This might sound odd, but when watching the movie, I felt like I could see and hear the DM and players at the table. I loved that. I could feel the DM's glee when they were describing this incredibly chonky red dragon that appeared. The paladin felt like a DMPC sent to help the players for part of the journey. I could also perfectly picture this exchange happening between Holga's player (who has made a point to mention how the character loves potatoes and always has them in her inventory) and the DM. Holga's player: "For my action, I'm going to throw a potato at the guard." DM: "What." Holga's player: "I have a potato. I'm gonna throw it." DM: "Fine, roll for attack." Holga's player: "NATURAL 20!"
As someone who hasn’t seen the movie or the video yet, this actually makes me really excited and was exactly what I wanted from the movie. I can’t wait to watch it now
YES that's what I thought too - especially the scene where Ed whispers that he hates the Paladin under his breath and the Paladin, with excellent hearing, just smirks - this definitely felt like an exchange between a player and the DM.
Thats great. I haven't seen it yet but that's the feel i got from the trailer. As if someone recorded a random group's D&D game, and threw a hollywood coat on it and presented it "as is"
OMG yes! I could too. I went together with a bunch of roleplaying friends and oh gosh... We had a blast. And we all commented things like this when it finished!! ❤❤
This is also the essence of your standard RPG campaign. The actual goal is far less interesting that all the side quests and dice screwups you have reaching your goal.
Many people, like myself, got our start playing by being the DM for a group of folks that either had no or some experience, and have never looked back.
I just found an online group to get started. Sometimes being a dm first time you play is very daunting. So online communities are the best. Especially since you're anonymous to an extent.
It's a great movie, because if you watch as someone who doesn't play it works. But if you do play, or listen to people who play in a podcast, you get how well it's done. The absurdly complicated puzzles that the party just completely skip. The light insults and inside gags (like the brain monsters) or even the NPC that the DM seems to really REALLY like using as much as possible. It really did feel like watching a campaign in movie form.
Everytime I saw a screwup in the movie either with the main cast or the jobbers fighting them I heard the imaginary DM cursing on how bad they were rolling.
As someone who's played a wild magic sorcerer and has a penchant for bad rolls, I could feel Simon's pain! Clearly his player rolls a lot of Nat-1s, including during a wild surge. 😆
I played a wizard & snuck into an evil orc city while invisible. Decided to steal from a shop while invisible. Managed to escape after alerting literally every guard to the fact that there was an intruder 😂
Ah that joyous time we accidentally entered a dungeon level backwards (still not sure how) and our poor DM had to figure out how all the traps, etc were operated/triggered backwards 😂😂😂
This is perfect, because I always wonder how the bad guy NPCs who live/work in these places get around on a daily basis, like do they have to careful backtrack out of the dungeon on their way home resetting the traps behind them _every day_? 🤣
That happened to us once. We hit the boss fight right away by inadvertently entering a way we weren't supposed to be able to, and bypassed the entire dungeon. Needless to say, that session ended up being very short. 😅
One fun bit I realized after watching the movie is that in the beginning, when they’re waiting for the Aaracokra to show up? They were waiting for the last player to show up so the campaign could begin! It’s a cute nod to D&D culture and shows that the writers were truly D&D lovers, not people paid to make a cynical cash grab.
I watched this movie as a group with friends that I play DnD with. I play as a teifling named Yorrik so you can imagine my surprise when the teifling character in this was named Dorrik. Even my friends kept mishearing the character’s name as Yorrik and it became a running gag between our group. Thanks to this movie our DM wants to make a group of teiflings that all have names that rhyme with Yorrik now
The movie was such a breath of fresh air compared to what's been coming out recently, and as someone who is real into the D&D lore there was SO much to be appreciated I love the movie
The overly complicated bridge that doesn't get used cause a party member fs up was really relatable. The movie was worth seeing for the dragon sequence alone
I am so sad the movie wasn't a box office success because it is a very good movie of its kind! It is funny and heartwarming, does a decent job of capturing it's source material and has some decent special effects. Would've loved to see a sequel!
I completely agree. I watched this film with my 7 year old son and were frequently in hysterics and came out buzzing and as films like Thor 4 showed it's not easy to make a film that is so fun to watch.
Seems like a middling box office success, tbh. Total cost was 150 million and it grossed about 210 million. A ~35% return on a film isn't that bad, considering the industry average for studio films are in the high 20s.
One thing I love about your Channel is how you explain and discuss pieces of media and bring something new to the topic at hand or explore a new side of things that no one else talks about.
Excellent. Our party had a few players that were good at rolling with failure. Probably my favourite was a scene where we were trying to deal with a plague. We track its source to some monks holed up in a bar and one of our halflings decides he's going to sneak in the back. He rolls for stealth, fails. A drunken monk comes out at which point our player throws himself into the mud and pretends to be a pig. He fails his roll, but the monk fails by more and turns out to be too drunk to work out what's going on. One failure leads to another and by the end of the scene the hapless guy has managed to convince the monk that he (the monk) is a ghost and probably doesn't need those keys because he is dead. Meanwhile none of the rest of us can breathe for laughing. That character had a knack for telling truly, utterly implausible lies and somehow surviving (which was good because he refused to wear armour and he was armed with a broom).
I once play a pyromaniac warlock where my teammates had to keep an eye on me since it was my goal to see to it as many of our problems were solved with fire as I could. They did a decent job of preventing me from burning down things I really shouldn't have
@@5Demona5No way! I did the same thing with a misrolled firebolt that was played as a nuclear explosion! Our club advisor who was there for the incident still calls me "Scorched Earth" after all this time
When my friends and I watched the movie there where so many moments that just reflected moments in our own games. This was an absolutely amazing TTRPG movie capturing the crazy plans, the hilarious failures, the bizarre character trait in jokes. Just such a fun movie and if you'd given me the major plot points I'm pretty sure this is exactly how I would have expected the story to go as a DnD game.
Bravo and thanks for the summary of the film's focus on failure! I saw the move last night - in between writing about my own failure - and instantly saw the 'failure' connection which to me was a success. Your video is PERFECT and I took screen shots to use on my blog and will include your link. Hopefully you'll get lots of new subscribers. Btw, I don't play DnD, nor have I ever commented on a TH-cam before.
I completely agree, that almost joy of failure comes through really brightly in the film. And it is a joy - I have stories like your assassin's too and they're the ones I share first when people ask me about D&D. And I felt like you could almost feel the dice rolls at certain points of the movie, little moments where the outcome felt controlled by fate and not the characters themselves. Great film and great review too!
