D&D Trailer

hubersan writes "The new trailer is up at http://www.seednd.com Oh MAN. Lotsa nice CG.." I suppose it would be rude to link directly to an Akamai URL, so I won't do it. Quicktime, naturally. Conscience strikes: should I see this movie and give my money to Time-Warner? Update: 10/26 6:09 PM by michael : Sadly, we've been asked to take down the direct link to the file.

Comments

Re:Conscience?

[MAXOMENOS]

Lawful Good: Pay to watch the movie. Buy a copy on tape or DVD for the family.

Another take on it:

• Lawful Good: Doesn't see the movie, as tempting as it may be, because s/he knows that that money is going to trample on our rights
• Lawful Neutral: Hunt down counterfeiters on the Web and turn them in to the MPAA
• Lawful Evil: Work for the MPAA, on their legal team.
• Neutral Good: Figure out what's worse: not seeing the movie and possibly harming the role-playing-game genre as far as the corporate public goes, or seeing the movie and paying the MPAA to trample on your rights. Go with your conscience.
• True Neutral: See the flick. Or don't see the flick. Depends on your tastes.
• Neutral Evil: Work for a major movie studio as an advertising executive.
• Chaotic Good: If you must see the movie, sneak in. If the cops hassle you about it, explain that it's a political protest.
• Chaotic Neutral: Buy movie ticket, eat it. Beat up usher with a trout.
• Chaotic Evil: Become a prodcer.

But that's just me.

fearbush.com

Re:Give money to T-W

[Stonehand]

ISTR it was Tactical Studies Rules, oddly enough. But I've not cracked open a TSR product for quite some time...

Re:Semi-Official site with good info

[Delirium Tremens]

So why don't they fix it and release the final trailer?
Don't tell us they are still working on it 6 weeks from the release date on December 8th...

Knights of the Dinner Table

[veldrane]

Well, if there is enough support, we could have a full length feature film of "Knights of the Dinner Table" by the end of 2001.

-Vel

Re:CG?

[Pxtl]

I believe it was Dragon magazine that said, and I quote:

"Do not trifle with dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

Yes, I know its a Tolkein spoof.

Re:hmmm

[startled]

It is flamebait. This whole thread, starting with the top level that's been moderated up for no good reason, is a stupid bit of offtopic flamebait. "Oh, /. is so hypocritical. They say boycott the MPAA and then see geek movies." There's nothing constructive in that post, there's nothing even interesting. Yes, there are many people posting to /., and some of them have different opinions from each other.

If you want to actually display hypocrisy, you'll have to find the SAME PERSON saying opposite things. And even then-- who cares? Simply pointing out hypocrisy is a pointless kid's game. Identifying real issues and finding solutions is something that's actually worthwhile. Yes, we're all upset with the MPAA. But we're also very interested in their product. Are we dedicated enough to boycott? Or perhaps there's a way to hurt the MPAA without a boycott? Is there an idealistic conflict here, or not?

Re:Semi-Official site with good info

[ChaosDiscord]

The comment about the trailer being "unfinished" and "unauthorized" refers to the French trailer released some time ago. This is the honest to god real theatrical trailer.

Re:Simple.

[Twid]

>Every time you see an $8 TW movie, send $16 to
>the EFF. That's $24 a movie, so it will make you
>evaluate what you see more critically.

I really like the concept of this. This isn't unlike some of the ideas to use services like PayPal to compensate music artists (long /. discussion here.)

In a way, this is kind of a self-tax, where you get to decide where your tax money goes to. This is a neat idea! Worried about polluting the earth, but you have a long commute? Give 50 cents a gallon for every gallon of gas you use to your favority charity. This is a really interesting concept, thanks for sharing...

By the way, the link to donate to the eff using paypal is here.

-Twid

Re:A stroke of originality!

[Janthkin]

And then they thought, "You know what this trailer needs? Orff's Carmina Burana!"

But don't you see? Carmina Burana makes EVERYTHING better!!!!

Re:A little let down

[pyros]

Here you go

--

Re:Well, hell Slashdot..

[Quarters]

X-Men was a Fox release.

Re:money to TW? nah

[cheezus]

um yeah... if people start bringing dates over to their houses to watch a low quality recording on a 17" monitor, the movie industry is is *serious* trouble

---

MPAA boycot rules/ideas

[tolldog]

You know that not all videos that are released to theatres are from members of the MPAA. And that sometimes they use the big boys for distribution... so it looks like an MPAA movie.
If a serious boycot was done, it could end up hurting the smaller, independent studios, the ones that need our support. Is giving a few cents to an evil empire so bad that you don't want to help those small rebel forces trying to make good film?

I suggest that before you decide to boycot a movie, look at who is producing the movie, not who is distributing it and base the decision on that.

As sort of an analogy...
I was a paper boy once. The paper had an editorial cartoon that offended the local Unions in our town. The union then boycotted the paper. But, the union, in all fairness, suggested that those that recieved delivery to still tip the paper carier (and maybe a little extra because we got payed per paper) to prevent a loss of revenue to the little guy.

We should all follow this idea.

Re:A little let down

[Johnny00]

Try watching 'Summoner Geeks' at iFilm.
That should be exactly what your looking for.

More than a couple:

[NathanielPRobbins]

The "Freeway Killer," Vernon Butts, who committed suicide in his cell in 1987 while being held as a suspect in a string of murders was an avid D&D player.

D&D player (14 years old) commits suicide by hanging, 1979, name withheld by parents' request.

D&D player (17 years old) Michael Dempsey, Lynnwood, WA. suicide by gunshot wound to the head, 5/19/81. Witnesses saw him trying to summon up D&D demons just minutes before his death.

D&D player (? years old) Steve Loyacano, Castle Rock, CO., suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, 10/14/82. Police report satanic writings and a suicide note liked the death to D&D.

D&D player (21 years old) Timothy Grice, Lafayette, CO., suicide by shotgun blast, 1/17/83. Detective reports noted, "D&D became a reality. He thought he was not constrained to this life, but could leave [it] and return because of the game."

D&D player (18 years old) Harold T. Collins, Marion, OH., suicide by hanging, 4/29/83. Collins was noted to be "possessed" by D&D as if he were living the game.

D&D player (16 years old) Daniel Erwin, Lafayette, CO., murder by brother's shotgun blast to head, 11/2/84 (right after Halloween). Death was apparently the result of a death pact as part of the game.

D&D player (12 years old) Steve Erwin (see above) suicide by gunshot, 11/2/84. Detective report: "No doubt D&D cost them their lives."

D&D player (no age given) Joseph Malin, Salt Lake City, UT., pled guilty to first degree murder 3/2/88 and was sentenced to life in prison. He killed a 13 years old girl while acting out the fantasy-role game. The girl had been raped, her throat cut, and she had been stabbed twice in the chest. Police said his "violent urges were fed by 'extreme involvement in the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.'"

D&D player (14 years old) Sean Sellers was convicted of killing his parents and a convenience store clerk in Greeley, Oklahoma (1/11/87). He is the youngest inmate of death row in the country as of this writing (22 now). His involvement in hard-core Satanism began with D&D, according to his own testimony. Praise the Lord, he is now a Born Again Christian!

D&D player (14 years old) Tom Sullivan, Jr. got into Satanism and ended up stabbing his mother to death, arranging a ritual circle (from D&D) in the middle of the living room floor and lit a fire in its midst. Fortunately, his dad and little brother were awakened by a smoke detector; but by then, Tom, Jr. had slashed his wrists and throat with his Boy Scout knife and died in the snow in a neighbor's yard.(1/19/88, Amarillo, TX.)

Re:More than a couple:

[Alan]

So a straight cut/paste from http://www.chick.com/articles/dnd.asp
. A good christian web page. I'm sure that they aren't biased or anything right? Maybe some real news sources would make me belive your claims a little more readily.

I know in my few times playing D&D I haven't summoned any devils nor have I done anything but cursed at rolling a 12 when I needed 14.

Re:More than a couple:

[scowling]

Um, the thing is, when you look at the number of RPG players (or even solely the number of D&D players) and count the number of violent crimes perpetrated by them, you find that these game players are, in fact, only 10% as likely to commit a violent crime as the general population.

On the other hand, football players are more likely to commit violent crimes, as much as ten times as likely as the general population.

Hence, football players are one hundred times as dangerous to society as D&D players.

I wish I had a link to the appropriate stats. I know they're out there; I hope someone finds and posts the link.

And, Nathaniel, every single one of your cited sources is spurious at best and a full-on lie at worst.
--

Re:More than a couple:

[Alien54]

Shall we make a list of all suicides by Christians each year?

and compare the percentages?

What are the odds that a) it's a wash, or b) the percentages are the wrong way?

Re:More than a couple:

[Myddrin]

Gee, compare that to the number
of Christians that died/commited
suicide at Jonestown.
Does that prove that Christianity(sp? sorry,
I'm not Christian) is eeeeveeel? No, it proves that in any large group
there will be a mentally unstable
sub-group that may do things the
larger group will call reprehensible.

BTW, do you have references for all
of those deaths? Newspaper articles, anything?
I'd be interested in seeing how avid they really were.
---
RobK

Re:More than a couple:

[kubrick]

D&D player (14 years old) Sean Sellers was convicted of killing his parents and a convenience store clerk in Greeley, Oklahoma (1/11/87). He is the youngest inmate of death row in the country as of this writing (22 now). His involvement in hard-core Satanism began with D&D, according to his own testimony. Praise the Lord, he is now a Born Again Christian!

I agree, it can happen. There are mentally ill kids all over.

...and what makes him mentally ill -- murdering three people or being a born-again Christian?

Sick, I know, but when I read this part that's how it scanned to me... I'm agnostic :)

Re:More than a couple:

[izzylobo]

ooooo!

A whole *11* people!

Sparky, D&D 3rd edition Players Handbook has sold literally *hundreds of thousands* of copies since it was released... three months ago.

Dungeons and Dragons has been in print since the 1970s. In that time, it has literally sold millions of copies, in dozens of languages (okay, probably only a dozen languages).

Wanna try to get a bigger number?

Because quite frankly, more people die because of water every year (hell, every month than you can "prove" (and "allege" is probably too strong a word, really... correlation is not causation, first off) "died because of Dungeons & Dragons"

But I'll stop confusing you with the facts, since you clearly have your mind made up.

Scott Taylor

Re:More than a couple:

[CaseyB]

The logical response to this would be to post all those suicides and murders that were motivated by Christianity.

But I doubt that slashdot has enough storage.

Re:More than a couple:

[Fujisawa Sensei]

I just noticed that you didn't list any D&D realted deaths since 1988, those are pretty good odds by any standards.

Since your really good with numbers, how many nerds have been killed in the bast 30 years by bullying?

How many people are killed each year in the name of God?

Re:More than a couple:

[Myddrin]

How the _hell_ is this
off topic? I was directly
responding to the arguements
the guy put forward.

