Fans of Dungeons & Dragons have several movies and TV shows geared around the D&D property to enjoy, but few match up to the fun of playing the games. However, a 10-year-old fantasy movie trending on Netflix offers everything fans of the role-playing game could want. Several movies like Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves directly adapt the game, while TV shows like Stranger Things also owe a heavy debt to the popular game franchise.
However, there is also a movie that is actually based on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and it stars one of Hollywood’s most popular action movie stars. Directed by Breck Eisner, The Last Witch Hunter stars Vin Diesel as Kaulder, a former member of a band of knights who kills an evil Witch Queen, but ends up cursed with eternal life. Now living in the present day, he is a witch hunter and sets out to prevent a war between humans and witches. It is a perfect movie for any Dungeons & Dragons fans looking for something entertaining to watch.
The Last Witch Hunter Is Underrated As A Dungeons & Dragons Movie
The Last Witch Hunter Is Based On A D&D Campaign
The Last Witch Hunter wasn’t a big hit when it was released in 2015. Fans love Vin Diesel in the Fast & Furious films, and he has a strong fan base surrounding his Riddick character. However, he has seen more misses when moving away from those franchises. With The Last Witch Hunter, Diesel saw one of his better releases, but it still only made $146.9 million on a budget of $90 million (via Box Office Mojo). However, its 18% Rotten Tomatoes score makes most fans look down on the film.
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The Last Witch Hunter is much better than critics made it out to be, especially for Dungeons & Dragons fans. The audience score is still “rotten” at 44%, but that is much higher than what critics awarded it. When looking at the critics who praised the film, terms like “silly” and “mindless” were used, but in a positive manner. The critics who loved it admit it is a bad movie, but one that is a lot of fun. It is also perfect for D&D fans who understand that the entire film is similar to a massive campaign.
The movie is based on Vin Diesel’s Dungeons & Dragons game character.
That is because the movie is based on Vin Diesel’s Dungeons & Dragons game character, who was originally named Melkor (a name he got from The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien). There was even a video on the Geek & Sundry channel that showed Diesel sitting down to play D&D with the team, and his character was Kaulder, the Witch Hunter (Level 8).
In an interview with Screen Rant, Diesel talked about his love for making the movie:
“If you would’ve told that 17-year-old kid playing Dungeons & Dragons that one day that piece of graph paper with chicken scratch on it and a really pathetic portrait of a – take your pick, a ranger or a magic user or whatever – was going to have a movie like this made, I would’ve thought you were crazy. It’s kind of crazy. It’s kind of insane.”
The Last Witch Hunter Is Easier To Enjoy If You Already Love D&D
There Are Plenty Of D&D Easter Eggs
One of the problems with the reviews is that the majority of film critics know little about things like Dungeons & Dragons. That gives little reference when seeing things happening in the story that might not make sense otherwise. There are reasons to dislike the movie, with the dialogue and over-reliance on voice-over exposition hurting the pacing. However, for Dungeons & Dragons fans, there is a lot based on the game that allows plenty of Easter eggs for them to discover.
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However, this hurts the mainstream audiences, which explains the extremely low Rotten Tomatoes and audience scores. Even with the Easter eggs and fun callbacks to Dungeons & Dragons, the truth is that The Last Witch Hunter has plenty of problems. However, it is nowhere near as bad as its low score might indicate. It is definitely a movie that fans of D&D should seek out to watch at least once.
Source: Box Office Mojo