I never played D&D, my SO did as a teen and that is how he described watching the movie. He felt they captured what it is like to play a disastrous but fun campaign. He really enjoyed the movie and so did I. It makes me want to join the next time my friends hold a campaign.
They handled it perfectly. It is a movie of a dnd campaign that feels like it's a movie of a dnd campaign. I could practically see the table and each actor playing their character, throwing the dice, and the DM explaining things. It was perfect.
I had such a good time with this movie, it pretty much did exactly what I'd hoped it would, which is to say it captured the feel of the game and it managed to pack in lots of jokes, easter eggs and the general silliness of the setting while still feeling like it was coming from a place of genuine love for the material - laughing with it and never at it. I was having fun with the movie already, but when the perfectly planned... plans kept falling apart and the whole thing kept escalating while they tried to salvage something or fix things on the fly, I thought yes, this isn't just a fantasy movie, it's a D&D movie. My one and only regret is that the Underdark was kind of a "blink and you'll miss it" aside to the main story, where it feels like it could have been the entire setting for a sequel movie. That whole sequence could have been any large system of caverns, but specifically calling it out as the Underdark kind of makes it feel like they can't really go back to it now without feeling like they're treading the same ground. Still, it's a tiny regret, and the whole Jarnathan thing more than made up for it. I did _not_ expect that scene to play out how it did XD
I loved this movie! My tabletop role playing group saw this in the theater together. D&D was the first thing we played together. ❤ Then eventually we explored so many other TTRPGs, but D&D has a special place in my heart. I just love hanging out with friends, ordering food, creating characters, and going through the story together. As a player of D&D, it really did remind me of the game, and how fun it can be, and the sometimes things don’t go according to plan on your adventures. Go with the flow and have fun!
It could be fun to see Pillar of Garbage, and some of his friends (some of whom might also be on TH-cam) stream a new game. D&D has changed its format, but not its base structure, quite a bit since the last time he was playing the game. He could try recreating his assassin to return to that headspace for some nostalgia or try making an entirely new character that is markedly different to explore a different sort of mindset.
I started playing around '77, the boxed set, and played up till the late '90's and have seen all the shows and movies, wishing they would capture the essence of those games. One thing they always lacked was character development. We would sometimes play for hours and never get into a fight, just doing the "downtime" banter and exploring our characters more. It was fun. Even got my ex gf/wife into it and she loved it for years. So, hearing what you've had to say really gives me hope that this one will be the closest to what it use to be like. I'd still be playing today if it weren't for all my stuff getting destroyed in a VA winter storm and well, having people around me that would enjoy it. I will say, it's because of you and this content here that's helped me decide to give it a chance. I'm not expecting it to be perfect, but it sounds better than I was giving it. Thanks for the great breakdown.
I saw other people say similar things about The Last of Us (having never played it myself) that the show really managed to capture the feeling of the playing & it struck me when you mentioned it here that this is a central aspect of adapting games & why they fail so often. Books are curated by one author for a particular intention that is then given to the reader but games give you more choice and freedom so there's more interplay. An adaption can get the story down but if they don't take into account how players interacted with it then the indescribable yet recognisable 'feeling' that made the game so special is lost, no matter if it's stress from The Last of Us or chaos from DnD
I remember when I was in college I played a Star Wars campaign and our rogue had “disarm” bomb and we were tasked with getting rid of a bomb under a senators platform and he rolled a 1 blowing up the platform with all of us on it. One person survived. It was our first mission.
The plan with using the staff to sneak into the vault is peak DnD, in my opinion. Confronting an impossible obstacle, and creatively applying a narrowly-tailored item/action for a totally different purpose to sidestep the problem, but also having to account for the fact that it takes a lot of investment and proper execution. Similarly to the way they beat the boss at the end with a clever merging of items, abilities, and character actions. Ugh, lovely stuff.
Speaking of finding "success in failure," I like to think that while it (to some) failed in theaters; this movie found some moniker of success in home release. Same thing happened with The Princess Bride, a movie that ALSO "failed" in the box office but later gained cult status
I would take issue with describing cinema audiences as passive. Viewing involves an active process of interpreting the film, appreciating and being critical of what is on screen and physical activity such as laughing and applause, also sharing the experience with others in the cinema
I take your point, but I do think there’s a significant, if not total, difference in interactivity here that’s worth bearing in mind - especially with regard to the *mediums* rather than the audience/viewing role.
Bravo man, way to capture the films’s…ability to capture the feeling of playing DnD. It can be hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t ever played why it’s so fun and engaging to play, but you summarized a large part of it quite nicely.
A movie about adapting failure is a perfect title. I once got TPK in the first battle; miscalculation by the DM, streaks of nat 1s from the players and somehow we survived with one guy at 1 HP. That inspired the player to create a bard and warn everyone of the Legendary Party Wipeout Monster: a single Bee. 😂😂😂
I am not surprised that you played a character that wanted to bring the system down, that is so in character for you! Have not watched the film yet, but now I certainly am even more curious to check it out. Especially since tabletop role-playing games are my favourite hobby, so much so that I work on my own system. And i feel like too many people are afraid of failure in the hobby, which is something I try to remedy with my own system. Which focuses more on tragic tales than winning. I am of course heavily inspired by games like Fiasco which go for a very Coen Brothers film style, and thus also focus on how things go wrong and why that leads to interesting stories.
Been wiating to watch this video until I could see the film. Finalyl got to see it today. Enjoyed the movie so much, and loved your perspective on it here!
I loved this movie, am a committed DnD player, and was lucky enough to be an extra in the movie! (I did a couple of weeks as a dragon cultist in the scenes flashing back to the battle between them and the barbarians.) It was great fun, and I was drawing my current campaign character while not filming, and even brought my game dice to set to fill them up with nerd magic!
I think a good rule during character creation is to not make your characters backstory that they're op and good at everything. Even if you min-max your character there's going to be inevitable moments where you fub a roll. The characters I've made that lean into their failings have always been more fun to rp
I'm definitely interested in seeing more game adaptations in the future--except video games that are choice-based with customizeable protagonists; they can never truly be replicated to everyone's desire.
The D&D movie was pretty great and certainly did capture the vibe of a 5th edition campaign, right down to the (mostly) accurate class abiltiies. As far as successful adaptations of a video game go, though... Arcane, anyone?
This was a great video. I was skeptical with the film at first during its announcement, especially with the few attempts of adapting the brand into movies. But when it was released and saw with my D&D buds. We came out smiling even one of my friends who is usually the “serious” person out of the group was very happy with the movie.