It's too late now(no one is reading
this thread) but that is pure
unabashed bullshit.
---
RobK

Re:More than a couple:

[Harlequin]

Well, lets see here:

The "Freeway Killer," Vernon Butts, who committed suicide in his cell in 1987 while being held as a suspect in a string of murders was an avid D&D player.

D&D player (14 years old) commits suicide by hanging, 1979, name withheld by parents' request.

Ok, being d&d players doesn't mean that dungeons and dragons played a causal role in their acts (as others have noted). It just means they played d&d. I speed, but it doesn't mean that I speed because I played d&d when I was growing up.

D&D player (17 years old) Michael Dempsey, Lynnwood, WA. suicide by gunshot wound to the head, 5/19/81. Witnesses saw him trying to summon up D&D demons just minutes before his death.

What, did the witnesses hear him say, "Oh great demons of Dungeons and Dragons (tm), I summon thee"?

Player (16 years old) Daniel Erwin, Lafayette, CO., murder by brother's shotgun blast to head, 11/2/84 (right after Halloween). Death was apparently the result of a death pact as part of the game.

I don't know what makes this "apparent", so I can't really comment on this. I'm not claiming d&d doesn't affect anyone (see below).

D&D player (18 years old) Harold T. Collins, Marion, OH., suicide by hanging, 4/29/83. Collins was noted to be "possessed" by D&D as if he were living the game.

Again, I don't know who "noted" this, so I can't really comment.

D&D player (14 years old) Sean Sellers was convicted of killing his parents and a convenience store clerk in Greeley, Oklahoma (1/11/87). He is the youngest inmate of death row in the country as of this writing (22 now). His involvement in hard-core Satanism began with D&D, according to his own testimony. Praise the Lord, he is now a Born Again Christian!

I agree, it can happen. There are mentally ill kids all over.

D&D player (14 years old) Tom Sullivan, Jr. got into Satanism and ended up stabbing his mother to death, arranging a ritual circle (from D&D) in the middle of the living room floor and lit a fire in its midst. Fortunately, his dad and little brother were awakened by a smoke detector; but by then, Tom, Jr. had slashed his wrists and throat with his Boy Scout knife and died in the snow in a neighbor's yard.(1/19/88, Amarillo, TX.)

Hey, look, the Boy Scouts will cause you to kill your family!! I mean, look at this statement, "[He] got into satanism..." So bitch about the satanists causing people to kill their parents (not that I really buy that argument either but...). I mean, I never had "ritual circles" in any of the d&d games I played in. Maybe it should say, "arranging a ritual circle (from his warped satanic beliefs)."

D&D player (? years old) Steve Loyacano, Castle Rock, CO., suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, 10/14/82. Police report satanic writings and a suicide note liked the death to D&D.

D&D player (21 years old) Timothy Grice, Lafayette, CO., suicide by shotgun blast, 1/17/83. Detective reports noted, "D&D became a reality. He thought he was not constrained to this life, but could leave [it] and return because of the game."

D&D player (12 years old) Steve Erwin (see above) suicide by gunshot, 11/2/84. Detective report: "No doubt D&D cost them their lives."

D&D player (no age given) Joseph Malin, Salt Lake City, UT., pled guilty to first degree murder 3/2/88 and was sentenced to life in prison. He killed a 13 years old girl while acting out the fantasy-role game. The girl had been raped, her throat cut, and she had been stabbed twice in the chest. Police said his "violent urges were fed by 'extreme involvement in the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.'"

Ok, so we're supposed to believe that police making the last four reports could judge that they were caused by d&d. I mean, this is at a time when role-playing games were being blamed for all this stuff. They see "satanic writings" and say, "hmmm, this guy must be a d&d player." If this happend today, you'd see a headline like, "Police say violent video games caused boy to kill." It's all about finding the current scapegoat for explaining horrible acts by children. I'm not saying D&D wasn't related to some of these (I obviously don't have enough info to make claims like that), there will be mentally unstable kids that do these things whether or not we have d&d/video games/etc..

I mean, look at the dates on all these, all in the 80's. Why is that? Kids don't play d&d anymore (if anyone says that all the deaths aren't d&d related now, they're caused by AD&D 3rd. edition... *smack*)? Maybe Vampire The Masqurade doesn't cause kids to kill their parents... yeah, that's the ticket. Or, maybe it's because during D&D was a convenient scapegoat but the media just got tired of blaming it and now the sociological phenomenon is over.

Go troll somewhere else.

BTW, sorry about the spelling, not one of my strong points :).

Linux

[TheYogiBear]

the OS for people who like to sex0r other members of their gender

Tactical Simulations Rules

[Grech]

see above.

Re:corporate rules

[noelyap]

become a billionaire, then setup a production company that only makes cool movies!

Someone already tried that, only the resulting movie wasn't so cool. Can we say midichlorians? Can we say Jar-Jar Binks?

Re:Simple.

[Nerds]

Yeah, that 75 cent difference is astronomical. That guy was way off base...

Re:Another reason to hate my PC

[ackthpt]

Simple as that... Ok, saw it, looks like a two bucket of popcorn movie. Some of the graphics look clunky and the gazer looks like a clown, but it's gonna get my dough.


--

the producers got beat up

[hexx]

and had their production money stolen strangely reminiscent of their high school days, methinks Note to producers: if you're making a cliche fantasy/action film, you need to rely on good effect

hmmm

[niekze]

Lets boycott MPAA...unless a geek movie comes out. It surprises how 'dedicated' /. people are

Re:hmmm

[ahaning]

Get some kind of 'moderation of moderation' system in place...

Ah! Yes! And we'll call it meta-moderation. Hmm, no, how about Moderation^2? Or M^2? Nah, that's too hard. M2, yeah, that's more like it. Check it out.

Actually, someone on IRC (always the good source for info :) ) said that there is a bug in slashcode that prevents people from seeing that link on the homepage if they've never participated in M2. Once you've participated, it will show up. It would be nice if that link was placed in the FAQ for a quick fix.

Well...you also said: ...that actually fucking works.

So you weren't too out of it :) .

Re:hmmm

[Anonymus Cowherd]

you could be like me. I metamod every day and rate every mod as "unfair", justified or not. fuck all you karma whores.

Re:hmmm

[EFGearman]

"The CG does suck. Those don't look much like real dragons to me."

And when have you seen a 'real' dragon? I think that the CGI guys (and gals) did a very nice job considering the amount of time they had and the budget that they were given. I mean you have a dragon battle involving several dozen dragons per side and they make it look pretty good. I know we all have our own opinion of what dragons look like, but I feel that what I say did a very good job of capturing the 'big fire-breathing lizard' thing.

Eric Gearman
--

Re:hmmm

[SubtleNuance]

Oh, /. is so hypocritical. They say boycott the MPAA and then see geek movies is a very valid point.

I alot of the threads on this site are pretty clear on topic - this person is making a comment that this movie because it qualifies as cool to the geeks; that it is ok to see (or maybe not but thats the point of the poster).

I agree - Im not going to go see this movie, in fact, I am going to wait till its on DVD then rip and distribute it.

Fuck the MPAA and the RIAA let them burn!

Re:hmmm

[?erosion]

LOL! You have to admit, he got you there, my friend. :)

Re:hmmm

[EFGearman]

"LOL! You have to admit, he got you there, my friend. :)"

Probably... I felt that I was standing up for the CGI people. Having programed in graphics environments before (nothing as spiffy), I know how difficult it is. Even with excellent tools.

So I've been trolled. I have some fire spells memorized and can make one crispy troll if I really wanted to.

Eric Gearman
--

Re:hmmm

[talesout]

Boy, some moderator is really, REALLY enjoying themsevles today aren't they?

Ah well, if karma had ever mattered to me I probably wouldn't be hanging on slashdot in the firstplace. BTW, anyone else bothered that they call it karma? I mean, it's like they are trying to imply that somehow impressing a bunch of masturbating assholes with a power-trip problem is the most important thing you could accomplish in this lifetime.

What the fuck is up with this place? Goddamn! Even if it is done constructively, critiquing the system is not allowed. Fucking bunch of bullshit cocksuckers!

I don't know why I bother. But it sure is fun to bitch about.

Re:hmmm

[talesout]

Yeah, and another thing, I thought that all CG sucked according to the 'slashdot majority'.

Oh wait, that only applies to Star Wars films. Sorry, I thought we held everyone to the same standards.

Re:hmmm

[talesout]

As I said, I went there and was told I'm not eligible (because I'm not logged in, which I clearly am logged in). Yeah, well fuck-all if I don't feel like kissing taco's dick because he tried but failed miserably.

Re:hmmm

[talesout]

Yeah, I know about meta-mod. Never used it, have no idea how to use it, and am told that participation in it (by following that link) is something I am not eligible for. Not sure I would do it anyway, but it's nice to know that I suck enough to not be allowed into that little area too.

My point was, we have to have something that is based on actual thought process. Right now we have it so that the trolls, karma-whores and slashbots can all participate in the moderation system and all it amounts to is 'stay with the flock or you are totally fucked' type of moderation. How about seeing a truly insightful but not quite majority opinion comment get moderated up? It isn't going to happen. Or if it does it will quickly get meta-modded to 'overrated' and that will be that. What a waste.

Re:hmmm

[talesout]

Usenet isn't worth posting to. Actually, slashdot probably isn't either if it wasn't for the entertainment value. On usenet people just ignore any sort of comment they don't agree with. Here you get four hundred angry idiots telling you you'd better shut up if you try to say something they don't agree with. Not sure why, but that seems a little more interesting.

Re:hmmm

[BlowCat]

Prove that there is a single person falling under your reasoning.

Slashdotters are different. I'm not :-)

Re:hmmm

[NGTV13]

You know what... I for one am all for boycotting the MPAA, but not by not going to see movies. I enjoy a good flick, and I'm not about to stop seeing movies becuase some monopolized company has taken over the movie industry and threatened the future of free speech. The benevolant way to approach this problem is simple. Boycott the MPAA by not giving into their demands. Make DeCSS openly available, put it up on your webpage. Play DVD's on linux. SKIP THE PREVIEWS. And do your part by handing out flyers to raise people's awareness on the whole subject. This isn't just to help 2600, this is to help everone that values free speech.

Re:hmmm

[ca1v1n]

http://slashdot.org/metamod.pl
;
The whole "Bug in Slashcode" thing sounds like a crock of shit to me. I just think they don't want people getting into it unless they are caring enough to figure out how to get there.

Personally, I think placing it semi-prominently in the FAQ should be good enough. Here you are, knock yourself out. Better yet, knock out an overzealous moderator.

Re:hmmm

[wannabe]

Sure we do, just check out the posting on responses from the first two presidetial candidates to slashdotter's posts. There are people actually posting that they think the Socialists and the Libertarians are just too similar for their tastes.

Re:hmmm

[Stephen Samuel]

Well, just make sure that you don't use DeCss when you rip it... Easy enough to do, and all the better to confound the MPAA's lawsuit.
`ø,,ø`ø,,ø!

Re:hmmm

[talesout]

Flamebait huh?

