Saw this last night and had an absolute blast with it. It was cool seeing all the little Easter Eggs that Forgotten Realms fans like myself could enjoy, while still being mainstream enough that people who know nothing about the D&D world could still get it. Pine, Rodriguez, Page, Smith and Grant were the standouts for me. The effects were great; they looked a lot better in the movie than they did in the trailers. The fight choreography was also really awesome; Holga has a lot of great fight scenes, and Xenk vs. the Thayens was rad. I hope the streaming numbers are good so that we will hopefully see more of Faerun in live action.
A few nitpicks…
I wish they had made Pine’s character a bit more competent simply because it would have made him more consistent. I know he’s supposed to be the weakest one in the group, but at the beginning, we learn he’s part of this secret badass group of knights but apparently he never really learned to fight with anything other than his lute? Maybe if they had made it clear that the lute was magically indestructible then him using it as a weapon would have made more sense but I kept thinking, “Dude, pick up a sword already!”
Sophia Lillis’ character felt a little dull to me. Her powers were really cool but I wish they had given her a bit more personality. I don’t fault her; she’s typically great in stuff. I just think they didn’t write her very well.
I wanted Page to return for a “Han Solo” scene during the final battle and help out the rest of the heroes. Love his character and the banter he had with Pine. Hopefully if there is a sequel, he’ll have a bigger role.