I don't pretend to have all the answers for what makes a good adaptation, but I have figured out a few. This video focuses on one of them - keeping the big picture intact (which is where the Starship Troopers and Watchmen movies fail at adaptation - the former reversing the message of its original; the latter giving all the costumed adventurers superhuman abilities). This movie captures the improvisation of D&D (on both sides of the table - you can imagine the ten minute debate over whether the Druid's plan with the Gelatinous Cube would actually work...) as well as the general feeling that, no matter how badly things go, failure can always be renegotiated - there's never a moment when the correct choice is to just give up and accept a loss. Another key factor in making a good adaptation, which can get lost in nerding out over the fidelity (or otherwise) to the source material, is telling a good story. Stardust makes some pretty big changes from the book, making a better movie even if it tells a subtly different story. I Robot is an example of Hollywood taking a script and slapping an IP on it, but it's not a bad story, and the underlying themes and feel of it are surprisingly Asimovian even if it doesn't line up with any of the individual stories in the anthology. Finally, the other factor I've identified is paying attention to detail - the more you get the little details right - like using an Owlbear rather than just a Dire Bear or a Grizzly, and show that you actually know and appreciate the source material (using recognisable spells, getting the geography right, not sending the weak and infirm on a week-long trek through what you know to be No Man's Land and potentially infested with enemy patrols when you have a defensible position a fraction of the distance away through territory you still hold, which you're going to relocate to as soon as possible anyway, just so you can have a siege at Helms Deep like happened in the book despite having changed the details that meant it made sense to end up there in the book... Yes, I'm still not over some of Jackson's changes to LotR). The more you show that you actually care about the source material, the more credit audiences will give you when you do make changes.
My favorite D&D failure story is the time I joined a friend's campaign partway through as a novice player. I had built a chaotic good paladin, a follower of the tiny god of her tiny village (based on the legend of Guinefort the hound) who had been exiled as the cost of doing the right thing. Nobody in the party was supposed to know her, her village, or her weird dog god. I got a great entrance, crashing into the party mid-battle and taking down a monster as the tank they'd long been missing right before they all realized I had a puppy inside my jacket. (My god required that I rescue puppies.) And then I walked with them along the forest road to the next challenge, which happened to be a set of flaming letters spelling out a riddle that we had to solve before we progressed. Unfortunately, the DM was not very good at making up riddles or puzzles, so he had googled something and rolled with it. Doubly unfortunately, I'd had a fourth-grade teacher who would reward us with her large collection of riddles, so I had heard this one before and remembered the answer--in fact, it was so easy for me that I assumed I was missing something. TRIPLY unfortunately, I didn't know how to distinguish between in-character speech and out, so when I muttered the answer under my breath in a "This can't really be right, can it?" tone of voice, everyone took it as my character insta-solving a riddle that would have taken everyone else at the table an hour to suss out. The DM got annoyed that I'd spoiled his challenge, the other players thought he'd slipped me the answer, and I had to speed-retcon my character's backstory to make her childhood include village riddle games. Only one person at the table knew me well enough to realize what had happened, and that person thought it was too funny to tell anyone, so "And did the children of your village have a game for THIS?" became the unofficial battle cry of our party from then on.
I love playing ttrpg with people, you see how dynamics shift and aims change and how a group of 20 somethings who all have characters with very different ideas of what they should be doing all come to a sudden, mutual, unanimous agreement about something, like that no, we're not letting this guy go back into the arena, or similar
So far, the only character I've brought from 1 to 20 is a Dragonborn Paladin/Barbarian named Donnar Kimbathull. The worst failure I've ever faced? With an intelligence of 7, I was taking control by a homebrew monster based on the Mayhar from ERB At the Earth's Core series. Mind you: I was a Dragonborn PALADIN/BARBARIAN, the only actual fighter in a party full of casters. It was like a scaly, fire breathing grizzly bear armed with a long sword going up against a gaggle of magic tossing nerds. Good times.
i've only acutlaly played an rpg once, dm'd a one shot for my lil sister and nephew 3 yrs ago, but I listen/watch a lot of actual play shows and this movie is just perfect in my eyes. it feels like an actual play, like i'm watching it play out like the critical role animated show. it just really is all the little things! Simon being a wild magic sorcerer from a line of wizards, explaining why he's such a shit sorcerer. Edgin "failing" perception and insight checks, tripping the wire or not realizing that the council was gonna pass them before they escaped. Simon taking "real time" to attune the helmet and Doric breaking the wizard's "concentration" on her spells by attacking her. The camera work is so impressive!! the displacer beasts were delightfully horrifying and i loved Forge's dumb ass. the fucking balloons coming back into play by depositing the gold? amazing. I really did like how everyone did seem to care for Edgin's daughter, even Forge in his own messed up way. He could've abandoned her, but he actually took care of her--albiet with ulterior motives. granted, he did try to kill her later on, but it's established that he's like that with everyone, even those he cares about. YES AND THE MAGIC!!! it was so fun and imaginative, i loved seeing the finger of death visualized! loved the mage hands and the wildshapes and just plain old magic on screen. bradley cooper as a halfling with a hard on for butch barbairains is something i never knew i wanted. Everyone looks so good, i LOVED the practical effects as well as the CGI! that scene where Simon loses concentration on the Edgin spell and the fake Edgin balloons up and becomes horrifying was so funny. i just really enjoyed this movie, it made me laugh and cry so much
As someone who IS a RPG guy, I'm still a bit bitter about Wotc's whole OCL debacle. that being said from what I can tell, the movie is.... Eh it's okay.
Honestly the best part of Honor Among Thieves is perhaps Edgin's speech about failure specifically. Hell, it's what actually gets the other party members to go for it one last time. Also, the backlash wasn't against the Mario movie, it was against the critic reviews for the Mario movie... Which took statements about the overpriced cash grab and Greenpeace commercial that was Way of Water and projected it on a love letter to an existing franchise with every single detail being a reference to Mario history (yes even Peach being competent, see the Nintendo Power comics from the 90s). Hell even the fact that Mario only went through part of the Hero's Journey rather than the whole thing is moot given the fact that they hint (rather strongly I might add) that they plan to make a sequel. Also if you're expecting Shakespeare level writing out of MARIO, I have a bridge to sell you in The Sahara. The only real issue the movie has in my book is that they barely use Luigi at all.
My story is an Elven Ranger that couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. (my roles were so bad) However, I could bank a shot off of something with a penalty to hit, or pick up a rock making it a "improvised Weapon" and take a penalty to hit, and I would land the shot most of the time. lmao. Got into a fight in the middle of a kitchen, kept missing so i said F it, and banked a shot off of pot hanging down and got a critical hit. Later on running from some bandits, i'm in a carriage, and I can't hit them with my bow to save a life, I pick up a rock in the carriage, again improvised weapon, and I hit every time. lmao.