I suppose if I took the opportunity (seeing as how the original poster praised computer graphics) to somehow slam Lucas for what I consider his great animation sequences in the latest Star Wars film I would have been rated up as insightful? Get the fucking moderation system fixed goddamn it! Don't let a bunch of crack addicted (and by that I mean getting their heads so far up their ass all they can do is sniff their own crack) piece of shit assholes moderate. Get some kind of 'moderation of moderation' system in place that actually fucking works.

Goddamned. Slashdot is more useless than usenet. And that's fucking saying something!

Re:hmmm

[ranessin]

Then maybe you shoudl leave Slashdot and only post to usenet...

Ranessin

Re:Geeks Ahoy!

[Pxtl]

Idunno, I'm not sure I'll be rushing out to see this one. I mean, what really bothers me is how its coming out so in time with Lord of the Rings. It really worries me that this movie, an action flick at best, will spoil fantasy for a lot of people. Tolkein is very different from dungeons and dragons.

Geeks Ahoy!

[Mike the Mac Geek]

I wanna get in line NOW. Not now, but RIGHT NOW.
Damn that movie looks good. And since I saw Thora Birch topless in American Beauty, that makes it all the better.

Re:Geeks Ahoy!

[^_^x]

Actually, I've heard that the people who wrote the script had to suffer through a bunch of lame fantasy movies so they'd know what not to do.

...and then watched things like Kurosawa films to get a better idea of what to aim for.

I'm pretty sure it won't be disappointing, and there aren't many movies I say that about.

Re:Geeks Ahoy!

[ifurita]

Uh...I don't know...my immediate response was "I liked those characters better in Episode 1/Xena."

Ridley == poor man's Keanu Reeves/Juxor

Empress Savina == poor man's Natalie Portman,

Snails == Jar Jar Binks

But I'll still probably go see it if for no other reason than to compare it to Record of Lodoss War. Much more excited about LoTR.

Re:Simple.

[oh shoot]

$8 for a movie?! Where do you live?

Near me the cost is $8.75 and rising fast. And as a substitute for salt, they pour this Premium Cinema crap on my wounds. That, and I haven't liked a movie since American Beauty. (or was it Fightclub? whichever I saw 2nd)

Conscience?

[Ptolemarch]

Conscience strikes: should I see this movie and give my money to Time-Warner?

It all depends. If you're Lawful Evil aligned, there's no problem at all with seeing a Time-Warner movie. (If you're Chaotic Evil aligned, you might want instead to sneak into the movie. Chaotic Good might also do this, as they might rationalize that it's not evil since you'd not be giving money to Time-Warner.)

Re:Conscience?

[LordNimon]

Since when would an evil character give money to anyone, except to have that person perform an evil act on his behalf? Time Warner itself is evil, but their creation of the D&D movie is not evil. If it were, good characters would not want to see it at all, free or otherwise.

I think a lawful evil character would have to decide whether he's more lawful or more evil. If the former, he'll pay. If the latter, he won't.
--

Re:Conscience?

[Ptolemarch]

The lawful evil person would always weigh the alternatives and do what was more convenient, within the law. If he had the money, he'd definitely pay, since otherwise he'd be breaking the law.

Re:Conscience?

[^_^x]

Haha! Cool. As soon as the poster brought up Time-Warner, I thought about it in terms of alignment!

Me? I'm chaotic neutral, so as much as I dislike Time-Warner (not much, but with AOL moving in, it gets worse,) I'm going to see the movie in the theatres. If it's cool, I'll download the DivX and burn it to a CD or 2.

(Actually, I'm afraid I may have to buy the DVD, but that's pretty unlikely. The only non-anime DVD I have is Evil Dead 2.)

Re:Conscience?

[LordNimon]

True neutrals aren't really neutral. They just always fight to keep a balance between good and evil, and between law and chaos.

Not in Third Edition. Or at least, in the 3rd Edition Player's Handbook, they clarify this situation. Basically, they say that a true neutral character can be EITHER a) someone who chooses the middle ground, or b) someone who intentionally tries to balance the forces of good and evil. The true neutral character needs to choose which of these definitions of neutrality he will use. It doesn't go into any details like whether he has to declare this choice or anything like that, but apparently both definitions are valid.
--

Re:Conscience?

[EFGearman]

"Actually, I think Mr_Perl is right. True neutrals aren't really neutral. They just always fight to keep a balance between good and evil, and between law and chaos."

Well, then no one who is 'true neutral' should be voting for Bush or Gore.

Eric Gearman
--

Re:Conscience?

[jeffsplace]

Pay the money and go home (don't actually see the film). What else? :-)

Re:Conscience?

[Ptolemarch]

Damn. What do you suggest for a true neutral?

Not sure, but a co-worker just said that true neutrals definitely shouldn't be voting in the election.

Re:Conscience?

[Mr_Perl]

True neutrals should wait until the results start coming in and then vote for the losing candidate.

Re:Conscience?

[rotor]

Then they cease being neutral unless they can get another neutral to vote for the winning candidate (assuming a two party system, which we are not).

-

Re:Conscience?

[Ptolemarch]

Actually, I think Mr_Perl is right. True neutrals aren't really neutral. They just always fight to keep a balance between good and evil, and between law and chaos.

Re:Conscience?

[Dysan2k]

Easy.. A true neutral would vote for Ben Stein. I know I will.

--Bush & Gore... it's not an election, it's a snuff film!

Re:Conscience?

[cribeiro]

The Complete Alignment Table

First, the lawful characters:

• Lawful Good: Pay to watch the movie. Buy a copy on tape or DVD for the family.
• Lawful Neutral: Pay to watch the movie. Sleeps inside the theater.
• Lawful Evil: Does not need to pay to watch the movie. They have contacts in the entertainment industry and have seen the premiere.

Now the chaotic ones:

Chaotic Good: Download a copy of the movie from the 'Net. Watch it on a Linux machine.

Chaotic Neutral: Rolls a dice. 50% chance of paying to watch the movie.

Chaotic Evil: Buy a pirate copy of the movie. Hates the end of the movie, where the good guys always win.

Now the neutral bastards :-)

• Neutral Good: Don't care. Wait for the movie top be released on cable TV.
• True Neutral: Don't care. The last time it has seen a movie it was 40 years ago, in the gold years of Hollywood.
• Neutral Evil: Don't care. Wait for the movie top be released on cable TV, and then ask a friend to record it for him.

Re:Conscience?

[onion2k]

Umm.. Ok, I'm really pitiful, but the two part alignments only came in with Advanced D&D, the movie is actually alot closer to the original with just 3 alignments, Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic. I still have my copy of the Basic Rules with the nice red cover.

Re:Conscience?

[Ptolemarch]

I don't agree with your table. The Good characters couldn't give money to Time-Warner. For the Lawful Good character, this means you can't watch the movie (unless perhaps you have a friend who already legitimately owns the movie, and you're watching it there, but even then a truly Good character might balk at it). The Neutral Good character is off campaigning for Nader, so he doesn't have time to watch movies. The Chaotic Good character snuck into the theater, and probably snuck in some snacks, too.

The Evil characters have no problem with giving money to Time-Warner. The Lawful Evil character has to pay in order to see the movie (but he probably already has contacts in the industry: good point). The Chaotic Evil character might pay, might not, but would definitely put his feet up on the chair in front of him, and would probably strew popcorn about and loudly make obscene comments during the movie. The Neutral Evil character goes to the movie, pays (it's easier that way), and at some point probably engages the Chaotic Evil character in combat sometime during the movie just to shut him up.

Those of Neutral Good/Evil alignment don't care about Time Warner. Of course, the Lawful Neutrals still pay. It's the other two Neutrals I don't know about. (And I've really never liked the idea that Chaotic Neutrals always roll dice to make their decisions for them. They don't like randomness, they like Chaos. They probably sneak into the movie precisely to make obscene comments.)

Re:Conscience?

[rotor]

Yeah, I read his post and forgot we were in the middle of a D&D discussion and thought we were in the middle of another political discussion (of which there have been just too many lately). So I was think of "neutral" as someone who didn't care who won... Not a balance between...

-

Re:Great visuals, poor acting...

[0xdeadbeef]

Come on, it's fantasy! You know, make believe. So why can't there be a medieval world where everyone talks like the brats on TRL?
--

CG?

[B00yah]

They couldn't work out a deal with any of the real dragons?

Re:CG?

[Sheeple Police]

SAG strike or whatever... You know how it is... Dang those unions

Re:CG?

[RottenDeadite]

Haven't you ever played Shadowrun?

"Never deal with a Dragon". 'Nuff said.

***JUMP PAD ACTIVATION INITIATION START***
***TRANSPORT WHEN READY***

Re:CG?

[Apotsy]

Just wait until a few months from now when the Screen Writers Guild goes on strike. There might be a 1% or so decline in the quality of screenplays... (couldn't resist)

Date?

[British]

Shoulndn't this movie have been made at around 1982? Like, you know, around the first edition AD&D rules?

Of course, the anti-D&D Crowd back in the day beat TSR with the wonderful "Mazes and Monsters" starring Tom Hanks. Fortunately, Tom Hanks went on to much better movies in his career, like Bachelor Party and Joe Vs. The Volcano.

Re:Conscience strikes

[Rombuu]

So the bus boycotts in the 60's were wrong since they were harming the profitability of the bus drivers? It isn't they're fault that civil rights didn't exist at the time. idiot


Yeah, those bus companies were instrumental in passive civil rights legislation... geez...

QuickTime in Linux? (off topic)

[kugano]

Although this has nothing to do with D&D, I figured it to be the time to ask:

Has anyone managed to get a QuickTime viewer working under Linux? Apple unfortunately didn't have any Linux support on their website last time I checked (I wonder why), and the few Linux QuickTime articles I found on the web were no help. Any slashdotters out there who have gotten this to work, please let me know!

Re:QuickTime in Linux? (off topic)

[pb]

Sure.

Oh.... you mean the Sorensen codec.

Never mind...

Someone please convert this to an mpeg instead...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Re:QuickTime in Linux? (off topic)

[Marcus Meissner]

I have spent some time to get the QuickTimePlayer Version 4 running under WINE, it plays the trailer now, but only with some tricks (getting it to open the file is rather tricky).

Don't worry, I'll pursue this further ;)

Does Jeremy Irons

[dbretton]

Always play the bad guy? JEez.

Re:Does Jeremy Irons

[Tarquin Sidebottom]

With the fall of communism, the Russians have lost favour as the baddie of choice. But you've still got to have a sterotypical accent. You wouldn't want to confuse the audiance know, would you?! Instead we Brits get that role!!! But then I'm not complaining, the bad guys so often have much better character depth.

As for a role where J.H didn't play the bad guy, try Danny, the Champion of the World Oi! stop sniggering at the back, it was a high quality film :)

Re:Great visuals, poor acting...

[iso]

well i just watched the preview and i'd have to agree -- it looks pretty bad.

honestly, i figure this is target to the "Harry Potter" audiance more than those who actually played D&D (or even know what it is). i figure D&D was just a good name out of which to make a Fantasy movie.

