Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God (2005)

You want Dungeons and Dragons? You got it.

RELEASD TO TV IN 2005 and directed by Gerry Lively, "Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God" amasses a good group of protagonists who seek to find some magical black orb and save their kingdom, Ismir, from the wrath of a malevolent dragon slumbering in a nearby mountain. This involves an evil wizard, Damodar, played by Bruce Payne, who is the only one to return from the first D&D film from 2000.

I liked the whole adventure-quest aspect of the story and the colorful group of characters who join together to defeat the wizard and save the kingdom: A noble ex-knight statesman (Mark Dymond), a cleric (Steven Elder), a rogue (Tim Stern), a hot warrior woman (Ellie Chidzey) and an elf girl mage (Lucy Gaskell). The stunning Clemency Burton-Hill is also on hand as the nobleman's wife who does her part to help save Ismir. The towering Chidzey (5’11”) is nice & curvy rather than unappealingly thin, like the stereotypical model.

Although I've never played Dungeons & Dragons, I read one of the books years ago and numerous others from the sword & sorcery genre, especially Conan, Gor and ERB, not to mention numerous sword & sorcery flicks (some being sword & NO sorcery, like "First Knight" and "King Arthur," lol). Anyway, this second “Dungeons & Dragon” movie works just good enough for me to give it a decent grade. Although it was relatively low-budget (I’m actually surprised it cost $15 million) it's generally superior to the typical Syfy fare and thoroughly austere compared to the campy first film. I liked how the writers actually threw in some nice character bits, like the developing friendship/respect of the rogue and the barbarian. They should've included more.

"Dungeons & Dragons" is a fitting title because you get your fill of both. There are numerous dungeon scenes with torches and secret passageways, as well as two impressive dragon sequences, one featuring an ice dragon and another with the mountain dragon who looks like Satan himself. On top of this you get some quality forest locations and Medieval sets.

THE FILM RUNS 105 minutes was shot in Lithuania. WRITERS: Robert Kimmel, Lively (the director) and Brian Rudnick.

GRADE: B-