Nope, never said that, Oliver Cromwell was obviously a shitstain - I’m just using a high-profile example of what ‘radical republican’ as a term actually means outside of its current US-politics-relates implications.
The title got alot of people worried Anyway, I've only played DnD like three times because the game was and is sadly not popular in my country but I get the failure aspect There was the one campaign me and my cousins did during the pandemic where shit went wrong right from the get go but we enjoyed the chaos and surprisingly that's the only campaign I've ever finished As for the movie, you've said everything I was thinking so I'll just say that this may be a sort of renaissance of video game adaptation and I hope they succeed Now, we wait for Warhammer 😂
I was very on the fence about watching this movie after waiting a long time to watch the 2000 one... As we say in French, the cat burned by hot water fears cold water. But OKAY I guess I'll give this one a watch =P
Man, this thing barely paid for it's fees! Like - 130% of it's production price. And with Wizards Of The Coast drama... Welp, don't think we'll see any tabletop fantasy rpg blockbusters.
The first thought I had walking out of this movie was that it felt like a good Marvel movie - the kind Marvel has been trying and failing to make in phase 4.
I (respectfully of course) disagree about the characters. I find many of them to be pretty one-note. While I’ll give you that Edgin and Holga did get the most depth, it’s not that deep. Edgin is charming but flawed. Holga is angry because she has no family. The other two of the gang barely have any traits. Simon is a “bad sorcerer”. I will admit his arc is probably my favorite in the movie, but he doesn’t have many traits beside that. And I can’t really think of a single trait from Doric other than that she’s distrusting of humans. This even applies to the villains. I have no idea who the evil witch lady was, and, while he was funny, all of Forge’s depth was gone when he tried to kill Kira. And I think they could have shown more of Holga and Kira interacting to show how she’s like her mother figure. Like it didn’t really hit hard for me because it felt barely set up. That’s just my opinion though. Maybe I missed things about their characters. Maybe I just am expecting too much from this action/adventure movie (which, btw, I did quite like, solid 7/10). Idk.
Ha! Leave a comment mayhap. Mayhaps I will! I do feel the tiefling had the least character development, which is a shame as I really liked her. But yeah, I think it had a pretty simple but effective feel. Plus they had an owlbear, so.... perfect movie no notes
In my opinion, as someone who has never played D&D, it was really funny, great action scenes and special effects, and the characters were actually pretty intelligent. There isn't that issue, or at least less prevalent, where the good guys do stupid things for no reason in order to create tension. So I enjoyed it heavily. That being said, the story was meh. The emotional crux of the film was also meh. It's hard to get emotionally invested when the Bard's backstory is literally joked about in the very opening of the film. I was certain that he was lying completely to get sympathy points because of how casual he was about it, but no. It was all true. Sure, there was a small omission, but joking about your wife's death and abandoning your daughter is not a good way to introduce a character's grief. Surprisingly, the side plot of the Barbarian being left by her husband is far more emotional, until they ruined it at the end by implying somehow she has a fetish for hobbits. The characters are pretty forgettable as well. The actor for the Wizard just reprises his role as the incompetent nerd who gains self confidence and gets the girl in the end. Except with a bad British accent. Seriously, why didn't he use his normal accent? The Druid also decides to get into her entire backstory with a bunch of strangers she just met. Nobody asked for it, she just suddenly did it for some reason. It is just very unnatural and makes you realise you are watching a movie. It is also not great from a storytelling perspective. If they had just sprinkled little bits and pieces of her backstory throughout the movie, it would create genuine interest. Mystery can fuel quite a bit. So that's my opinion. It's incredibly funny with great action scenes and special effects. It is an A- as a comedy, but a B- for story and characters. Still passable, but meh.
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I absolutely LOVED this movie and so did my sister, who had never actually played D&D before but felt interest in checking it out
The idea of a movie about failure not only makes for a compelling thematic arc on its own, but also a subtle “apology” for the 90’s film.
There was a 90s adaptation!?
@@stereokuuji there was a movie that came out in 2000, and 2 sequels that came out shortly after, which is probably what they are talking about
@@Rictavio27 Oh, I didn't even know
I thought this one was the first one
@@stereokuuji this movie isn’t connected to the 2000 D&D movie at all, and the 2000 movie is very bad, you aren’t missing out
Spoken like a true failure😢
This might sound odd, but when watching the movie, I felt like I could see and hear the DM and players at the table. I loved that. I could feel the DM's glee when they were describing this incredibly chonky red dragon that appeared. The paladin felt like a DMPC sent to help the players for part of the journey. I could also perfectly picture this exchange happening between Holga's player (who has made a point to mention how the character loves potatoes and always has them in her inventory) and the DM.
Holga's player: "For my action, I'm going to throw a potato at the guard."
DM: "What."
Holga's player: "I have a potato. I'm gonna throw it."
DM: "Fine, roll for attack."
Holga's player: "NATURAL 20!"
As someone who hasn’t seen the movie or the video yet, this actually makes me really excited and was exactly what I wanted from the movie. I can’t wait to watch it now
the fact that the fucking potato gag happens multiple times in the movie and never grows old is amazing, idk how they did it
YES that's what I thought too - especially the scene where Ed whispers that he hates the Paladin under his breath and the Paladin, with excellent hearing, just smirks - this definitely felt like an exchange between a player and the DM.
Thats great. I haven't seen it yet but that's the feel i got from the trailer. As if someone recorded a random group's D&D game, and threw a hollywood coat on it and presented it "as is"
OMG yes! I could too. I went together with a bunch of roleplaying friends and oh gosh... We had a blast. And we all commented things like this when it finished!! ❤❤
This is also the essence of your standard RPG campaign. The actual goal is far less interesting that all the side quests and dice screwups you have reaching your goal.
I’ve never played dungeons and dragons but watching this film makes me wish my friends weren’t so lame so we can finally get together for a campaign
Why don't you just become the DM for your friend group. That's what I did
Many people, like myself, got our start playing by being the DM for a group of folks that either had no or some experience, and have never looked back.
@@jasonlasica7651 same thing I said bro
I just found an online group to get started. Sometimes being a dm first time you play is very daunting. So online communities are the best. Especially since you're anonymous to an extent.