Hollywood has become painfully formulaic -- are people really that stupid that they don't notice? or do they just not care?

- j

Re:Waiting for LotR

[billnapier]

Didn't you notice that the comedic black guy in the movie was Damon Wayans, from Scary Movie?

Re:Tom Baker's in this?

[slothdog]

In all my years of watching DW, I don't think the word "elvish" came to mind even once as a descriptive term for Tom Baker....

Re:There IS no TSR!!!

[Fujisawa Sensei]

Shouldn't that be T$R?

WotC is owned by Hasbro

Has-ben?

Has-boaring

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[Drakantus]

Unfortunatly, there is a long list of drivers who thought they could drive without regard for the speed limit or basicly any other traffic laws. Of course, some people will say "those people were just bad drivers to begin with, or drunks, or total idiots who couldn't tie thier own shoes much less change lanes on the interstate at 85mph while talking on a cell phone" Yeah and D&D is just a game! Like people who think they can play around with drugs, sex, or windows me, the person who drivers a motorized vehicle is just getting in line to die. The evidence is clearly stacked against them. The interstates are too carefully designed to cause death to avoid. Yeah, right.

Chaotic Evil?

[jeffsplace]

Come on now. We all know the Chaotic Evil guys would just kill everyone in the theatre! :-)

Re:Chaotic Evil?

[Stephen Samuel]

A good chaotic evil character (that's good ias in interesting, not good as in .... You know what I mean), would probably sneak into the theatre, lock the doors in the middle of the first reel, and then start throwing molatov coctails into the theatre from the projectionist boot, where he could safely watch people panic when they realize that they're about to burn to death.

Then he'd steal the movie. (wouldn't want to miss it, whould he?)
`ø,,ø`ø,,ø!

Re:Great visuals, poor acting...

[Sinistar2k]

At least ripping off Carmina Burana is a tradition as old as Excalibur, but man, ripping off the Stargate soundtrack (which is played briefly just before Carmina in the trailer)... that's just sad.

And the princess? Well, I haven't seen Thora Birch whining like that since Monkey Trouble.

There are some movies where I decide fairly early on whether or not I'll see them in the theaters. Then there are those that are put in the "when it's out for rental" pile, but man, this movie is going into the "whenever Netflix gets it" list, and that's as low a viewing priority as I have. :)

Re:Conscience...

[Rombuu]

Yeah, this is the kind of fucking insightful kind of response I expect to see on /. these days.

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[archivis]

Bah. Just because someone has a personality trait [D&D Player] does that mean that trait is a cause of any action by that person. It's like saying I locked myself out of the car this evening because I like cats. It's a spurious argument.

Re:Don't give your money to time warner

[Kevin T.]

Sneak into the movie without paying for it.

Problem solved!


Actually, this raises the new issue of harm to the theater at which the movie is playing, which gets half the ticket price. Always remember the labor relations angle to any political problem. You don't want 16-year-old popcorn-selling kids out on the streets, do you?

My recommendation is that you pay to see an independent film at that theater, and then see the D&D movie instead. For best results, do this after Lord of the Rings has oppened, 'cuz the theater management will have concentrated all of its bouncer-powers onto that particular theater, and all the geeks will have moved away from the D&D theater anyway.

It being a D&D movie, though, you always have a 5% chance of failure when trying to sneak in. Always.

Re:Well, hell Slashdot..

[BilldaCat]

Which when I last checked was part of the lawsuits.. it's not Time-Warner, but I believe they were named as a plantiff.

Attention

[sdelk]

My prediction: Piece Of Shit. I mean, seriously, fantasy movies almost NEVER work, and on top of that, they seem to be trying for 'hipness'. D&D sucks anyway.

Re:Another reason to hate my PC

[Alan]

Not only that, but what about the complete lack of cohesion to ANY standard look/feel. Well, there's a play button, but that's about it. WTF were they thinking? I mean, honestly, QT sucks. Course, I'm sure Jobs is wheeling and dealing so that soon NO one will release anything but qt shi^H^Htuff. Oh, and forget about that whole "lets let everyone watch it" thing, we'll just keep that on windows and mac.

No Lord of the Rings

[selectspec]

D&D movie looks stupid. For sure its not going to touch Lord of the Rings.

Re:A little let down

[Scrag]

Hmmm... Heres a movie with a little of both: Summoner Geeks

Trust me, it's worth the download.

Re:Lame aspect ratio.

[dstone]

probably because the trailers are created to be broadcast on TV

I think nearly every movie would have trailers for preview on the big (wide) screen. Give us those trailers!

And dammit, someone give me a wide aspect display for my PC, too! :-)

Apple and Sorenson

[mughi]

You may want to contact Sorenson or a Linux developer to look into the possibilty of licensing Sorenson Video 2 for a Linux player.

Last I heard It was Apple that needed talking to, not Sorenson. I've read often that Sorenson has told open source developers that they'd be fine with it, except that their contracts with Apple prevent them from doing so without Apple's permission.

Here's a mention

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[5KVGhost]

"Those people were just weird or losers to begin with." There, I said it. The tiny number of people who lose touch with reality while playing RPGs were pretty far gone anyway. I'm pretty sure that just about anything could've pushed the over the edge. If it wasn't D&D then it could've been professional sports, depressing poetry, Road Runner cartoons, etc.

Just for comparison, bow many people are killed each year in fraternity hazing incidents? All because they so desperately want to be part of an abusive and manipulative group that they're willing to debase themselves, place their lives in danger, commit criminal acts, and lie to protect their abusers? That commonly accepted social behaviour seems far more dangerous than any game of medieval cops-and-robbers could ever be.

In fact, I think that some of the most brilliant religious minds in history would've been ardent fans of D&D. Look at Milton's 'Paradise Lost', with a downright sympathetic view of the fallen angel Lucifer. Heck, large chunks of D&D's original mythology were lifted straight out of Dante's classic works. Were those authors, so revered by the church in their time, also whistling in the dark while invoking demonic forces?

The world is full of destitute, foolish, unstable, and depressed people. IMHO, the church's true mission is to help these people and illustrate by example. This goal is _not_ served by endlessly engaging on one foolish witch hunt after another. Most churchgoes know better than to fall for this sort of nonsense. Try using the brain God gave you, and maybe you'll find youself joining them.

-Bryan

Screw the D&D movie....

[Masem]

...I'm waiting for the Rolemaster one!

I'd pay good money to see how they visualize each '66' on the critical damage tables :D

Re:Screw the D&D movie....

[cheekymonkey_68]

Even better make a MERP picture then you have a good excuse to make Rolemaster combined with all the LOTR adventures

Mirror

[prolix]

Apparently the trailer is no longer accessible? At least that's what I was told. I happened to grab a copy off the Akamai link. ;) I put up a copy of it here:

http://omicron.lax2.viis.net/dl/dnd __4 80.mov

If you're having trouble getting it elsewhere, give that a shot.

Quicktime *DOES* work on BSD

[mr]

Mac OS X.

And one day, it will work on other Unixes, only if Apple feels a threat from other OSes.

Re:Don't give your money to time warner

[flikx]

A good way to solve that is to buy some refreshments at the theater, then sneak in to to the movie.

They gouge you enough with the $7 popcorn anyways. Now you can keep the theater in business, plus not give your money to time warner.

Once again, problem solved. :)

Re:Waiting for LotR

[ralphclark]

Peter Jackson rules. Ever seen "Braindead"? (aka."Dead Alive"). The scene where Timothy mows down a room full of zombies by walking up and down holding a lawnmower at head height is a classic!

Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction

Re:Simple.

[Nos.]

Better yet, get a friend who works at a theatre. Mine manages a small independant theatre, but still has a standing free pass to all theatres! All I have to do is buy popcorn and drinks (which still costs an arm and a leg!).

Post the direct link anyway!

[ogre2112]

What are they gonna do? Sue you?

Re:Great visuals, poor acting...

[Zak3056]

The use of the word "kinda" in a fantasy setting.

Actually, the one that got me was something along the lines of "Dude, that musta been some like major magical experiment gone wrong or something!"

*sigh*

Re:Sigh... what are you kids thinking?

[caver]

Considering how much evil has been done in the name of 'God' because of the bible, how do you know that 'The Devil' didn't write it, but claimed that 'God' did?

Re:Simple.

[Alan]

$8.75? LUXURY! :)

They just raised the prices at the Silver City near me (big ass new theatre) to $12.00!!!! (Canadian mind you). The price for a sunday matinee was still $9.00.

I'm thinking of living in a cave for a while..

Re:Great visuals, poor acting...

[Sinistar2k]

Because then it's not a medieval world. It's a bunch of Road Rules contestants whose challenge is to hold a renaissance fair.

"Dude, I totally wanna be the knight and do all that stuff like kill things and rescue chicks in trouble." "No way, I'll be the knight. You can be the jester." "That guy from Top Gun?" "No dude, those midgets that make you laugh." "But I'm not a midget." "So crawl on your knees, bee-yaawwwtch." And then the person dressed as the knight slaps the other in the ass with a sword, leaving a welt that causes a rift between the two cliques in the Winnebago as half see it as a by-product of playful fun while the others see it as a sign of the increasing violence of one of their number.

Yeah, I'm waitin' in line for that one.

Re:Conscience...

[bjrubble]

Okay, how about this: your post not only invokes Godwin's Law, it proves it. If ever there were a better example of an idiotic argument (hey, nothing was "missing" in Nazi Germany and plantation America -- except maybe the freedom and welfare and lives of the oppressed people) citing the Nazis in a desperate attempt to appear serious and thoughtful, I've not seen it.

We both know there is more to D & D than that...

[NathanielPRobbins]

Unfortunately there is a long list of dead teenagers who had the same attitude you do. Many by their own hands, and many victims to someone whose view of fantasy vs. reality became too blurred.

Of course, just like everything else, some people (young or otherwise) will say, "Those people were just weird or losers to begin with. I'm too together to fall into stuff like that. It's just a game!" Yeah, and an H-bomb is just a firecracker! Like the people who think they can play around with crack or pre-marital sex and not get burned by death, AIDS or pregnancy, the person who thinks they can mess with D&D without getting burnt is whistling in the dark. The evidence is definitely stacked against them! The game is too carefully crafted a trap for many people to elude.

Re:Last frame of the trailer

[Nos.]

Okay, so maybe we're not a global power, but we do have some better weapons that swords and arrows!

DIRECT LINK

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I'm just a rebel now, aren't I? http://a784.g.akamai.net/5/784/51/4cba529b0c96fb/1 a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3 cb12453c02589f25382f668c9329e0375e81785ea61cd36a40 9389c0a6e/dnd__480.mov

Should you go and see the movie...

[M@T]

...after they've asked you to remove the direct link to the file? Probably not.

Why did you guys comply? They asked... so what!?

DIRECT LINK HERE

[mwalker]

Sadly, I don't give a fuck what New Line Cinema thinks i can link to.

