7/10
This was a fun movie & with very few exceptions they stuck to the rule of ‘Show, Don’t Tell’.
The cast all seemed to be having fun with their roles. Chris Pine was your archetypical smooth talking Bard Edgin. Michelle Rodriguez was having fun kicking all the ass as the Barbarian Holga. Justice Smith had a fun arc as a Simon the wild magic Sorcerer. Sophia Lillis was great as the Tiefling Druid Doric. Regé-Jean Page was delightful as the Paladin Xenk. Hugh Grant seemed to be almost giddy playing the rogue-ish Forge. Finally, Daisy Head was good as the Wizard Sofina.
The movie has some fun cameos & is absolutely piled high with inside jokes for fans of the Forgotten Realms setting in D&D. But even if you’re not a big D&D person you can follow the story easily & have a good time. There’s a lot of good chemistry between the cast members & it feels like they had a pretty good script to work from. The effects are good with a couple really great ones, but they are there to dress up the scenes, not be the star.
Based on my past experiences with folks trying to bring this property to the screen, I was fully prepared to be thoroughly disappointed. I’m glad I was wrong.
Will this win awards? Probably not. Will it be an enjoyable 2 hours? I certainly think so.
There is 1 mid credits scene that’s funny, but nothing to build a sequel off of.