It's a great movie, because if you watch as someone who doesn't play it works. But if you do play, or listen to people who play in a podcast, you get how well it's done. The absurdly complicated puzzles that the party just completely skip. The light insults and inside gags (like the brain monsters) or even the NPC that the DM seems to really REALLY like using as much as possible. It really did feel like watching a campaign in movie form.
Everytime I saw a screwup in the movie either with the main cast or the jobbers fighting them I heard the imaginary DM cursing on how bad they were rolling.
As someone who's played a wild magic sorcerer and has a penchant for bad rolls, I could feel Simon's pain! Clearly his player rolls a lot of Nat-1s, including during a wild surge. 😆
I played a wizard & snuck into an evil orc city while invisible. Decided to steal from a shop while invisible. Managed to escape after alerting literally every guard to the fact that there was an intruder 😂
this guy gets it
That character is lucky to be alive but he has a story for the ages 😂💯
Ah that joyous time we accidentally entered a dungeon level backwards (still not sure how) and our poor DM had to figure out how all the traps, etc were operated/triggered backwards 😂😂😂
This is perfect, because I always wonder how the bad guy NPCs who live/work in these places get around on a daily basis, like do they have to careful backtrack out of the dungeon on their way home resetting the traps behind them _every day_? 🤣
That happened to us once. We hit the boss fight right away by inadvertently entering a way we weren't supposed to be able to, and bypassed the entire dungeon. Needless to say, that session ended up being very short. 😅
@@TheDelinear They just use the secret entrance(s) :v
One fun bit I realized after watching the movie is that in the beginning, when they’re waiting for the Aaracokra to show up? They were waiting for the last player to show up so the campaign could begin! It’s a cute nod to D&D culture and shows that the writers were truly D&D lovers, not people paid to make a cynical cash grab.
I watched this movie as a group with friends that I play DnD with. I play as a teifling named Yorrik so you can imagine my surprise when the teifling character in this was named Dorrik. Even my friends kept mishearing the character’s name as Yorrik and it became a running gag between our group.
Thanks to this movie our DM wants to make a group of teiflings that all have names that rhyme with Yorrik now
Did anybody else FELT the evil smile of the DM at several points and the rolling of his eyes at others?
The movie was such a breath of fresh air compared to what's been coming out recently, and as someone who is real into the D&D lore there was SO much to be appreciated I love the movie
The overly complicated bridge that doesn't get used cause a party member fs up was really relatable. The movie was worth seeing for the dragon sequence alone
I am so sad the movie wasn't a box office success because it is a very good movie of its kind! It is funny and heartwarming, does a decent job of capturing it's source material and has some decent special effects. Would've loved to see a sequel!
I mean they made break even and a couple more million dollars along the way. I think that's a success in its own right.
I completely agree. I watched this film with my 7 year old son and were frequently in hysterics and came out buzzing and as films like Thor 4 showed it's not easy to make a film that is so fun to watch.
Seems like a middling box office success, tbh. Total cost was 150 million and it grossed about 210 million. A ~35% return on a film isn't that bad, considering the industry average for studio films are in the high 20s.
One thing I love about your Channel is how you explain and discuss pieces of media and bring something new to the topic at hand or explore a new side of things that no one else talks about.
Yeah, I agree he does that really well.
The good thing about this movie is that you can actively see the dice rolls as they happen.
I feel like this movie is this generation’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” good adventurous fun with great characterization, humor, and heart. ❤️
Excellent.
Our party had a few players that were good at rolling with failure. Probably my favourite was a scene where we were trying to deal with a plague. We track its source to some monks holed up in a bar and one of our halflings decides he's going to sneak in the back. He rolls for stealth, fails. A drunken monk comes out at which point our player throws himself into the mud and pretends to be a pig. He fails his roll, but the monk fails by more and turns out to be too drunk to work out what's going on. One failure leads to another and by the end of the scene the hapless guy has managed to convince the monk that he (the monk) is a ghost and probably doesn't need those keys because he is dead. Meanwhile none of the rest of us can breathe for laughing. That character had a knack for telling truly, utterly implausible lies and somehow surviving (which was good because he refused to wear armour and he was armed with a broom).
As someone who's read Discworld, I would fear a small, smiling monk with a broom above all others.
I once play a pyromaniac warlock where my teammates had to keep an eye on me since it was my goal to see to it as many of our problems were solved with fire as I could. They did a decent job of preventing me from burning down things I really shouldn't have
Your character should join our team. We're The Specialists! We are infamous in Phandalin for setting the whoooole place on fire!
@@5Demona5No way! I did the same thing with a misrolled firebolt that was played as a nuclear explosion! Our club advisor who was there for the incident still calls me "Scorched Earth" after all this time
When my friends and I watched the movie there where so many moments that just reflected moments in our own games. This was an absolutely amazing TTRPG movie capturing the crazy plans, the hilarious failures, the bizarre character trait in jokes. Just such a fun movie and if you'd given me the major plot points I'm pretty sure this is exactly how I would have expected the story to go as a DnD game.
Bravo and thanks for the summary of the film's focus on failure! I saw the move last night - in between writing about my own failure - and instantly saw the 'failure' connection which to me was a success. Your video is PERFECT and I took screen shots to use on my blog and will include your link. Hopefully you'll get lots of new subscribers. Btw, I don't play DnD, nor have I ever commented on a TH-cam before.
Glad you liked the video, thank you!
I completely agree, that almost joy of failure comes through really brightly in the film. And it is a joy - I have stories like your assassin's too and they're the ones I share first when people ask me about D&D. And I felt like you could almost feel the dice rolls at certain points of the movie, little moments where the outcome felt controlled by fate and not the characters themselves. Great film and great review too!
I never played D&D, my SO did as a teen and that is how he described watching the movie. He felt they captured what it is like to play a disastrous but fun campaign. He really enjoyed the movie and so did I. It makes me want to join the next time my friends hold a campaign.
They handled it perfectly. It is a movie of a dnd campaign that feels like it's a movie of a dnd campaign. I could practically see the table and each actor playing their character, throwing the dice, and the DM explaining things. It was perfect.
I was so scared that POG made a hate video on one of my favorite movies to come out recently... had to do a double take on that title.
Same here.
Same
I had such a good time with this movie, it pretty much did exactly what I'd hoped it would, which is to say it captured the feel of the game and it managed to pack in lots of jokes, easter eggs and the general silliness of the setting while still feeling like it was coming from a place of genuine love for the material - laughing with it and never at it.
I was having fun with the movie already, but when the perfectly planned... plans kept falling apart and the whole thing kept escalating while they tried to salvage something or fix things on the fly, I thought yes, this isn't just a fantasy movie, it's a D&D movie.
