In the Empire of Izmer, magic is the key to power in both the supernatural and political realms. The Mages are a sect who know the secrets of magic and use it to hold sway over the masses. The youthful Empress Savina wants to use her powers to bring justice and prosperity to all, but Profion is an evil Mage who wants to use his knowledge of magic to overthrow Savina and establish his own despotic rule. Through deceitful means, Profion wins away the special scepter that allows him to control the nation’s Golden Dragons; Savina’s only hope to recover the scepter and the rule of Izmer is to obtain the Rod of Savrille, a talisman that will give her powers over the Red Dragons, even more powerful than their golden counterparts. As Savina sets out to gain control of the Red Dragons, she gains a number of unlikely allies.
Dungeons & Dragons came out in 2000 and was very ambitious for what it wanted to do. Sporting a cast that was solely dependent on the acting ability of Jeremy Irons (Profion). For example, watching Irons at work during a pivotal scene toward the end of the film where Profion is convincing a counsel on how right his ideas were could only be compared to watching a college pep rally where one cheerleader was really into it and the others seemed confused. For this reviewer the lack of talented acting really hurt the film. You can cover up bad dialogue and shoddy story flow pretty well if you have decent acting (see any Star Wars film for details). Irons was the headliner in the film then there was a clear drop off from that point. Even Thora Birch’s Empress Savina seemed uncomfortable by her role. She probably out performed Natalie Portman’s Queen Amidala at the time (which was huge in 2000), but that’s not really saying much. Birch’s character seemed confused, stiff and unintentionally unemotional. In the scheme of things she was second best to Irons’ Profion.
Acting aside, the other issues that Dungeons & Dragons suffered from included story flow. Translating a popular TSR game into a movie shouldn’t be this difficult in hindsight. Most people who have experienced the board game at its finest will understand that the story is basically already created for the gamer. On top of this, there are a variety of books and video games that already have really good stories intact. I’m not sure where the failure occurred during the writing process, but the screenwriters seemed awful confused about who thought their audience was going to be. The film wants to tell a ‘coming of age’ story with Justin Whalin’s Ridley Freeborn. He’s a common thief that finds a greater purpose. The problem with his character is that while they successfully establish him as a thief, he doesn’t do anything truly great to establish himself as more. There’s not that moment of realization or moment of “I’m born for greater things”. He just seems to go from criminal to hero without a proper transition. If you’re going to have a main character who suffers from avoiding his own destiny/fate then you have to have that ‘moment’ for them, which never seemed to occur for Freeborn.
Sticking with story issues, Profion seemed to be lost and flat as well. The opening scene we have Profion trying to tame a golden dragon and failing at it. His drive and passion to tame the beast really does set everything up perfectly for his character. The audience fully understands this man’s obsession over power and his drive to succeed no matter the cost. In that brief moment his character is defined. Regretfully, after that moment you don’t have many moments where that character is used to his fullest. He seems to wander in and out of the story, and only reappearing solidly at the end. I wanted more of Profion and only got a little bit. Main evil characters’ should be the yin to the good characters’ yang and it seems like there’s a lot more yang than yin.
Finally, as for the main story, it seems confused on what it wants to be. It really wanted to be a ‘coming of age’ for Freeborn, but at the same time it wanted to tell this mystical story about a power struggle between the Empress and the mages’ guild. Somewhere in between there are dragons involved. The overall story seemed very disjointed between plot points and very confused on what it truly wanted to be. For a viewer, that can be frustrating to watch. I’m a huge fan of the old TSR games and it was sad to see a missed opportunity like this because there are tons of good stories to tell in the world of TSR.
For fans of the film, and there are fans because another movie was made in 2005, you’ll be happy to know that this film is now available on iTunes from Warner Brothers / New Line Home Entertainment. This is the first film I reviewed for an ‘iTunes / On-Demand’ service and hopefully it won’t be the last. I’m a fan of films via iTunes, as I’ve watched many thanks to some long plane rides. Is this the best film you could find on iTunes? No, but for fans of the film it’s cheap enough ($9.99) to own and it looks really good.
