Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God

Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God is a 2005 fantasy film directed by Gerry Lively. It is loosely a straight-to-TV sequel to the 2000 film Dungeons & Dragons, which in turn was based on the popular role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (or D&D). The only returning actor is Bruce Payne reprising his role as the evil Damodar. DVD release was February 7, 2006

Story


Damodar, the henchman of the main villain from the first movie, is back with a vengeance. Reborn as an undead, as a cursed courtesy from his former master, Damodar pursued for a hundred years an evil artifact capable of unleashing unstoppable destruction on Ismir and on the descendants of those who caused his demise. The movie opens as he finally gets his hands on the artifact, a mysterious black orb, frees himself from the undead curse and escapes from the Nine Hells of Baator.

Soon, Ismir is alerted to the rising of this ancient evil. Berek, a fighter and former captain of the king's guard, now a bored minister of the King, and Melora, his wife, a gifted young sorceress, identify the threat as Falazure (the dragon god of darkness, death, decay, evil and undeath) soon enough so that action can be taken. The King asks Berek to assemble a party of experienced adventurers; a group small enough to travel undetected, but strong enough to face powerful enemies. Lux (a barbarian), Dorian (a cleric of Obad-Hai), Ormaline (an elven wizard), and Nim (a rogue) join the former captain of the king's guard.

Fan service
Unlike the first movie, which could be considered medium-budget, this is a low-budget production with unknown actors (the most notorious one being Bruce Payne as Damodar). Also unlike the first movie, many details from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game have been included. The equipment of the adventurers are items which avid gamers will probably recognize (e.g. gem of true seeing, flask of purple worm acid, keen sword, ring of the ram, staff of lightning, hammer of smiting).

The villains have also been designed closely to the D&D canon. As part of the beastiary, one can find an aggressive white dragon, darkmantles, spectres, and a lich. Special mention must be given to Klaxx the Malign (the lich), who is behaving how a lich should according to common D&D behavior -- staying close to the action for a potential piece of power or knowledge to grab, but not exactly taking any risk. There were also dead drow hanging from the ceiling and whose blood was used for Damodar's "dinner". Juiblex was also mentioned, but the demon lord wasn't actually in the film.

The spells cast by wizards are accurate renditions of the ones from the roleplaying game, namely that spells are not cast at will, but must first be memorized and in limited amounts.

There is also a number of references to classic D&D modules (Castle Inverness, the Barrier Peaks, etc.) in the script.

Of especial note is the commentary track which is composed of "Lidda," "Krusk," and "Jozan" (iconic characters from the current D&D ruleset) quipping upon the action on the screen.

Reactions
Despite the film's increased attention to its source material (To the point that numerous illustrations from the D&D core rulebooks were used in the film) it still met with poor reviews due to what most agree is amateurish writing, although the questionable special effects and poor acting likely contributed as well. Despite this, it is still considerably higher-quality than average for a Sci Fi Pictures original film.

As of April 2006, the Internet Movie Database rating for the film is a fairly dismal 5.0 (on a scale of 1 to 10), compared to the mere 3.7 given to its predecessor. Viewer comments tend to be agree that the second film was the better-written and conceived of the two, but brought down by lackluster made-for-TV production values.