Posts Tagged ‘Gamers: Dorkness Rising’

Last weekend I finally signed up for Netflix. Soon after, a friend suggested I watch a movie on their instant queue called ‘The Gamers: Dorkness Rising’. The premise sounded good, so I gave it 105 minutes of my time.

Now, this was a 2008 straight to video movie, but I feel compelled to give you my review of it.

First, the premise- Kevin Lodge wants his gaming group to finish their D&D adventure, but they’re more interested in seducing barmaids, mooning their enemies, and setting random villagers on fire. Desperate to rein in his players, Lodge adds two characters into the mix: a non-player character controlled by Lodge, and a newbie, and, as the press reads, ‘the rarest gamer of all — a girl!’

The movie itself was pretty clunky. It missed on the opportunity to have the newbie girl bring order to the chaos. The DM tries to micromanage his world, and despite advice to let it unfold naturally, he adds a character of his own, to try and guide his players. The girl, Joanna, is the ex-girlfriend of Cass, a rulebook know-it-all who is determined to beat this quest, despite being horribly inept. The seeds are sewn for her to usurp Cass, as she comes to the table with a character she created. Much to the surprise of the other gamers, her fighter is successful. However, her character never seems to deliver. Eventually the crew does finish the quest, but the ending is quite unsatisfying.

There are some good bits to this movie though, especially for gamers. One is where the character of the bard keeps getting killed, and replaced by a stack of replacement bards his gamer created. For this, it gives one a good aspect of how surreal the playing of D&D is.

A good editor could easily have made this a more flowing adventure, albeit a much shorter movie. If you have a Netflix account, or can find this for rent somewhere, it has it’s moments.