Trailer
GOTG meets LOTR
https://twitter.com/DnDMovie/status/1550212578994839553
Theoretically, I should like this. I always played thieves or rangers back in my teenage D&D days. We used to constantly listen to Led Zeppelin tapes when we played in the early '80s. It has big battles and authentic D&D monsters...
But why do I feel so unimpressed when I watch this?
Oh I dunno, also a former D&D player and this actually looks pretty decent. Clearly Chris Pine will bring some snarky, wise-cracking humor to to - as long as it doesn't go overboard with that, it could be good.
shareMaybe because you're grown up now? This seems aimed squarely at younger audiences. I would have been first in line to see it had it been released when I was 16.
shareI think the problem is I have just seen so many other movies and shows like this: LOTR, GoT, WarCraft, etc. etc. And as you say about younger audiences, the trailer may have many ingredients that I value in a D&D story, but they are tailored for the tastes of today's generation, rather than that of the 1980s when my tastes in fantasy entertainment were formed. I would prefer something with a harder edge. Something with the mood of Conan, Excalibur, Game of Thrones or The Northman. Even when I was a kid, our games were more grim and brutal than lighthearted.
shareFor better or worse, films are definitely more streamlined and polished in 2022 than in the 1980s, and there seems to be less room for the meandering vision that was the norm when directors ruled the roost. Hollywood seems to have returned to more of a studio system, with more oversight, with mixed results. Personally, I think the action and fantasy films have thrived from this change, but the cost has been fewer opportunities for directors to share their individual sensibilities onscreen.
Interestingly, when you listed films with the harder edge of the past, two of the four things you listed were made recently, so perhaps there are still some such films being made? I didn't see The Northman, and never watched Game of Thrones, but I did see The Green Knight which seems like it would fit well with what you listed.
Perhaps the disconnect is that this Dungeons and Dragons film is meant for the same audiences who would have watched, say, E.T., or The Neverending Story, back in the day, and isn't akin to a Conan type of film?
In any event, I see your point. For me personally, I'm less interested in a films like Conan or Dungeons and Dragons now that I'm in my 50s, and would rather see the emergence of the next Woody Allen, Preston Sturges, Howard Hawks, John Ford, etc.
I can still appreciate a good fantasy adventure, but I too would love to see a new generation of serious directors with the talents of the ones you listed. I don't know if that's ever going to happen again, at least through conventional Hollywood releases.
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