Film: Dungeons And Dragons Wrath Of The Dragon God aka: Wrath Of The Dragon God
Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God (also known as Dungeons & Dragons: The Elemental Might) is a 2005 made-for-TV live-action movie set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. Unlike the Dungeons & Dragons film released in 2000, Wrath of the Dragon God is clearly based upon its source material — to the point at which it often seems as if its characters are simply explaining various aspects of the Player's Handbook to one another.3000 years ago, Faluzure, the evil dragon god of decay and undeath, attacked the kingdom of Turan. The Turanian mages (with the help of the god Obadhai) were able to repel Faluzure and imprison him.100 years ago, the evil mage Damodar — formerly The Dragon to Jeremy Irons' Big Bad in the previous Dungeons & Dragons movie — fought against the people of Izmir and was cursed with a century of suffering as one of the undead. Now Damodar is back. He intends to free Faluzure and take his revenge on Izmir.The people behind this produced a third film called Dungeons And Dragons The Book Of Vile Darkness, which premiered on SyFy in November 2012.
Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God provides examples of the following tropes:
Actually Pretty Funny: When Ormaline's animal companion Ona gets killed by the lightning floor trap in Malek's vault, Nim can't help but laugh. Needless to say, everyone stares like he just cracked a dead baby joke, though Lux and Berek can be seen stifling their own laughter.
Anticlimax Boss: invoked Both times they fight him, our heroes have no trouble beating Damodar in physical combat. Well he is a wizard. They beat him in combat both times by being physical, which wouldn't really be a wizard's strength. However, he was a fighter in the previous movie... His loss of that skill makes him quite an anticlimax. He must be a century out of training.
Berserk Button: Don't talk about Lux's brother. Appropriately enough, they're both actually berserkers. Her brother was killed prior to the events of the film because he couldn't keep his rage in check.
Body Horror: Melora spends most of the movie rotting from the outside in after being cursed by Damodar. Eww.
Break the Haughty: If facial expressions are anything to go by, this happens to Lux in the Goblin town. At first, she is completely annoyed and unconvinced when Nim stops her from activating what he claims is a trap. When, he reveals that it actually was a trap, she's more or less floored.
Camp Gay: Damodar comes off as this in his more subdued scenes.
Less Cast as a Mask since Oberon was a separate character that Klaxx killed and disguised himself as.
Covers Always Lie: The dragon on the cover is not the titular dragon god, but an ice dragon the band meet at the halfway point. Also, the foreground shows multiple dragons attacking the city when Faluzure does this by himself in the actual movie.
Darkest Hour: Just before Melora uses her faith to defeat the dragon. Recap: Dorian's dead, Lux, Ormaline and Nim are incapacitated, Melora's dying from an undead curse, the king is dead as is the captain of the guard, and the rest of the city guard and remaining council mages are putting up a fruitless fight against the dragon god while he rains destruction upon the land.
DVD Commentary: One of the MST variety, done by actors pretending to be 3 iconic D&D characters: Lidda, Krusk, and Jozan.
Evil Is Not a Toy: Subverted/Averted Faluzure seems quite amicable to his releaser. Although since Damodar had released him from thousands of years of imprisonment, you can assume he'd probably be grateful. Plus, Damodar said that he wished to rule over Izmir "As your thrall", meaning that despite freeing him, he still acknowledged Faluzure as his master and better. Faluzure even pauses to set a tithe rate.
Facial Markings: Dorian has some bitchin' racing stripes on his face. Lux's facial tattoo is much more tasteful, by comparison.
Five-Man Band: The party fits just about perfectly into the following roles.
Never My Fault: Once Damodar makes the conditions of his undead curse clear, he abruptly growls that he did not fail Profion; he simply died before Profion could lift the curse.
Putting the Band Back Together: Berek knows most of the party from previous adventures and requests their aid specifically.
Samus Is a Girl: Lux's introductory scene fools the viewer into believing the barbarian they're talking about is another character - until she starts a Bar Brawl with him.
Screaming Warrior: In keeping with the source material, Lux, being a barbarian, uses a shout during the climax that's powerful enough to scare Damodar's horse into throwing him off.
Tele Frag: Due to an unfortunate flaw built into the pool of sight, Malek died by teleporting himself directly into a wall. Later, Ormaline does the same thing, but only loses an arm in the process.
Token Evil Teammate: Nim, who is officially stated to be Chaotic Good but comes across as Chaotic Neutralat best. His introductory scene has him nonchalantly tricking a couple of fellow thieves into triggering a trap that roasts them alive, after which Nim steals their stuff.
Two Lines, No Waiting: The heroes' quest and the events back home. Actually not too badly done.
What Could Have Been: A scene that was written but never filmed showed how Berek obtained his Vorpal sword (which inexplicably shows up in his possession directly after the Dark Mantle attack), and how Lux lost her own sword. It showed a classic D&D scenario of a treasure in the center of a room over a lethal fall/bottomless pit, where Berek obtains the sword but falls and Lux has to save him. Time and Budget restrictions prevented it from being filmed.
You Shall Not Pass: Lux, near the end. Subverted - she survives and pops up again to help Berek during the final battle.
0 reviews