Here's the crappy trailer

Here's a direct link to the file, broken up. I couldn't past it in entirely because apparently slashdot thinks long strings are lame. Which is lame. Ironic, huh?

http://a784.g.akamai.net/5/784/51/4cba529b0c96fb /
1a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d 3cb12453c02589f25382f668c9329e0375e81785ea61cd36a4 09389c0a6e/dnd__480.mov

If this post is removed, slashdot censors.

Re:DIRECT LINK HERE

[EricWright]

Well, thanks to being posted here, NewLine/Apple have apparently yanked all of the trailers. Huge isn't even an option, and the other three sizes all end up at apple.com with error_dnd.mov. Or is there something I'm missing? I didn't have any problems at all with the first trailer...

Eric

Re:DIRECT LINK HERE

[guran]

OK maybe I should chew on my foot for awhile...

Perhaps the update shoud have written, "We have been informed that direct linking screws up load balancing, please go here instead" and not "Sadly, we've been asked to take down the direct link to the file." which really sounds like legal bullying.

Re:DIRECT LINK HERE

[Lurker187]

I get the "Error" .mov, but I also get another window that starts loading the trailer. I've been closing the error window, and the other one loads just fine. Check for that.

Now if I can only figure out why I keep getting "locked" out of certain parts of the site...maybe I need to roll a 12 or better to see it. Hey, a natural 20! I find a backdoor!

Re:DIRECT LINK HERE

[EricWright]

Thanks! That was the problem... I didn't have enough patience. I just saw the error.mov and quit.

I am sorely disappointed by the trailer, though.

Eric

Re:DIRECT LINK HERE

[guran]

And I had to scroll almost to the bottom of the page to find your post?
Where are my mod points?

Not that I feel like downloading the trailer, but why the heck does /. give in to lame requests like that? When did linking become illegal?

Re:DIRECT LINK HERE

[malkavian]

Well, considering that Akamai uses a little intelligence in it's cacheing algorithms, I'd assume that doing a direct link to the file can break the cache, effectively preventing it from distributing the load (as it's designed to do).
Thus, doing a direct link actually screws up the net a little for everyone, or at least prevents it working in the way it's designed.
Note, it was a REQUEST.
As far as I can see, /. received a sensible request (please, use the original link, so that the files can be cached correctly and make things better for everyone), and did the sensible thing (they modified the posted link, to exactly the same content, so that it worked, and didn't break anything, like the hard link could have).
I'm sorry, but I consider posting hard links to the akamai cache, especially after what seems a reasonable request rather than a legal vulture stomping session, is akin to 'polishing' a car with a sledgehammer with a cloth wrapped around the head, using repeated full swings, and justifying it saying 'it gives a deeper shine'...
Akamai's there for a good reason, and it works.. Please, don't go breaking it just for the sake of sheer bloody mindedness.

Malk

better URL

[sootman]

rather than navigating that *&$#$#*(% site, just go to http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline /dn d/

Damn it! Why couldn't they...

[Wiggin]

have cast Natalie Portman as the young empress?

Re:Conscience...

[Rombuu]

Fine how about this ... the statement that the original post made, that x is OK if enough people say x is OK, is among the more asinine pieces of "logic" I've heard lately.

Re:Come on!

[fudboy]

hey, lay the hell off.

haven't you read your Joseph Campbell?

There are only so many plots and story elements to work with, if you intend to make a satisfying piece of work. So why not focus on those elements that hit closest to home? like getting the girl, defeating the villian, etc. these elements are metaphors for challenges you'll be facing all the rest of your days.

To prove my point, I guaruntee that a wizened old man will send the main character off on his journey in the D&D movie. Because HE, the old man, is an element common to almost every epic, myth or parable that can be considered an 'adventure', throughout all of human history, from every culture and continent.

ok, so I'm out ill today. I have a really good point about this, and if it coming off incoherently, I apologize. Maybe someone else could back me up in a more eloquent fashion? I'll shut up now...

:)Fudboy

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[Alan]

The scans on that page remind me a lot of the White Power leaflettes that used to be put on my windshield when I was in college. A bible quote and nice black and white drawn pictures of how black people are evil and should all die... you know, good wholesome Godly words.

(disclaimer: I by no means think that everyone who believes in God or is a christian or [insert religion of choice here] is a phycho freak like these people).

Re:Sigh... what are you kids thinking?

[Mononoke]

If you are not a Christian, then you are REALLY playing with fire.

Translation: "Nyah Nyah Nyah! My god can beat up your god! Nyah Nyah Nyah!"

Here are some references to poor translations of an old book right back at ya:

• 1 Cor. 4:5
• Matthew 7:1

I am sure this is not a very popular posiion to take around here, but someone has to make a stand for what is right!

Who the hell are you to claim to know what it right?

--

Re:Tom Baker's in this?

[Anonymus Cowherd]

Do you find it hard to hide the fact that you are gay?

Re:Great visuals, poor acting...

[Judas96']

"The male lead looks like he's fresh from a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers casting call. It just seems "seriously wrong"."

Actually, that would be the actor that also played the dumb twit of a newsie Jimmy Olsen in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman a while back. I really have no clue why anybody would want to use him in anything more substantial than a toothpaste ad, but I guess that is just me. --

Re:Come on!

[MacSamurai]

I think you've got to get over yourself here. It's a fun movie, it's not a Ben-Hur or Seven Samurai. It's meant to be light and enjoyable like the game. And yes it has all the stereotypes, so the hell what, it's a fantasy movie and we want the stereotypes. They remind us of the characters we used to play, this is who the movie was made for, the gamers, not the academy awards, not the critics, but the fans. Hell you probably didn't like "Big Trouble in Little China" either.

Re:Another reason to hate my PC

[ckedge]

> www.quicktime.com

I hate that damn software. Quicktime subverts so much shit on your computer and does such a slow bloated job of it that it's not funny.(*) By default it wants to become the app that plays wav files in your browser. So there you go, you want to play a little 10k wav file on your DSL connection on your PIII 600, and you have to wait four seconds for Quicktime to boot within your browser. Brilliantly stupid you bastards.

After all the trouble I went through re-habilitating my system's file associations after Quicktime was on it, to the point now where I click on a wav link and instantly it plays, my conscience will just kill me if I succumb and try and install it again. Hope they've got more/better/clearer "please may I subvert your ass" choices on the installation.

(*) Gotta feel bad for those poor SOBs who aren't smart enough to figure out how to disentangle things like Quicktime and your browser/file-associations. They're simply screwed by whomever takes advantage of them.

Just a short insight...

[^_^x]

Take it and be Saved. Or ignore it and suffer the eternal consequences.

Just thought I'd point out something:

Why is it that if someone says "Do this, or we'll beat you up/kill you," they're a criminal (robber, rapist, toecutter, ad infinitum...)

But if they say "Do this, or you'll suffer eternal damnation, the likes of which you can't imagine," all of a sudden, they're a kind, thoughtful christian?

It seems that it's just a threat on a much bigger scale, and suddenly THEY're the good guys?

No thanks.

frenchie

[gmr2048]

i liked the french version of the trailer better. less idiot dialog. oh well...i'll be there opening weekend anyway.

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[Myddrin]

Many? There have been one or
two reported cases, of
previously distrubed individuals
commiting henious acts.

However, there has never been
any conclusive proof that occurences
of said sort are higher in the role-playing
community than amongst the regulars. There
have been a few studies that show a lower
occurance of violence amongst role-players...
but they did have some questionable aspects
to them.

Even for those few sick individuals who
did commit some horrible act, you can
not that they would or wouldn't
have done these things w/o exposure to
role-playing games.


---
RobK

Re:Star Wars Episode II Trailer

[EricWright]

I'll assume this isn't a troll... It's a fake. The scenes are from other movies that the actors have appeared in. Didja notice the scene where all the jedis are in a battle charging down a hill... in KILTS!?! Snip from Braveheart, color the swords like light sabres, et voila... instant jedi battle.

You can even find this 'trailer' on adcritic, where they admit that, even though it's a fake, it's a cool fake, so they're hosting it.

Eric

Re:the saddest thing....

[revnight]

Hey now...Conan doesn't owe it's life to Tolkien.

Robert Howard wrote his Conan stories back in the '30's, so he beat Tolkien by a good 30 years.

How about a warning next time?

[Stephen Samuel]

Please, please, PLEASE warn us next time yo link to a Quicktime/ Sorenson movie. I don't know if you noticed (:-)) but some of us run our machines on Linux and don't have the ability to view the Sorenson Codec.
( 4 minutes to download a 26Meg video, just to find out that I can't play the stinking thing!. )

--------
As for boycotting Time/Warner: that's where the rubber hits the road. It's easy enough for me to boycott something that I wouldn't see anyways. (whoop de doo). It's not a boycott unless you don't purchase/see things that you would if it weren't for the boycott. Either shit or get off the pot (or get off your high horse if all you're going to do is shit us).

It's somewhat like when Ghandi started asking people to boycott the British Textile mills and start wearing homespun. It's not like people liked homespun. What they liked was the idea of getting the british off their backs. To do that, they took (cool-looking and often better made) british cloth off of their backs.

If you're going to take on the fight, you've got to be willing to take the hit.

Those who aren't willing to fight for their freedom don't deserve it.
Malcom X
`ø,,ø`ø,,ø!

Well, hell Slashdot..

[BilldaCat]

You guys went and saw X-Men and did a review on it, so the point is moot, isn't it?

Re:The Lord Commands us to judge...

[Fujisawa Sensei]

Idiocy,

Saying D&D has anything to do with magic is like saying saying Monopoly has is like running a business.

Actually Monopoly is probably closer to reality.

Re:Come on!

[ACorvus]

Hmm - I looked at at and cringed at Jeremy Irons' terrible, hammy acting. As hammy villains go, few beat the great humour and camp of Alan Rickman in "Prince of Thieves" - one of the few good parts of an otherwise dire movie.

Irons seems to have 'lost it' somewhat - I remember him being almost a perfect casting in 'Dead Ringers' (another all-time favourite of mine). But here, 'cheesy' doesn't even begin to describe it. Parmesan with a side-dish of Gorgonzola. Old trainers as a freebie.

Re:Lame aspect ratio.

[Creepy]

probably because the trailers are created to be broadcast on TV, not the web. They are just put on the web for our amusement (that and they can get an idea of popularity by watching how many geeks post stuff to /.).

Legitimate reason for direct link

[TheKodiak]

Is there a legitimate reason for using a direct link? Yes - there is. I work in 1280x1024 on a 17" monitor. If I can download the file, I can use a player to see it fullscreen. If I can't download the file, I get to watch it take up less than a quarter of my screen.

Not that I can get the whole thing to download now, anyway. It's alright, though - LotR is just a year away, right?

Who wants to mirror?

[slurry47]

I'm grabbing the trailer now. I can FTP it to someone to mirror 'cause I don't know how (DON'T LAUGH!) It's about 28 Megs.

And, should I convert it to other formats?

Re:Who wants to mirror?

