This feels similar to James Gunn's Guardians, an action-adventure-fantasy-comedy about a bunch of likable misfits who end up as reluctant heroes trying to save the day between a quip and a fight scene.
It's an entertaining movie, smartly cast with a group of interesting actors selling their roles, with solid effects and fun set-pieces; a couple of those are fairly clever and novel, like a heist involving a magic portal and a druid morphing into different animals while trying to escape her pursuers.
As an old D&D nerd I felt knowledge of the source material provided fun Easter eggs (every creature and spell is recognizable, and they look great) but was absolutely not necessary to enjoy the film.
Like most blockbusters today, this could have been leaner - although to be fair it is not as obscenely bloated as many others. The second act in particular devotes a lot of time to retrieving a magical item which, without major spoilers, does not turn out to be that useful.
The highlight is an Edgar Wright-esque "talk to the corpses" sequence where the heroes cast a spell to gain informations from a group of warriors killed in battle: it's by far the funniest thing in the movie.
Still, I did chuckle fairly often and enjoyed the characters and tone, so that's something. It's a likable flick.
8/10.
It's an entertaining movie, smartly cast with a group of interesting actors selling their roles, with solid effects and fun set-pieces; a couple of those are fairly clever and novel, like a heist involving a magic portal and a druid morphing into different animals while trying to escape her pursuers.
As an old D&D nerd I felt knowledge of the source material provided fun Easter eggs (every creature and spell is recognizable, and they look great) but was absolutely not necessary to enjoy the film.
Like most blockbusters today, this could have been leaner - although to be fair it is not as obscenely bloated as many others. The second act in particular devotes a lot of time to retrieving a magical item which, without major spoilers, does not turn out to be that useful.
The highlight is an Edgar Wright-esque "talk to the corpses" sequence where the heroes cast a spell to gain informations from a group of warriors killed in battle: it's by far the funniest thing in the movie.
Still, I did chuckle fairly often and enjoyed the characters and tone, so that's something. It's a likable flick.
8/10.