The most common praise of this movie is going to be ...this is the best Dungeons & Dragons movie yet. While this it true, it's also a pretty low bar. The movie is a great deal of fun and capture's the feel of the game, but far from perfect. As someone who has played the game for over forty years and is well versed in its lore I am not invested in the mythos of the modules and books, as I always came up with my own world. I have never used any of their deities or landscapes though I know them. Even more pedestrian fans of the game know Baldur's Gate and Neverwunter. The film makers were savvy enough to give the appropriate winks and load the movie with enough Easter eggs to appease fandom. The appearance of the kids from the 80s cartoon being my favorite. In terms of cinematography the movies to weight it against are the first three Lord of the Rings movies that Peter Jackson helmed. The picture painted here is less realistic and more colorful than those. I really like the visuals of the Underdark, but felt it was amiss for the Drow to be left out, along with mind flayers who would have been more of an interesting adversary than the adversaries they faced down there.
The acting is one of the weak links. You can say, well it is just a silly fantasy movie, but were any of the actors in Lord of the Rings not perfectly dialed in for their roles? We can lower the bar and ask how does the acting stand up against "Conan the Barbarian"? Arnold is a shitty actor, but his physicality sold the role., Chris Pine was the most convincing. Michelle Rodriguez did not feel primal enough to portray a barbarian. She was just a fighter with a low charisma that got upstaged by Bradley Cooper's cameo. And certainly, no Arnold given her lacking screen presence. I wish the Tiefling played by Sophia Lillis has been developed more as she pulled off her parts well. Fleshing out her character more would have raised the stakes. It was like Guardians of the Galaxy in tone in many ways including how the team nature of the cast was juggled.
It could have also used more monsters. There were enough to remind you it was about Dungeons and Dragons, but that was it. However the movie was well paced and kept the ride moving so it never dragged which is more than you can say for the more recent Marvel movies. Speaking of the Hollywood, factor the filmmakers had gone on records as saying they purposefully emasculated the male character to give the female characters more weight, and to their credit they did this in a way that did not raise any red flags or become a deal breaker that made me unreceptive to the rest of the film it just served the characters in a organic manner. Overall not perfect but a great deal of fun that kept me awake.
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