[E1ven]

Mirror?! You want to Mirror an Akamai file? *Laughs loudly* Akamai is the largest mirror system in the world. They move content out the the 'fringes of the internet', or, put lots of servers right near your computer. They have one of the fastest and most efficient caching and distribution services available for delievering large files over the internet.. You do not have to worry about Slashdotting Akamai! If you are worried about them moving it, the URLs still work for the LoTR trailers Akamai has been hosting for the last few months.
--

This message brought to you by Colin Davis

Re:Who wants to mirror?

[JanneM]

And, should I convert it to other formats?

Yes, an mpeg version would be nice for those of us that don't have ready access to anything else than linux.

Huh?

[PinkFloyd]

What's so big about Drag & Drop? And where do the dice come in??

-=Yankees Rule=-

No Credit

[Adam Hadem]

No credit to Gygax in the trailer credits. Casting a black guy as the theif is a really tired, sad stereotype. Besides, as everyone knows, Halflings make the best theives =-] People who play role playing games tend to be creative folks who will probably chafe at how trite the plot looks (and probably is). Jeremy Irons? Geez...

Give money to T-W

[ackthpt]

Who then passes (after creative Hollywood accounting) something on to the weasels at TSR...

Evil, evil, evil... Just can't match that in the movies.


--

Re:Give money to T-W

[nash]

Specifically Wizards don't use the name TSR at all. Also the nomrlally refer to themselves as Wizards and yes, they are owned by Hasbro.

Of course the real challenge for the hard core D&D player is: What did TSR stand for?

TSR = They Sue Regularly?

Re:Give money to T-W

[smmilton]

TSR = Tactical Studies Rules
;)

Re:Give money to T-W

[Sanchi]

totaly satanic rituals?

its a joke

Sanchi

Re:Give money to T-W

[Chris Pimlott]

Everyone is mispelling it, it was T$R...

Re:Give money to T-W

[Maryck]

Actually, TSR long has not existed as a company for awhile now. Wizard of the Coasts owns the D&D franchise along with the TSR trademark and is doing its best to avoid the mistakes TSR made in the past. Of course WotC is owned by Hasbro I believe.

Re:Come on!

[nick357]

OOOoooo... I had hopes for this, but the acting looks horrible and the graphics only so-so. It reminds me of when I went to see Dragon Heart thinking "hey the dragon clips that I saw looked pretty cool, and its got Sean Connery in it, so how bad could it be?" VERY BAD!

I'm waiting for LOTRs...

On, and yes it did look like episode 1 -- another bad sign.

December Eight

[Digitalia]

I can not wait for December Eighth. This movie truly looks incredible!

3 words: DOOM the movie

[Nailer]

Nuff said

Re:Great visuals, poor acting...

[Mononoke]

At least ripping off Carmina Burana is a tradition as old as Excalibur, but man, ripping off the Stargate soundtrack (which is played briefly just before Carmina in the trailer)... that's just sad.

Not that uncommon, really. Music from Braveheart was heard in a sizable percentage of trailers over the past year (or more.)
--

Re:Tom Baker's in this?

[KnightStalker]

I wasn't going to see this movie, but you just changed my mind real quick. Thanks for pointing that out :-)

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[0xdeadbeef]

the person who thinks they can mess with D&D without getting burnt is whistling in the dark.

That reminds me of a little ditty by They Might Be Giants:

A woman came up to me and said
"I'd like to poison your mind
With wrong ideas that appeal to you
Though I am not unkind"

She looked at me, I looked at something
Written across her scalp
And these are the words that it faintly said
As I tried to call for help:

There's only one thing that I know how to do well
And I've often been told that you only can do
What you know how to do well
And that's be you,
Be what you're like,
Be like yourself,
And so I'm having a wonderful time
But I'd rather be whistling in the dark

Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark

There's only one thing that I like
And that is whistling in the dark

And kids, follow this link to see just how dangerous D&D really is!!!

http://www.dark-library. com /DD-MST3K/?file=dd-mst3k.php

--

Re:Come on!

[tuffy]

I liked "Big Trouble in Little China". It had Kurt Russel. It had kung fu fighting. It had humor. But this is no "Big Trouble in Little China".

The trouble with this D&D movie is that the whole rehashed plot is spelled out in the trailer, the protagonists border on annoying and the villain looks like he's just graduated from the School of Cartoonishly Evil Villains. I like big dopey action flicks, but even I have a hard time with this one.

Maybe it's just a stupid trailer, but it doesn't inspire hope for the finished product. I'll probably end up seeing it at some point anyway, but I'm still looking forward to LotR.

Re:Conscience? [Mod parent up]

[Digitalia]

Damn. What do you suggest for a true neutral?

Another alignment table

[Tumbleweed]

• Lawful Good: Doesn't watch the movie because of Time-Warner. Also pickets the movie.
• Lawful Neutral: Talks friend into buying their ticket, doesn't buy snacks (where the cinema _really_ makes its money).
• Lawful Evil: Tricks a Time-Warner employee into paying for their ticket to see the movie. Snacks, too.

• Chaotic Good: Downloads a copy of the movie from the Net, watches it on an open source-based machine. If they like it, they'll pay to see it, or buy it when it comes out on video.
• Chaotic Neutral: Whatever the most convenient method is.
• Chaotic Evil: Kills someone who reports on Aint-It-Cool-News and assumes their identity. Uses that person's ID to get into the sneak preview of the movie. Dislikes the movie, and murders everyone who had a hand in making the movie, and eats their livers with fava beans and fine Chianti.

• Neutral Good: Sneaks into the movie, writes an accurate review for Aint-It-Cool-News.
• True Neutral: Steals money from Time-Warner employee to pay for movie tix & snacks. Brings a date.
• Neutral Evil: Steals money from friends to get ticket to movie & pay for snacks. Frames Time-Warner execs for theft.

Re:Sigh... what are you kids thinking?

[Quintin Stone]

• Wake up kids! You are involved in something which you have no clue as to what you are playing with!

Speaking of no clue...

Sorry, but there are no rituals in Dungeons & Dragons. Your position is not "right", it is simply ignorant and grossly uninformed. Your gun analogy would be more appropriate if it was bright yellow water gun that someone fired a real bullet.

Next time before you make a fool of yourself by criticizing something you have no actual knowledge of, try to find out a little something about it first.

OK we've got D&D, Dune and LOTR on the way

[cheekymonkey_68]

what about all the other fantasy settings that deserve a film we've not seen many... a cartoon LOTR, a half arsed Dune, a passable battlefield earth maybe its time for fresh inspiration.

Theres a few fantasy films that I'd love to see made:

Dragonlance: Either from the D&D adventures or the orignal books. If only to have Tas and Raistlin in a movie...

Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser: Weird plot lines, weird characters,weird leopard boats... would make a great film and Terry Pratchett obviously took his Death persona from these books.

Elric: The series would tranfser to film very well, the ending might put a damper on any sequels though...

Re:OK we've got D&D, Dune and LOTR on the way

[Planesdragon]

> Theres a few fantasy films that I'd love to see
> made:
>
> Dragonlance: Either from the D&D adventures or
> the orignal books. If only to have Tas and
> Raistlin in a movie...

You *do* know that Dragonlance started as the D&D modules series, right? The novel series was written concurrently, and until the part with the dragon's vale was *behind* the adventure production...

dragonlance-l@oracle.wizards.com is the Dragonlance mailing list, and ideas for a DL movie get bandied around every now and then. (Currently, I *THINK* they're still talking about the new D&D ruleset...)

anyway, if you want to subscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@oracle.wizards.com with the line "sub dragonlance-l "your name"" in the body.

Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser would probably need a major rewrite, and not leave anyone happy. :( Elirc, from what I've heard, might make a good movie--although it *might* be best if animated by a good (read: "Japanese") studio.

Re:money to TW? nah

[eln]

Well, if this is the best they can do, then I think making sure they can't make any sequels, or indeed any more movies at all, is the best solution for the continued survival of what is left of humanity's sense of good taste.

Re:You fools!

[Kharny]

Good morning, WAKE UP. On slashdot, do not feed the trolls. this guy is an idoit dont argue with him, he wont understand you anyway.

Alternative Link

[ectoraige]

Another site with it is www.cyberdryft.net

"A goldfish was his muse, eternally amused"

Re:Conscience...

[festers]

Yeah, slavery and racism is on par with paying $8 and seeing a different movie. Are you really an idiot, or do you just play one on Slashdot?


--------

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[Zigurd]

Oh I can't resist: "Crusaids? Isn't that what the 'don't ask don't tell' crusaders came down with?"

Or how about: "Didn't Willie Nelson's great great great great great great great ... great grandfather play the Crusaids concerts to raise money for the crusaders?"

Re:Conscience...

[cot]

Not if you refuse to pay to see the movie under any other circumstances.

Of course, if you are putting this much effort into rationalizing going to see the movie, I'd guess that you would see it regardless.

Re:Waiting for LotR

[Enoch Root]

Are you kidding? I grew up on all the movies you mentioned! And yes, I spent my teenage years watching those movies and thinking, 'Gosh! The Sorceress must be at least 14th level to cast such a spell!' and such things. I remember losing it when a friend asked if Rambo should be considered a high-level Fighter.

I can't help thinking 'My god! This is gonna suck!' and yet I'm excited. Will I go watch this movie? You bet. It's like a childhood dream come true, and no way I'm gonna pass on that geekfest!

Is Final Fantasy Evil?

[Chemical]

I tried D&D once when I was younger, but I've never really been into D&D or other similar Role Playing Games. However I had a related question for our holy friend, NathanielPRobbins. I've been playing video game RPGs for about 9 years now, since I was 10 years old. They are pretty much the only type of video games I play anymore. My mom was always disaproving of the fact that I was playing an "RPG" as she is an avid Bible Banger. Now we all know that D&D is evil and all who play worship satan, but are Final Fantasy games and similar video game RPGs also tools of the devil? These video games don't let you "role play" in the same way D&D does, but it is a well known fact that video games like Quake and other first person shooters cause all who play to go on killing rampages, so I'd like to know your stance on video game RPGs? Will selecting the "Fight" command from a menu turn me into a killer? Is the use of magic in these games going to lead me into the black arts and devil worshiping? I need to know before it is too late!

Re:Is Final Fantasy Evil?

[Mharr]

Read again. The Final Fantasy post was a Troll Riposte, and a damn fine one at that. A shame that there are no -real- fundies active in this thread, I love a good high farce argument.

Simple.

[mwalker]

Having a conscience doesn't mean you can't see Time Warner movies. It just makes life more expensive.

Every time you see an $8 TW movie, send $16 to the EFF. That's $24 a movie, so it will make you evaluate what you see more critically.

It's not like we don't have enough expendable income in this country. Today, at my local best buy in rockville, they called in the riot police because the people who lined up at 5 am for Playstation2's were trying to beat up the people who lined up at midnight and fell asleep.

Try going to the local line of rabid PS2 shoppers and tell them that the PS2 is selling their fair use rights out the window. I bet you they'll all ask you if they could sign away their "fair use" thingies for a lower number in line.

