What I liked:
The obvious passion to make this movie, and the script feels much more cohesive than the first one. Some of the jokes are surprisingly funny, but a lot is kinda cheesy.
The acting is hit and miss, with the, I guess you'd say, antagonistic player, being by far the one who gives the best delivery. In the 3rd movie, he ended up being the protagonist, and I feel like that's due to his acting ability.
It's clearly made by people who play RPGs, and it's not a jab at gaming by any means. If anything, it's a very accurate of the people who do game, or at least, who were gaming back in 2008 (before it became more pop culture);.
What I disliked: This is going to sound weird to say, especially since it's mostly a comedic movie, but they tried to address a real gaming issue in a serious manner, and that is the 'should a DM keep the player on rails' issue.
Here, they clearly advocate for doing so, by making the players unreasonably hard to manage. Gamers will understand this critique here - the DM has a "DMPC", who is a Paladin, who polices the group, and that's shown in a positive light.
Non-gamers won't even care, but people who have played D&D know why that should never fly. That, and the DMPC is very pivotal in decisions being made by the party, and again, THAT aspect is not about comedy, it's about controlling unruly players.
So if you have someone who wants to DM, and they love this movie, watch out.
Other than that, typical low budget problems, like the soundtrack possibly being public domain music, or generic enough to feel like it.
Verdict: If you played D&D back in the 2000s, or before, you'll absolutely relate to the tabletop scenes. The actual 'in game' stuff feels super cheap, like rough cosplay cheap, but that's to be expected. I think gamers will get a kick out of it, and non-gamers will probably find it super boring, since it's pretty much made for gamers.
The acting is hit and miss, with the, I guess you'd say, antagonistic player, being by far the one who gives the best delivery. In the 3rd movie, he ended up being the protagonist, and I feel like that's due to his acting ability.
It's clearly made by people who play RPGs, and it's not a jab at gaming by any means. If anything, it's a very accurate of the people who do game, or at least, who were gaming back in 2008 (before it became more pop culture);.
What I disliked: This is going to sound weird to say, especially since it's mostly a comedic movie, but they tried to address a real gaming issue in a serious manner, and that is the 'should a DM keep the player on rails' issue.
Here, they clearly advocate for doing so, by making the players unreasonably hard to manage. Gamers will understand this critique here - the DM has a "DMPC", who is a Paladin, who polices the group, and that's shown in a positive light.
Non-gamers won't even care, but people who have played D&D know why that should never fly. That, and the DMPC is very pivotal in decisions being made by the party, and again, THAT aspect is not about comedy, it's about controlling unruly players.
So if you have someone who wants to DM, and they love this movie, watch out.
Other than that, typical low budget problems, like the soundtrack possibly being public domain music, or generic enough to feel like it.
Verdict: If you played D&D back in the 2000s, or before, you'll absolutely relate to the tabletop scenes. The actual 'in game' stuff feels super cheap, like rough cosplay cheap, but that's to be expected. I think gamers will get a kick out of it, and non-gamers will probably find it super boring, since it's pretty much made for gamers.