My one and only regret is that the Underdark was kind of a "blink and you'll miss it" aside to the main story, where it feels like it could have been the entire setting for a sequel movie. That whole sequence could have been any large system of caverns, but specifically calling it out as the Underdark kind of makes it feel like they can't really go back to it now without feeling like they're treading the same ground.
Still, it's a tiny regret, and the whole Jarnathan thing more than made up for it. I did _not_ expect that scene to play out how it did XD
I loved this movie! My tabletop role playing group saw this in the theater together. D&D was the first thing we played together. ❤ Then eventually we explored so many other TTRPGs, but D&D has a special place in my heart. I just love hanging out with friends, ordering food, creating characters, and going through the story together.
As a player of D&D, it really did remind me of the game, and how fun it can be, and the sometimes things don’t go according to plan on your adventures. Go with the flow and have fun!
It could be fun to see Pillar of Garbage, and some of his friends (some of whom might also be on TH-cam) stream a new game. D&D has changed its format, but not its base structure, quite a bit since the last time he was playing the game. He could try recreating his assassin to return to that headspace for some nostalgia or try making an entirely new character that is markedly different to explore a different sort of mindset.
I started playing around '77, the boxed set, and played up till the late '90's and have seen all the shows and movies, wishing they would capture the essence of those games. One thing they always lacked was character development. We would sometimes play for hours and never get into a fight, just doing the "downtime" banter and exploring our characters more. It was fun. Even got my ex gf/wife into it and she loved it for years. So, hearing what you've had to say really gives me hope that this one will be the closest to what it use to be like. I'd still be playing today if it weren't for all my stuff getting destroyed in a VA winter storm and well, having people around me that would enjoy it. I will say, it's because of you and this content here that's helped me decide to give it a chance. I'm not expecting it to be perfect, but it sounds better than I was giving it. Thanks for the great breakdown.
I love this movie and how well the scenes and action sequences captured the outcome of a dice roll.
I saw other people say similar things about The Last of Us (having never played it myself) that the show really managed to capture the feeling of the playing & it struck me when you mentioned it here that this is a central aspect of adapting games & why they fail so often. Books are curated by one author for a particular intention that is then given to the reader but games give you more choice and freedom so there's more interplay. An adaption can get the story down but if they don't take into account how players interacted with it then the indescribable yet recognisable 'feeling' that made the game so special is lost, no matter if it's stress from The Last of Us or chaos from DnD
I remember when I was in college I played a Star Wars campaign and our rogue had “disarm” bomb and we were tasked with getting rid of a bomb under a senators platform and he rolled a 1 blowing up the platform with all of us on it. One person survived. It was our first mission.
I can't believe this won out over the Moon Knight retrospective.
It won by a landslide!
The plan with using the staff to sneak into the vault is peak DnD, in my opinion. Confronting an impossible obstacle, and creatively applying a narrowly-tailored item/action for a totally different purpose to sidestep the problem, but also having to account for the fact that it takes a lot of investment and proper execution.
Similarly to the way they beat the boss at the end with a clever merging of items, abilities, and character actions. Ugh, lovely stuff.
It ain't D&D until everything goes pear-shaped.
Your introspection did actually give me the idea what i couldn't explain with words about the movie that wasn't too vague.
"The underage drinking"
Ah, white lightning on a park bench... that takes me back...
I barely knew anything about D&D before this movie, and now I’m watching multiple campaigns on TH-cam because it got me so interested in it😁
I absolutely loved this film. It really did feel like playing D&D. It’s like anytime I hear someone explain a campaign to me.
The movie does sound super interesting and tons of fun
The movie is the definition of a perfectly fun action movie.
guardians of the galaxy, but medieval
@@ptmparizotto-geekzotto I always said that GOG is just a tabletop group.
@@mikaelste-marie1275 indeed
@@mikaelste-marie1275🤔🤔🤔 ya know what?... This makes so much fucking sense
Speaking of finding "success in failure," I like to think that while it (to some) failed in theaters; this movie found some moniker of success in home release.
Same thing happened with The Princess Bride, a movie that ALSO "failed" in the box office but later gained cult status
I would take issue with describing cinema audiences as passive. Viewing involves an active process of interpreting the film, appreciating and being critical of what is on screen and physical activity such as laughing and applause, also sharing the experience with others in the cinema
I take your point, but I do think there’s a significant, if not total, difference in interactivity here that’s worth bearing in mind - especially with regard to the *mediums* rather than the audience/viewing role.
The Recommending Numbers have not abandoned you, they're just late.
Very glad you covered this. Good stuff. Failing forward is indeed the lifeblood of tabletop roleplaying!
Bravo man, way to capture the films’s…ability to capture the feeling of playing DnD. It can be hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t ever played why it’s so fun and engaging to play, but you summarized a large part of it quite nicely.
Mixed reception of Mario? Are you kidding? Didn't it break box office records?
A movie about adapting failure is a perfect title. I once got TPK in the first battle; miscalculation by the DM, streaks of nat 1s from the players and somehow we survived with one guy at 1 HP. That inspired the player to create a bard and warn everyone of the Legendary Party Wipeout Monster: a single Bee. 😂😂😂
I am not surprised that you played a character that wanted to bring the system down, that is so in character for you!
Have not watched the film yet, but now I certainly am even more curious to check it out. Especially since tabletop role-playing games are my favourite hobby, so much so that I work on my own system. And i feel like too many people are afraid of failure in the hobby, which is something I try to remedy with my own system. Which focuses more on tragic tales than winning. I am of course heavily inspired by games like Fiasco which go for a very Coen Brothers film style, and thus also focus on how things go wrong and why that leads to interesting stories.
I loved this film and I agree with you about the characters. I really enjoyed this video!
I 1000% agree with the idea thay the movie captures the feeling of playing D&D, of doing the roleplay AND the getting a nat 1 or nat 20
Great video! Love the content.
Been wiating to watch this video until I could see the film. Finalyl got to see it today. Enjoyed the movie so much, and loved your perspective on it here!
I loved this movie, am a committed DnD player, and was lucky enough to be an extra in the movie! (I did a couple of weeks as a dragon cultist in the scenes flashing back to the battle between them and the barbarians.)
It was great fun, and I was drawing my current campaign character while not filming, and even brought my game dice to set to fill them up with nerd magic!
I think a good rule during character creation is to not make your characters backstory that they're op and good at everything. Even if you min-max your character there's going to be inevitable moments where you fub a roll. The characters I've made that lean into their failings have always been more fun to rp
I'm definitely interested in seeing more game adaptations in the future--except video games that are choice-based with customizeable protagonists; they can never truly be replicated to everyone's desire.
