This movie is amazing! It takes the timeless magic and storytelling of the D&D universe, and puts it through a simillar spin to the new game, "Castlevania, Lords of Shadow 2" By which I mean, urbanization. The explanation of magic decaying and becoming both more focused, and darker. It brings magical adventures out of the golden age of heroism of yore, and into a darker age, based on the world's ACTUAL history! (Loosely).
It then takes events into the future, to modern day, and at NO POINT, do you ever lose the thread. The plot moves in a nice flowing story, branching in little pieces of events that I really would love to have seen, but are simply good enough for back story here. (Though if they make a prequel, the rise of the Witch Queen's armies of Dream walkers and the like would be amazing. I'm imagining a Inception/Van Helsing crossover ???)
The characters were well thought out and deliciously fantastic to see come to life. It's said that Culder is actually Vin Diesel's Real Life D&D character from their games they hosted, while on the sets of the Fast & the Furious films. If that's true, I both wonder if those games shared this darker age, type of story, and whether or not Gary Gygax has seen this, and would like to make this the next cannon age for the D&D universe!!
For all those who love fantasy films, this one both came, and went out of theaters pretty quickly. I actually managed to see it in either Imax 3D or 3D in my local one at the time. This movie is so cool, I had to own it though. As I was saying, for all TRUE fantasy fans, this film does a really excellent job of bringing the magic out of the mid-evil era, and into the modern day. And even though I wish Michael Caine had a bigger role, his lines are inevitably, all fantastic! Vin Diesel does a wonderful job of making you believe his character has really walked through the ages. This one is sure to be added to your collections!!!