Re:Simple.

[Throw Away Account]

US$8.75 is CND$13.29. CAN$12.00 is US$7.90.

Re:Simple.

[abischof]

• They just raised the prices at the Silver City near me (big ass new theatre) to $12.00!

$CN 12, eh? That's $US 7.91 for your movies, so why are you complaining? It's even cheaper in Canada ;).

Alex Bischoff
---

Re:Simple.

[Dexx]

Go to Clairview matinees.. $5 cdn and you get to
see new movies in a nice theatre with less of a crowd.

Plus www.edmovieguide.com lets you shop around before you see a movie.

Re:Simple.

[Syberghost]

This isn't unlike some of the ideas to use services like PayPal to compensate music artists

Yes, it's very much like it, in that only half a dozen people will actually do it.

-

Re:Simple.

[algae]

Every time you see an $8 TW movie, send $16 to the EFF. That's $24 a movie, so it will make you evaluate what you see more critically.

Better yet, wait a month or so after it comes out, and go see it at a smaller second-run theater. You'll only pay $3-5, and you'll have the peace of mind that most/all the money is going to the theater instead of the movie studio.

Re:missing trailers

[Stradivarius]

I just downloaded the trailer with no problem from NewLine/Apple. The Huge was not avaiable (no link from the site nor a .mov file matching the naming scheme of the others), but other than that I had no problems.

This link still works as of this posting.

A little let down

[xmalenko]

I was hoping to see a home movie of a bunch of kids rolling dice, playing the game, not a CG extravaganza. Oh well, I guess Time Warner knows whats best.

Re:A little let down

[rizzo242]

I was hoping to see a home movie of a bunch of kids rolling dice, playing the game, not a CG extravaganza. Oh well, I guess Time Warner knows whats best.

Actually, I figured it'd be about a bunch of high school kids sitting around in their basement rolling dice, playing the game, and trying like hell to still get laid.

Re:A little let down

[ichimunki]

No kidding, my first thought was "why do we need another D&D movie when we have E.T.?"

Re:A little let down

[psergiu]

baah :( it's sorenson qucktime ...

--

Re:A little let down

[Evangelion]

Hrm. American Dragons?

(Have you seen the American Jedi "trailer" that's been making the rounds? Track it down. You'll bust a nut laughing).
--

Re:A little let down

[NineNine]

I was actually picturing a lot of Slashdotters in somebody's parents' basement, rolling dice, drinking Jolt, wishing they were instead getting laid.

Re:A little let down

[pigpen_]

Some of you have most likely seen the summoner geeks movie, which uses audio from the dead alewives. But watching characters froma roleplaying game sitting around playing a roleplaying game is really funny.

--
lukas

Offtopic? It was directly a response to the post

[Vermifax]

Give me a break I was lambasting his over developed sense of political correctness

Vermifax

Re:A stroke of originality!

[Kevin T.]

Yeah, but what do you expect?

Trailers are often produced by the same sort of studios that make commerical jingles, etc. They are, after all, just 2-minute long ads for a movie. Also, the soundtrack is usually the last thing added to a movie. As such, they usually resort to libraries of soundtracks for the trailer. Swordfights get Orff. Ominous alien movies get the theme from _Alien_. Happy movies get that same freakin' Third Eye Blind song. And so on.

Why is it that trailers are so popular on the web, when the product itself is so lousy, they're so heavy on bandwidth, and all they're good for is to let you know what you should be buying in a few months?

Re:Conscience...

[Wolfkin]

Entertainingly, the original post did not make that point. :) Why don't you read it again?

Randall.

Don't give your money to time warner

[flikx]

Sneak into the movie without paying for it.

Problem solved!

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[Fat Rat Bastard]

Yeah, my spelling blows.. I caught it about 10 milliseconds after hitting submit (ok.. about 4 hours after..)

Re:Tom Baker's in this?

[lemonk]

Actually Tom Baker was in a Sinbad (arabian story) remake a long time ago.

Give me a break!

[NathanielPRobbins]

These are merely cases where the line has been 100% clear cut. Can you imagine how many other cases have occured where Dungeons & Dragons has played an influence!? If even a minor one. Of course the vast majority are never reported.

Psalms 97:10
"Ye that love the LORD, hate evil... "

Yet you people seem to embrace it.

Re:Give me a break!

[Moofie]

And ye that hate what you think is evil, but are wrong, are silly in his sight. Amen.

1 Moofie 137:12.3

Sigh...

[dane23]

Bill and Ted do D&D. Total crap.

Are you kidding? Gag me with a stick!!!

[Kasreyn]

I've not seen a movie looking so cheesy and fakey in quite a while. Hmmm, what was the last one... Starship Troopers or Wing Commander? The kind of movie where the trailer asolutely *shrieks* "BOMB".

Hmm, lessee, we have poorly-rendered Dragons (cmon, Dragonheart is almost 3 years old and we can't do better than this?!), unconvincing bad guys, a black thief character (of course ;) played by someone whose apparent life dream is to be Chris Rock, and your standard corny (though acceptable) D&D plot of, "get the MacGuffin!" And oh yes, Padme returns!! Along with Palpatine and the senate! Have we seen this movie before? Or are these just the reruns?

Oh, and let's start making a list of all the movie trailers that steal music from either Willow or Stargate, one or the other, because they're too lame to have their shit together before the trailer comes out. D&D goes in the "Stargate" column. I wonder if they even asked David Arnold for permission, or if he can now proceed to sue their ass.

The only market I can see for this movie is exactly the one you made obvious: the young males who went to see that dog of a movie American Beauty to see some chick topless (you call yourselves geeks? Ever hear of porn?! =P). "Whee, let's watch some dragons blow shit up! And there are some breasts! Oooooooh!"

You need to grow up some before you are worthy of being called a Geek. As a trailer, this sucks. WE can only hope that they chose the worst bits of the movie for the trailer, as Hollywood types frequently do for some bizarre reason.

Kasreyn

LOTR looks better.

[Dest]

It looks a lot better and besides they are making all four books into movies! Shit yeah. This is gonna be the new craze! Fathers, lock your daughters in their rooms cuz Lord of The Rings is coming out!

Re:Why worry?

[Shin Elendale]

Well, this is probably redundant but, what alignment are you?

-Elendale (couldn't resist)

Flash graphics....Poor.....

[StarTux]

Just watched the trailer, I really hope its a poor trailer and just that. But that young Princess reminded so much of the one out Star Wars Epi 1 that I am fearful of watching it.... What the hell does 'gaining a rod that will control all red dragons' mean? Thats such a uber weapon! Unless it would only last for a few hours, then it could get interesting.....They could have followed some tradition, like starting out with a group of misfits drawn together for fame and glory.....Already have a better plot forming in my head that would follow some sort of D&D tradition. So much promise for a deeply thoughtful challenging plot! They need to hire some good DM's to write plots for them. If only I had the money I'd make something a whole lot better than what I saw in that trailer. D&D is a medieval setting, not some Star Wars Naboo setting. Where is Gary Gygax in all this? I fear for LOTR. Hopefully his descendants can sue Time Warner if they hash it up.....Although a movie can never be like a book. Matt -Lamenting the apparant loss of good plot writers. Sorry for the rant also....

Re:Flash graphics....Poor.....

[Apotsy]

that young Princess reminded so much of the one out Star Wars Epi 1 that I am fearful of watching it....

Actually, I thought she looked just like the princess in "The Neverending Story".

Re:Flash graphics....Poor.....

[StarTux]

Yeah.....Now that you mention it she does resemble that one too. I had a weird dream to the theme of Neverending Story when I first heard it on the radio....But that is another story ;-) Matt

Re:Why worry?

[Evil_Way]

Um, sure... how else are you going to see it?

A better question would be: How else are you going to spend it?
In other words: Should I give my money to the RIAA or Time-Warner?

I guess the Geek won . . .

[StefanJ]

Man . . .

I remember taping paper covers over my D&D books* in high school-- circa 1977 -- so no one would know what I was carrying around.

It wasn't a matter of getting beat up for being such a geek . . . it was having to explain what the hell the things were. I think there was one other guy in school who knew about gaming, and he was too busy trying to get into M.I.T. to start a campaign.

Now . . . movies? D&D appearing in sitcoms? Geekdom is really in yer face these days.

Stefan

* Second printing of the original three-book set, now signed by Gygax hisself!

Re:I guess the Geek won . . .

[ALG]

Damn, I was _born_ in 1977. =D

ALG

Re:Tom Baker's in this?

[Squid]

Yeah, now the famous Who fan luck takes over - he'll appear onscreen for about 60 seconds and deliver two lines.

legalitires of mirroring

[frknfrk]

first of all, rude or not, thanks for the direct link as the seednd page appears hosed. second of all, and this is admittedly off topic, what is the legality of mirroring this movie? i believe i have fair rights to redistribute this movie to a few of my friends off a link from my own server so they don't have to wait on akamai, so long as i don't modify/make money/claim ownership/broadcast the movie. any takers? :) thanks, sam

Re:legalitires of mirroring

[davesill]

oh yeah... our akamais are about 10 feet from my desk. i could almost hear the disks spinning...

I smell blood in the water

[edo-01]

from the looks of the trailer, and by the way the upper lips curled up on all who viewed it here, I can see this movie going bosoms-up at the box office.

And then boys and girls, it is a sure bet that every (and there are quite a few, looking to cash in on pre-LOTR swords and sorcery mania - look at all the mar's movies made/being made recently) every fantasy picture in pre-production is going to get shit-canned by nervy executives eyeing the Hindenburg-like demise of DnD.

Further to this, come xmas 2001 when Peter Jackson's LOTR fucking blows the DOORS off theaters around the world; we will see a horde of shoddy knock off's hastily produced only to die horribly, and the cycle beings anew. I'd be surprised if there weren't a few sucesses, but for the most part they will be about as satisfying as Mission To Mars.

And just a word on the trailer - pretty-boy main characters spouting dialogue lifted from Scream?? No, no, no, no, no.

Also speaking as someone in the FX industry - film schedules are hellish, political beasts. Whoever pulled the FX off for this look like they were asked to produce a TITANIC amount of shots in probably a very short time, and almost certainly with infighting among the people driving the project (happens EVERY time). What I saw here, taking into consideration what must have been a grueling post-production peroid, was very impressive for what it is. Jurasic Park/Dragonheart quality is very expensive to produce when you consider the cost of just one Softimage seat, the SGI/Wintel box to run it, the per-CPU cost of licensing an advanced renderer like Pixar's PRMAN (you should see that bastard do lizard skin) the cost of the operator, the compositing suites, the film scanning and recording, shader development yadda yadda yadda. Not to mention the sheer volume of research, motion tests, building and testing working IK/FK rigs for each character (skeletons, basically). Frankly I'm amazed they pulled it off and if some of the CG looks, well, CG-ish, just consider the amount of work that was put into it. Frankly if I saw a job like that come across my desk it'd give me a case of the screaming heebie-jeebies.