I’d be down for films in those universes. Something to flesh the world or other characters out.
Sounds more like "adopt to either insufficient info and changing situation" which is not bad.
So looking forward to seeing this movie.
D&D: where success isn't guaranteed.
The D&D movie was pretty great and certainly did capture the vibe of a 5th edition campaign, right down to the (mostly) accurate class abiltiies. As far as successful adaptations of a video game go, though... Arcane, anyone?
This was a great video. I was skeptical with the film at first during its announcement, especially with the few attempts of adapting the brand into movies. But when it was released and saw with my D&D buds. We came out smiling even one of my friends who is usually the “serious” person out of the group was very happy with the movie.
I don't pretend to have all the answers for what makes a good adaptation, but I have figured out a few. This video focuses on one of them - keeping the big picture intact (which is where the Starship Troopers and Watchmen movies fail at adaptation - the former reversing the message of its original; the latter giving all the costumed adventurers superhuman abilities). This movie captures the improvisation of D&D (on both sides of the table - you can imagine the ten minute debate over whether the Druid's plan with the Gelatinous Cube would actually work...) as well as the general feeling that, no matter how badly things go, failure can always be renegotiated - there's never a moment when the correct choice is to just give up and accept a loss.
Another key factor in making a good adaptation, which can get lost in nerding out over the fidelity (or otherwise) to the source material, is telling a good story. Stardust makes some pretty big changes from the book, making a better movie even if it tells a subtly different story. I Robot is an example of Hollywood taking a script and slapping an IP on it, but it's not a bad story, and the underlying themes and feel of it are surprisingly Asimovian even if it doesn't line up with any of the individual stories in the anthology.
Finally, the other factor I've identified is paying attention to detail - the more you get the little details right - like using an Owlbear rather than just a Dire Bear or a Grizzly, and show that you actually know and appreciate the source material (using recognisable spells, getting the geography right, not sending the weak and infirm on a week-long trek through what you know to be No Man's Land and potentially infested with enemy patrols when you have a defensible position a fraction of the distance away through territory you still hold, which you're going to relocate to as soon as possible anyway, just so you can have a siege at Helms Deep like happened in the book despite having changed the details that meant it made sense to end up there in the book... Yes, I'm still not over some of Jackson's changes to LotR). The more you show that you actually care about the source material, the more credit audiences will give you when you do make changes.
Great video, and a good analysis of the game and the movie. Nice way to be introduced to your channel. See you in the future, my good sir.
Thank you :)
I love this movis, I wnt to see it again. There were several clever moves that surprised me. I will be buying the DVD!
My favorite D&D failure story is the time I joined a friend's campaign partway through as a novice player. I had built a chaotic good paladin, a follower of the tiny god of her tiny village (based on the legend of Guinefort the hound) who had been exiled as the cost of doing the right thing. Nobody in the party was supposed to know her, her village, or her weird dog god. I got a great entrance, crashing into the party mid-battle and taking down a monster as the tank they'd long been missing right before they all realized I had a puppy inside my jacket. (My god required that I rescue puppies.) And then I walked with them along the forest road to the next challenge, which happened to be a set of flaming letters spelling out a riddle that we had to solve before we progressed.
Unfortunately, the DM was not very good at making up riddles or puzzles, so he had googled something and rolled with it. Doubly unfortunately, I'd had a fourth-grade teacher who would reward us with her large collection of riddles, so I had heard this one before and remembered the answer--in fact, it was so easy for me that I assumed I was missing something. TRIPLY unfortunately, I didn't know how to distinguish between in-character speech and out, so when I muttered the answer under my breath in a "This can't really be right, can it?" tone of voice, everyone took it as my character insta-solving a riddle that would have taken everyone else at the table an hour to suss out. The DM got annoyed that I'd spoiled his challenge, the other players thought he'd slipped me the answer, and I had to speed-retcon my character's backstory to make her childhood include village riddle games. Only one person at the table knew me well enough to realize what had happened, and that person thought it was too funny to tell anyone, so "And did the children of your village have a game for THIS?" became the unofficial battle cry of our party from then on.
I love playing ttrpg with people, you see how dynamics shift and aims change and how a group of 20 somethings who all have characters with very different ideas of what they should be doing all come to a sudden, mutual, unanimous agreement about something, like that no, we're not letting this guy go back into the arena, or similar
I loved this movie
I don't like D&D and I struggle with fantasy in general, but this looks like a genuinely nice outing. I'm definitely going to check it out now.
I really liked this movie it was a fun watch that didn't require a knowledge of the source material.
So far, the only character I've brought from 1 to 20 is a Dragonborn Paladin/Barbarian named Donnar Kimbathull. The worst failure I've ever faced? With an intelligence of 7, I was taking control by a homebrew monster based on the Mayhar from ERB At the Earth's Core series. Mind you: I was a Dragonborn PALADIN/BARBARIAN, the only actual fighter in a party full of casters. It was like a scaly, fire breathing grizzly bear armed with a long sword going up against a gaggle of magic tossing nerds.
Good times.
"Mayhar from ERB" Epic Rap Battles?
@@MrElionor Edgar Rice Burroughs
@@kingsadvisor18
Oh that makes more sense
Great video brother
Justice for my boy Jarnathan
This movie was better than it had any right to be. Really fun.
i've only acutlaly played an rpg once, dm'd a one shot for my lil sister and nephew 3 yrs ago, but I listen/watch a lot of actual play shows and this movie is just perfect in my eyes. it feels like an actual play, like i'm watching it play out like the critical role animated show. it just really is all the little things! Simon being a wild magic sorcerer from a line of wizards, explaining why he's such a shit sorcerer. Edgin "failing" perception and insight checks, tripping the wire or not realizing that the council was gonna pass them before they escaped. Simon taking "real time" to attune the helmet and Doric breaking the wizard's "concentration" on her spells by attacking her. The camera work is so impressive!! the displacer beasts were delightfully horrifying and i loved Forge's dumb ass. the fucking balloons coming back into play by depositing the gold? amazing. I really did like how everyone did seem to care for Edgin's daughter, even Forge in his own messed up way.
He could've abandoned her, but he actually took care of her--albiet with ulterior motives. granted, he did try to kill her later on, but it's established that he's like that with everyone, even those he cares about.
