I'm never too sure of what I'm going to get when I watch a low-budget, indie effort. Mostly they just seem to be terrible rip-offs of more heavily-funded, mainstream movies, but with poor scripts, dialogue and effects. Asylum....I'm looking at you.
So it was with some surprise that I started watching this and realised it wasn't half-bad.
Now, I admit, sometimes the acting is a bit ropey, and the effects are, at times, clearly sub-par. However, this movie, and the ones that followed it, have one thing which is absolutely essential for such low budget films to gain any traction. A decent script.
Again, I'll admit, the script is hardly original, but where it shines is in the character interactions. The characters themselves are stereotypical D&D class cut-outs, but there is enough background and charm added to them by the script and actors that they work quite nicely in the context of the story.
That story - about a search for a Lich's heart in order to stop it falling into the hands of an evil necromancer - will be something that will feel immediately familiar to anyone that has played D&D, or indeed any fantasy RPG in the last thirty years. In fact, the whole series seems like an affectionate homage to the genre and it works quite nicely at that level.
The acting is variable, but serviceable, though in some of the later movies, a few of the lesser villains do go into full ham mode (I'm looking at you - airship captain!) The overall tone though, is far better than the budget would suggest.
The effects are serviceable and, whilst poor by modern CGI standards, are sufficient to get the job done. We tend to forget, in our current era where anything can be realistically rendered on-screen, that we watched movies with far less convincing effects back in the 60's and 70's and never batted an eyelid at the jerky stop-motion, or terrible rotoscoping. Such things were part of the charm of the movie back then and this is how the effects in enthusiastic, low-budget movies should be viewed today - as part of the movie's character.
Practical and make-up effects are also quite good in this movie and the costumes are not as "Hercules" as you might think, especially given the presence of Kevin Sorbo.
One stand out is the music. The films have been given a really good soundtrack and a couple of nice songs, one of which "Tell Me" which plays out over the end credits to Darkspore, is absolutely superb. It is definitely the series' strongest point.
Where the movies greatest asset lies, is in the fact that it never takes itself too seriously. I see some comments that compare it to the Lord of the Rings, which is just risible. There is plenty of humour in the story and the character dynamics that make it thoroughly entertaining to watch. Backgrounds are fleshed out enough to make the characters believable and events in one movie carry over to the next, if applicable.
In short, the sum of its good parts outweighs the negatives by a good margin. It has a slightly quirky style that won't appeal to everyone and which put me in mind of certain TV shows like Lexx, or Farscape.
Finally, the best praise I can muster for the films is this: I'd happily watch more, if they produced them, or better yet, a web series of some sort, which I think the D&Dish nature of the movies would support quite nicely.
SUMMARY: A decent script, not taking itself too seriously and plenty of humour all elevate this set of films above the usual low-budget dreck that often gets made. If you like D&D, this is for you.
So it was with some surprise that I started watching this and realised it wasn't half-bad.
Now, I admit, sometimes the acting is a bit ropey, and the effects are, at times, clearly sub-par. However, this movie, and the ones that followed it, have one thing which is absolutely essential for such low budget films to gain any traction. A decent script.
Again, I'll admit, the script is hardly original, but where it shines is in the character interactions. The characters themselves are stereotypical D&D class cut-outs, but there is enough background and charm added to them by the script and actors that they work quite nicely in the context of the story.
That story - about a search for a Lich's heart in order to stop it falling into the hands of an evil necromancer - will be something that will feel immediately familiar to anyone that has played D&D, or indeed any fantasy RPG in the last thirty years. In fact, the whole series seems like an affectionate homage to the genre and it works quite nicely at that level.
The acting is variable, but serviceable, though in some of the later movies, a few of the lesser villains do go into full ham mode (I'm looking at you - airship captain!) The overall tone though, is far better than the budget would suggest.
The effects are serviceable and, whilst poor by modern CGI standards, are sufficient to get the job done. We tend to forget, in our current era where anything can be realistically rendered on-screen, that we watched movies with far less convincing effects back in the 60's and 70's and never batted an eyelid at the jerky stop-motion, or terrible rotoscoping. Such things were part of the charm of the movie back then and this is how the effects in enthusiastic, low-budget movies should be viewed today - as part of the movie's character.
Practical and make-up effects are also quite good in this movie and the costumes are not as "Hercules" as you might think, especially given the presence of Kevin Sorbo.
One stand out is the music. The films have been given a really good soundtrack and a couple of nice songs, one of which "Tell Me" which plays out over the end credits to Darkspore, is absolutely superb. It is definitely the series' strongest point.
Where the movies greatest asset lies, is in the fact that it never takes itself too seriously. I see some comments that compare it to the Lord of the Rings, which is just risible. There is plenty of humour in the story and the character dynamics that make it thoroughly entertaining to watch. Backgrounds are fleshed out enough to make the characters believable and events in one movie carry over to the next, if applicable.
In short, the sum of its good parts outweighs the negatives by a good margin. It has a slightly quirky style that won't appeal to everyone and which put me in mind of certain TV shows like Lexx, or Farscape.
Finally, the best praise I can muster for the films is this: I'd happily watch more, if they produced them, or better yet, a web series of some sort, which I think the D&Dish nature of the movies would support quite nicely.
SUMMARY: A decent script, not taking itself too seriously and plenty of humour all elevate this set of films above the usual low-budget dreck that often gets made. If you like D&D, this is for you.