Friday, October 26, 2012
Edohotep
Writer: Brian Rudnick.
Cast: Meagan Good, Eleanor Gecks and James Rawlings.
An extremely long prologue sets more than just the tone of a dark fantasy film based off a franchise. Dungeons and Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness
is a movie that could have been better and the third time around is not the charm. This direct to video UK product is supposed to have a supernatural theme. Instead, it dodges around the idea like a ghost not wanting to tell its tale.
This is a film that is based on a post-Gygax created world. When Wizards of the Coast bought TSR, the original publishing company, as their way of saving the company from bankruptcy, some gamers wanting a media translation of their favourite game may feel divided. This film does have a good feeling of a medieval product, but is it dungeons and dragons? And, where it goes is not like Lord of the Rings. Where are the dwarves and half-orcs?
The plot here involves a noble well-groomed Grayson (Jack Derges), looking like a young Tom Cruise. He is trying to rescue his father from a Mind Flayer. This creation in this movie has little to do with the octopoid creation from the original TSR books.
And the hero needs help. Grayson goes to a cantina to find bounty hunters. While he tries to stay true to his moral code, the wretched hive of scum and villainy have other plans. That should make for a good plot, but its execution is not all that well conceived. The film fights with itself in which aspect of the story is more important.
Where the story goes is like watching Ralph Bakashi's attempt at distilling his interpretation of Lord of the Rings. It gets yawn-inducing up to the end.
The acting is okay, but the performers sometimes forget that they are supposed to be representing the scum of the earth. The dark elf forgets what it means to be like a drow, or the necromancer does not realize that summoning up the undead is within his capability. Either the production company has not played a game of Dungeons and Dragons in a long time, or they have forgotten that they should be producing a fully realized live action role playing game.
In a movie that is supposed to be about the nature of what being evil morally means, this film is a light Halloween treat. Only one brief moment makes this film shine and that's to see the band of miscreants tear a village apart. But where are the ghosts, vampires, zombies, animated skeletons and demons? They were probably lost in a mismanaged budget. The money spent went into getting the sets to look right; not enough of it was allocated for the CGI and prosthetic department to work their magic. The world of "Dungeons and Dragons" needs to be alive in more ways than one!
Overall: 4 out of 10.
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Posted in: 2012,2012 release,action adventure,adventure,fantasy,fiction,monster,monsters,movie review,preview
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