setting: Dragons, different races of humanoids like Elves, Dwarfs, Hobbits/Halflings, etc, caves and dungeons full of traps and mystery and dangers, traveling across huge landscapes full of unique terrains, dark forests with giant spiders and creatures, a whole world of underground cities and caves (aka, the underdark in this case). The list keeps going, and while every one is a little different, there's a ton of overlap and borrowing of inspiration. So to not really have a good answer your question, it's really hard to tell what inspired what, but you can at least find out which fantasy books the creators were originally inspired by in the first version of the game, but it's definitely evolved from there. (Here's a list I found: blog.archive.org/2020/03/27/the-fantasy-books-that-inspired-dungeons-dragons/#:~:text=While%20D&D's%20fantasy%20world%20might,%E2%80%9D)%2C%20Michael%20Moorcock%2C%20and )

One thing about the exposition, names of things and world building - - a lot of it is there for game players, but they do a good job of making the story coherent, through context, even if you don't know the terms. You don't need to know what a "paladin" is to understand from context that the character is an honorable, do-gooder, knight... but anyone who has played the game (even if the last time was 30-some years ago, back in junior high, like me) recognizes the character class. It's jargon heavy, but not in a way that's confusing or can't be pieced together. You don't need to know anything about the game, but if you have played it, there are fun references to recognize.

In D&D there are various types of Dragons and not all Dragons Breath Fire, so for example there are 2 'Factions' of Dragons, the Metallic and the Chromatic. The Metallic Dragons are the Good Dragons and the Chromatic Dragons are the Evil Dragons, so with the Metallic Dragons you have the Gold, Bronze, Brass, Silver and so on, and with the Chromatic Dragons you have Red, Black, White and so on. Some Dragons do breath Fire, some breath Ice, Lightning, Poison and so on.

that movie has the most tasteful fan service ever. there's no wink-wink cynicism, it's a genuine heartfelt story, but internally, things work like they do in dnd. there's a part where the sorcerer throws a rock at the BBEG to break Concentration, it works, and the BBEG casts Misty Step as a Bonus Action to avoid Fall Damage. I lost my mind. And the movie respects the audience enough to not make a big joke out of it.

The origin story of Themberchaud, the fat dragon, involves a fat cat that jumped onto the table during a D&D session and knocked over the mini figures of the characters.

fun fact about the interlect devourers: they go by the inteligence score, the whole party (bard, barbarian, druid, sorcerer) and the DMNPC (paladin) are classes that tend to have low inteligence scores, since they focus on other abilities (charisma, strength, wisdom and charisma again, respectivly) so it would make sense that non of this group would have a high inteligence score XD

16:35 there was supposed to be subtitles then. She basically was telling him about that group (Edgin, Holga, Simon, and Doric) and that they will try to interfere with their plans. He asks her if Forge might also be in on it, but she assures him that Forge only cares about money and wouldn't betray them. She then tells him that the guards behind them were the ones who failed to kill them, so he goes and kills the guards.

As what is called a one-shot adventure it a great short session of play rather than a full campaign, that is why it is so snarky. A longer a full campaign would be more serious as well multiple weeks months or years worth of adventures and game sessions. It's also why there is so much exposition. Loved your review and reaction, liked how quickly you picked up and understood what was going on as well as even the types or names of magic that was used.

Acid. Black dragons have acid. Dragons and Dragonborn (playable and NPC race) have an elemental Breath weapon attack tied to their lineage. Red=Fire. Green=poison. Black=Acid, white=cold. Etc

In response to the question about the music in the game. Yes. Each D&D board game comes equipped with a full orchestra equipment and sheet music archive.

Two things for you: 1) Black dragons in D&D breathe acid instead of fire, so that's why the dragon in the flashback looks like he's puking and 2) think of paladins as being essentially Jedi and you won't be too far off.

As an adaptation, I thought this movie was great. They use actual rules from the book like concentration (when Doric hits Sofina with the garlic in the final fight that breaks her concentration on the Animate Object spell she used on the dragon statue) and plenty of other spells and monsters straight from the handbooks. It genuinely feels like a DnD session in movie form, and I loved every minute of it.

The dragon in the graveyard flashback is specifically a black dragon, they have acid as their "breath attack" instead of fire.