YES AND THE MAGIC!!! it was so fun and imaginative, i loved seeing the finger of death visualized! loved the mage hands and the wildshapes and just plain old magic on screen. bradley cooper as a halfling with a hard on for butch barbairains is something i never knew i wanted. Everyone looks so good, i LOVED the practical effects as well as the CGI! that scene where Simon loses concentration on the Edgin spell and the fake Edgin balloons up and becomes horrifying was so funny. i just really enjoyed this movie, it made me laugh and cry so much
The movie was really good.
I didn't think I was going to watch this, but I trust you.
@Pillar of garbage you were right
As someone who IS a RPG guy, I'm still a bit bitter about Wotc's whole OCL debacle. that being said from what I can tell, the movie is.... Eh it's okay.
lighthearted, pointless, standalone, message-free fun. It was nice.
Honestly the best part of Honor Among Thieves is perhaps Edgin's speech about failure specifically. Hell, it's what actually gets the other party members to go for it one last time.
Also, the backlash wasn't against the Mario movie, it was against the critic reviews for the Mario movie... Which took statements about the overpriced cash grab and Greenpeace commercial that was Way of Water and projected it on a love letter to an existing franchise with every single detail being a reference to Mario history (yes even Peach being competent, see the Nintendo Power comics from the 90s). Hell even the fact that Mario only went through part of the Hero's Journey rather than the whole thing is moot given the fact that they hint (rather strongly I might add) that they plan to make a sequel. Also if you're expecting Shakespeare level writing out of MARIO, I have a bridge to sell you in The Sahara. The only real issue the movie has in my book is that they barely use Luigi at all.
8:41 I mean Doric is hardly a character in the film due to how little screen time or development she gets. 😅
ngl when i saw the title of this video i thought you were calling the new d&d movie a failure in adaptation and i was about to throw hands 😅
My story is an Elven Ranger that couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. (my roles were so bad) However, I could bank a shot off of something with a penalty to hit, or pick up a rock making it a "improvised Weapon" and take a penalty to hit, and I would land the shot most of the time. lmao. Got into a fight in the middle of a kitchen, kept missing so i said F it, and banked a shot off of pot hanging down and got a critical hit. Later on running from some bandits, i'm in a carriage, and I can't hit them with my bow to save a life, I pick up a rock in the carriage, again improvised weapon, and I hit every time. lmao.
Oliver Cromwell style is good? I’m guessing you don’t know about what he did to the Catholics in Ireland. 2:00
Nope, never said that, Oliver Cromwell was obviously a shitstain - I’m just using a high-profile example of what ‘radical republican’ as a term actually means outside of its current US-politics-relates implications.
The title got alot of people worried
Anyway, I've only played DnD like three times because the game was and is sadly not popular in my country but I get the failure aspect
There was the one campaign me and my cousins did during the pandemic where shit went wrong right from the get go but we enjoyed the chaos and surprisingly that's the only campaign I've ever finished
As for the movie, you've said everything I was thinking so I'll just say that this may be a sort of renaissance of video game adaptation and I hope they succeed
Now, we wait for Warhammer 😂
I was very on the fence about watching this movie after waiting a long time to watch the 2000 one... As we say in French, the cat burned by hot water fears cold water. But OKAY I guess I'll give this one a watch =P
Man, this thing barely paid for it's fees! Like - 130% of it's production price. And with Wizards Of The Coast drama...
Welp, don't think we'll see any tabletop fantasy rpg blockbusters.
The first thought I had walking out of this movie was that it felt like a good Marvel movie - the kind Marvel has been trying and failing to make in phase 4.
Wait, has Pillar of Garbage seen Arcane?
Just helping a fella out
i don't have anything insightful to say, other than this is a Good Video, thank you :)
Was not there goin to be a second Warcraft film.....
I was confused,
i didnt play it,
i did play stratigy games though.
I (respectfully of course) disagree about the characters. I find many of them to be pretty one-note. While I’ll give you that Edgin and Holga did get the most depth, it’s not that deep.
Edgin is charming but flawed.
Holga is angry because she has no family.
The other two of the gang barely have any traits. Simon is a “bad sorcerer”. I will admit his arc is probably my favorite in the movie, but he doesn’t have many traits beside that. And I can’t really think of a single trait from Doric other than that she’s distrusting of humans.
This even applies to the villains. I have no idea who the evil witch lady was, and, while he was funny, all of Forge’s depth was gone when he tried to kill Kira.
And I think they could have shown more of Holga and Kira interacting to show how she’s like her mother figure. Like it didn’t really hit hard for me because it felt barely set up.
That’s just my opinion though. Maybe I missed things about their characters. Maybe I just am expecting too much from this action/adventure movie (which, btw, I did quite like, solid 7/10). Idk.
🤷🌕🤺
Other than that, great video!
Ha! Leave a comment mayhap. Mayhaps I will!
I do feel the tiefling had the least character development, which is a shame as I really liked her.
But yeah, I think it had a pretty simple but effective feel. Plus they had an owlbear, so.... perfect movie no notes
In my opinion, as someone who has never played D&D, it was really funny, great action scenes and special effects, and the characters were actually pretty intelligent. There isn't that issue, or at least less prevalent, where the good guys do stupid things for no reason in order to create tension. So I enjoyed it heavily.
That being said, the story was meh. The emotional crux of the film was also meh. It's hard to get emotionally invested when the Bard's backstory is literally joked about in the very opening of the film. I was certain that he was lying completely to get sympathy points because of how casual he was about it, but no. It was all true. Sure, there was a small omission, but joking about your wife's death and abandoning your daughter is not a good way to introduce a character's grief.
Surprisingly, the side plot of the Barbarian being left by her husband is far more emotional, until they ruined it at the end by implying somehow she has a fetish for hobbits.
The characters are pretty forgettable as well. The actor for the Wizard just reprises his role as the incompetent nerd who gains self confidence and gets the girl in the end. Except with a bad British accent. Seriously, why didn't he use his normal accent?
The Druid also decides to get into her entire backstory with a bunch of strangers she just met. Nobody asked for it, she just suddenly did it for some reason. It is just very unnatural and makes you realise you are watching a movie. It is also not great from a storytelling perspective. If they had just sprinkled little bits and pieces of her backstory throughout the movie, it would create genuine interest. Mystery can fuel quite a bit.
So that's my opinion. It's incredibly funny with great action scenes and special effects. It is an A- as a comedy, but a B- for story and characters. Still passable, but meh.
The only people who would complain about the Super Mario film are those who didn't play the games or just don't like fun. We need more fun films.
You can't crit a skill check. Bad DM.
It genuinely weirds me out that people outside of the United States know Marjorie Taylor Greene as anything other than a punchline.
Don't say you ruined the campaign, too many players forget what their character would do because it might kill them