Just got back from this movie and I loved it. I will say, the final confrontation makes up for how... action movie-ish (I guess?) the fight scenes were previously.
DND's such a collaborative/party based concept that getting I was waiting a big, dynamic party based fight scene where everyone does something and they all work together, but there's a lot of the typical "cool character does a cool thing all by themselves, while everyone else stands around and waits." Which was cool, but felt like a waste of concept.
But that just put in me into a false sense of wariness for the final fight, which was... chef's kiss (really, the entire final segment in Neverwinter, starting with the Games). It deliberately averts a lot of generic action movie trademarks - just everyone is involved, has something to do, and all at once with lots of fast action choreography - and because of it actually might be one of my favorite final fights in an action movie ever.
I also appreciate the way this movie handles romance.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Apr 10th 2023 at 4:01:20 AM
I also liked the movie's take on Disney Death. It's incredibly expected how it's going to end the moment we see it, but the sheer shock Holga shows in reaction to the characters' decision to save her sells the scene and makes it feel... genuine, I guess.
Me, -0.5 points for unironic use of the viral “wife who dies at the beginning of the movie” tweet
, +0.25 for paralleling said dead wife with the hot guy they met along the way.
Edited by Synchronicity on Apr 10th 2023 at 10:26:03 AM
Taking it under a meta lense, I saw him more as a single session guest player.
EDIT: I had no idea he was going to be Drizzt at some point. Dang. I'm kinda torn. On one hand, Drizzt. On the other hand, Xenk was one of my favorite parts of the movie
Edited by Zeromaeus on Apr 10th 2023 at 12:22:45 PM
Yeah, it's why he's a guy that:
- Does a very Ranger-esque opening of helping a baby with an animal
- Is a legend everyone has heard of
- Is someone from a very evil race (Thayans/Drow) but not all Thayans/Drow are evil
- They go into the Underdark with him as a guide
:)
It does mean that we'd probably get Guen rather than a Displacer beast.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Do we know why they changed their minds about Drizzt? The Trivia page just says “unnamed controversy.”
Edited by HeraldAlberich on Apr 10th 2023 at 12:40:10 PM
https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/dungeons-dragons-movie-drizzt-role-xenk-scrapped/
They basically say, "Some controversy"
And I'm assuming it's the fact the drow are basically stuck with the fact they have all manner of Unfortunate Implications they're still trying to figure out and I think they're using Baldur's Gate III to hash out.
Specifically, I imagine the controversy is, "How do we represent Drizzt's race on screen? What sort of ethnicity and color?"
Not to put too fine a point on it.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Apr 10th 2023 at 10:12:45 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Oh no. Yeah I get why putting the drow race who are all dark skinned and stereotyped as evil would cause controversy in the big screen.
They even made the one Tiefling white, when that race has all sorts of skin colors.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"I mean, that ashy gray skintone already very deliberately doesn’t match a real-world shade of brown, and if the one drow in the movie is not evil I think they could have gotten away with it.
But besides Xenk being great, the backstory they came up with for him that ties into the main plot probably works a lot better in the end than “here’s a famous character for the fans. Ok now he’s leaving.” They put the fat dragon in for that purpose instead.
> They even made the one Tiefling white, when that race has all sorts of skin colors.
they're like Star wars's Twi'lek in that they come in all the colours of the rainbow,but I think its fine for now if their depiction is generic. if they make a sequel expect to see plenty of tieflings in different hues
have a listen and have a link to my discord server![]()
They see me rollin'. They hatin'.
And yeah, I never liked Always Chaotic Evil as a trope, and I'm happy to see more people are growing uncomfortable with it. I think it very much says something that D&D, the very work that named it, is now doing its damndest to see it yeeted into the sun.
I mean, unless he drowned because he couldn't fly away when they drained the ocean into that cavern. I wonder how much of the Underdark flooded before the levels equalized?
Edited by HeraldAlberich on Apr 11th 2023 at 11:54:46 AM
I think colored Tieflings are for arrivalists.
But I know Tieflings from Planescape.
:)
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Apr 11th 2023 at 2:08:30 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

So...the intended audience?
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.