Thank you. Given that there are as many types of D&D game as there are groups playing it, this is a good representation, it uses many examples of in-game items, spells, people, and places. Mostly it is fun and that is the key to a good game. Different 'coloured' dragons spew different things, that one, acid. Drizzt is based on D&D, an earlier version of rules, but essentially the same 'World'. D&D is heavily influenced by The Lord of the Rings, and other early fantasy such as Conan and Elric, it has become intertwined with fantasy over the last five decades. I think the notes from other media you saw are probably reflective of the fact that many a GM (the person organising the game) will add things, plot lines, Hulk Smashes, that they enjoyed from the latest movies, TV, and books into their games. In the end D&D is an intertextual medium.

27:22 About the gameplay and “dice rolls.” Every character has base stats: Strength, Dexterity, et cetera. They can also take skills like Perception, Arcana, Athletics, etc. When a player wants to attack or use a skill, they roll a 20-sided die with the proper modifier(s). An enemy’s armor class or the DM’s predetermined difficulty check determines if it’s a success or failure, or even how bad a failure. Earlier in the film, Edgin (Chris) failed to break his bindings and help Holga fight their executioners. That was multiple failed rolls at either Strength or Athletics. As for the tubby dragon, it has a long history in D&D. Themberchaud was hatched by Dark Elves to stoke their forges; in return, they pampered him. As he grew, his natural instincts towards carnage and tyranny grew, and he learned that these elves routinely steal eggs one at a time, that the elves kill their current red dragons before it grows too big to control, and his replacement was stolen before they could return home. In an adventure book, he meets the player party and offers them a deal: rather than side with either the elves or the thieves, just leave and let him take over the elven city. Decades later, the city was in ruins, with little for him to feed upon, and due to his size any attempt to dig to the surface world would cave him in. The only other thing you need to know: Nat20 and DMPC. A Natural 20 is when you make an attack roll, and the 20-sided die lands on 20. This bypasses any armor class on the target, and deals effectively doubled damage. (The last potato). The Dungeon Master is supposed to control the world, and let his Player’s Characters have free will and determine the outcome. But when the DM makes their own PC, they tend to railroad the party around their overpowered character who steals the story and combat. That is Xenk the Paladin.

“When I hear Underdark I think Legend of Drizzt” This is the same world, Drizzt is out there doing something else ;3

Basically D&D is a group improv.

If you enjoyed that, you might wanna react to The Legend of Vox Machina. An animated series based on an actual play D&D campaign.

As a person that's played D&D since the mid 80's - I loved this movie. There's a great blink and you miss it easter egg in the Maze scene with one of the other group of adventures being the kids from the Dungeons & Dragons 80s cartoon. Also, the scene in the grave yard, wonderful, I can see my DM running it just like that with the questions. : )

A charming thief Edgin (Pine) and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a long lost relic but their charming adventure goes dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.

The coolest thing on this movie is that it makes it look like a D&D game with your friends. so, it's funny, chaotic, plans go wrong all time so you need to make better ones and that's it.

I had cautious hope for this one since supposedly D&D-based movies in the past have been woeful disappointments, but I was really impressed and entertained. And the fact that it takes place in the Forgotten Realms Universe was a very welcome surprise (I literally squealed a little when I saw Icewind Dale and The Spine of the World on the map). Great reaction as always, Jacqui. You are a Queen (but a nice one, rather than the poisoned apple-dispensing variety). 👍✌❤

Re: the no-fire-breathing dragon at the 19 minute mark.. Watching 2 months later, but didn't see this answered so didn't know if it had been. In Dungeons & Dragons different dragons have different "breath weapons", indicated by their color. That dragon was a black dragon, and their breath weapon is acid, so in the flashback battle sequences that's what it sprayed.

Considering D&D came out in 1974, chances are good that all other RPG/Fantasy games of this type took some direction from D&D. I'm an old school D&D player since 1978 when Advanced D&D (known as 1st Edition) split from what would be known as the original Basic D&D and i really like the fact that there was enough lore to satisfy even us old school D&D players, but yet you dont really have to be a player to enjoy this movie for what it is, just a fun fantasy adventure with a great story and superb visuals.

When you asked about music associated with D&D, I immediately jumped to the comments to type this up: "Your Turn to Roll." is quite a banger. can totally recommend looking it up.

Note re: dragons and fire. Dragons in D&D have different sorts of breath weapons. Red dragons breath fire, but other dragons breath things like poison gas or cold. Black dragons (like Reikor in the flashback) spew acid.

I was one of the few to watch this in theatres. I swear it gets better on every rewatch.

You can really see the places where someone rolled a 1 or a 20

19:19 Black Dragons spit acid. In a line. The creators of this movie are big D&D fans, and with very few exceptions, they stuck as closely to the game mechanics as possible. The place they strayed most was in Doric's extensive uses of Wild Shape. But sometimes, you have to let the Rule of Cool have its day.