Re:I smell blood in the water

[StarTux]

Imagine a world where things that are considered creative have no schedule? When Tolkien wrote LOTR he took his time and it showed. Wonder how many other things that are considered the best because the author was given the time to lend his talent free of an over-powering schedule? When Linus took his time with the Linux 2.4 Kernel..... I am beginning to form an opinion that schedules that are strictly adhered to are the death of creativity and a whole load of other important things in life.... Matt

Semi-Official site with good info

[ChaosDiscord]

Well, it looks like the official site is slashdotted. Might as well spread the fun. If you really want more information check out dndmovie.com. Lots of photos, a few interviews, and generally a fun fan site which got some good behind the scenes information.

Re:Semi-Official site with good info

[Dexx]

To all those who are complaining about the quality, this is a quote from the dndmovie.com website about the trailer:

Was It Unauthorized?? You betchya! Are the effects unfinished? Yup. Are those only temp sound effects? Right again. Truth is, it was never supposed to be posted on the net, because it shows the movie in an unfinished state. But it's done now and it can't be taken back, so we might as well wallow in it..heh heh.

(it came from here)

Lame aspect ratio.

[dstone]

What's with all the 4:3 (ie, TV) aspect ratios when trailers are published on the web? Sigh. Sweet looking movie, still.

Re:Conscience? [Mod parent up]

[Anne Marie]

Deny the movie exists and go back to playing with your fellow woodland-creature friends.

This looks like crap

[Galvatron]

Sorry, but really, the computer graphics are notch below Riven (sure, Riven only had to render still images, or low res movies, but the standards for movies are lot higher than computer games), the choral singing during swordfighting was stolen directly from Highlander, as has been pointed out, the two good guys look like a racial stereotype paired up with a guy who has all the acting talent necessary for Power Rangers, and pastel blue lipstick is just stupid. The only good side is the Beholder, because Beholders are incredibly cool (they've got a hive/caste society, lots of eyes, and can kill you 15 ways without even touching you). I'm much more looking forward to LOTR.

Re:Another reason to hate my PC

[Apotsy]

I heard recently that Apple and RealNetworks both agreed to make the next versions of their players stop taking over everything when installed. Here is a press release about it. I'll quote the relevant part for you here:

RealNetworks and Apple also agreed today to support the principles of the "Ask, Tell, Help" initiative, which promotes good 'Internet manners' by ensuring that each company's player applications will inform and ask the user before changing the user's default player selection for common media formats.

So, starting in the next release, you won't have to worry about that anymore. Of course, that doesn't help for the current release...

Re:Last frame of the trailer

[Chris Mattern]

I think that's because "DND" is the Canadian
_D_epartment of _N_ational _D_efense. Just like
searching on "DoD" will get you lots of stuff
about the Pentagon.

Chris Mattern

Why worry?

[Rombuu]

Conscience strikes: should I see this movie and give my money to Time-Warner?

Um, sure... how else are you going to see it?

Re:Waiting for LotR

[Sebastopol]

Yeah, I cringed at all the racial stereotypes (and perfect hair as well). It looked so much like Star Wars w/the empress and all. I think anyone a few years out of college will probably have the same reactions that you pointed out, especially anyone who enjoyed "Dead Ringers" or "Farewell to my Concubine".

However, regardless as to how much the trailer embarassed the grown up in me, and I know it's totally a teenaged geek movie, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IT! (Of course, I'm almost 30 and I was up until 2am last night rolling 3d6 for ability scores in Baldur's Gate II. I've been doing this since I was freaking 11!)

I expect this movie to fall in the category of moviews like:

"Dragonslayer"
"Willow"
"Legend" (w/Tom Cruise)
"Labyrinth" (w/David Bowie)
"Conan" Series
"Krull"

If you haven't seen any of these, you really should. "Willow" and "Krull" were the best w.r.t monsters and NPCs. "Labyrinth" actually tried to pull a few Zork-like puzzles (a la the truth-teller/liar dilemma). Campy, D&D themed, but it's a tough genre to do well. "Excalibur" is, IMO, the best D&D movie to date, even though there weren't any cool monsters. "Time Bandits" and the "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" are also loads of fun and resemble D&D-like fantasy.

"All kids love 'Beholder'!"


---
Unto the land of the dead shalt thou be sent at last.
Surely thou shalt repent of thy cunning.

Re:Waiting for LotR

[Apotsy]

"Party's over!" (Hee, hee!)

Come on!

[B-Rad]

Holy sweet Jesus, could it get any more formulaic? From the wise-cracking black guy (at least it's not a wise-cracking black guy being CGI rendered as Jar-Jar), to the pseudo-heroic main character who gets the girl in the end, to the evil guy who's trying to take over the entire world because it's his destiny, there aren't many generic points that haven't been touched. Quest for a magical item? It's there! Creepy sidekick to the bad guy with weird facial features? He's there!

Jeremy Irons, how low you've slipped. For shame.

Re:Come on!

[gad_zuki!]

There are only so many plots and story elements to work with, if you intend to make a satisfying piece of work.

I'm sure anyone in film or the lowliest film student would disagree with that. Its called mass-marketing and a generic overly-used formula. There's tons of creativity out there, I've seen more 'satisfying pieces of work' at iFilm.com with a budget that is around what it costs to film 1/300th of a second of films like these.

Re:Come on!

[gad_zuki!]

Even the stereotypes here are embarassing, they're not D&D sterotypes they're big studio types like, "Okay we need a wise-ass black urban kid who's streetsmart but in the end has a warm heart." I can't accept a 20th century wise-cracker and then this dramaticly role-played villian in the same movie based in a fictional past world.

Keep your characters and setting consistant, please. Not only does this look a lot like TPM, it'll be just as silly.

Re:Come on!

[pb]

Yeah, it reminded me too much of Episode I, but with the villian from Howard The Duck. (I'm sure he isn't the same guy, but he has the annoying grating cheesy villian voice down pat)

I'll reserve judgement until I see it, and forgive me, osm, but it looks like Thora Birch will be the next Natalie Portman... :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Re:Come on!

[tuffy]

For added authenticity, the characters, plot and theme of the D&D film were all rolled randomly and the results turned into the script. I expect the sequel will feature even larger quantities of both cola and chips.

Re:Come on!

[Evangelion]

At least the black wisecracking sidekick isn't named 'Superfly'....

--

Re:Come on!

[NineNine]

It's as predictable as The Matrix. It's made for simple-minded people. It'll do great.

Re:Come on!

[B-Rad]

Pfft. "Big Trouble in Little China" is one of my favourite comedy movies.

That doesn't mean that a movie can appeal to the gamers and not be good at the same time. It looks to me that they could've done a much better job of it and not been so damned formulaic.

damnit...

[GoNINzo]

As a consultant out onsite Akamai, I wonder what they are doing about direct links like this...

and if only I knew the system better, would it be cool to replace it with one of the Mac-using-but-Intel-advertisors Blue Man Group commercials?

--
Gonzo Granzeau

Re:damnit...

[Tide]

Its nothing really devastating if people link to the akamai link, Im sure its prefered. Apple still gets the head count. Whereas is joesfansite downloads it, and puts it on theirs, Apple doenst get that count.

Re:damnit...

[lamp77]

Couldn't you use mod-perl to rewrite urls on the way in and the way out, that way no direct urls exist. think of it, akamai.com/12988748930384747646745909 rewrite it and fire it wherever it needs to go. Maybe?

Consumer Warning

[MAXOMENOS]

This message is to warn all consumers not to confuse D&D (the movie) with a cheap ripoff, called MUD (the movie).

Although they may seem alike in some respects (both are set in a fantasy world with fantastic creatures, monsters, magic, etc.) one was produced by Hollywood studios for millions of dollars, while the other was produced by a band of computer geeks who barely know each other and wanted all the thrill of a role-playing game without much of the actual role-playing. While MUD (the movie) does have a cast of thousands of characters, all of them have (mostly) the same items, with the lead characters having an insane amount of gold and experience. What's worse, they fight the same monsters over and over again, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning, with long breaks where the characters do nothing but sleep. The characters start saying things for no apparent reason (what does 'lag' mean anyway?) and sometimes disappear or end up frozen in place for no apparent reason.

While there is nothing illegal about MUD (the movie), we are concerned that unscrupulous theater managers and video vendors may try to pass off MUD (the movie) as D&D (the movie). Don't settle for immitations. The real D&D movie is not yet in theatres, nor are tapes of it available. If someone should represent MUD (the movie) as D&D (the movie) please contact the MPAA immediately. It is vitally important that the MPAA not be denied the money it needs to dest^H^H^H^Hprotect artistic freedom. Thank you.

fearbush.com

Re:Consumer Warning

[Dexx]

nice...
That does sum up MUDding rather well..

Re:akamai

[Mozz Alimoz]

Since Akamai's load balancing is done by the DNS system you will get all the load balancing benefits by using the Akamai URL - unless you replace the a123.g.akamai.net hostname with the IP address that it resolves for you at one particular time.

Re:Conscience strikes

[niekze]

So the bus boycotts in the 60's were wrong since they were harming the profitability of the bus drivers? It isn't they're fault that civil rights didn't exist at the time. idiot

Scathing review of this travesty at Gamegrene.com

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out www.gamegrene.com for a full synopsis and blistering review.

Plus they also have an ongoing series reviewing some of the best fantasy movies of the 1980s.

Good to see a comparison, and how bad this new one is compared to the old classics.

Last frame of the trailer

[Rupert]

AOL keyword: DnD
Internet keyword: DnD

Did I misread it? If not, what is an internet keyword? My browser (IE5 - I'm at work) thinks I want to go to MSN when I type DnD in the address box.

--

Re:Last frame of the trailer

[Rupert]

Interestingly, the top 10 links in the MSN search are all for the Canadian military. And then IE5 GPFed on me.

Is Dungeons & Dragons really a Canadian conspiracy as many have suspected all along?

--

Slashdot and the double standard

[BRock97]

Anyone else find it interesting that when Slashdot posts a link to Microsoft documents, they fight the resulting lawsuit. When they get a request to remove a link to a really cool movie, they comply without a problem. Not a troll, just curious as to the difference.

Bryan R.

LotR vs. SW:Episode I

[bziman]

A few people have alluded to this, but I'm going to come right out and say it: This trailer looks like a cross between Lord of the Rings and The Phantom Menace.

We've got:

• cute/innocent chick ruler (From Ep1)
• Nasty council/advisor types (From Ep1)
• Marlon Wayans vs. Jar Jar (From Ep1)
• Way cool CG cities (From Ep1)
• Way cool CG dragons (From LotR)
• Kids with swords (From both)
• Bad guys with stupid makeup (From Ep1)
• Creepy Goblins (From LotR)
• Lightning from finger tips (okay, that was EpVI...)
• Extremely dramatic music (From LotR)
• Interesting arial battles (From Ep1)
• Kids with swords (From LotR)
• "Kill them slowly... AHHHH!" vs "Wipe them out, all of them... AHHHH!" (From Ep1)

All that said, this looks really cool, and as someone mentioned, this will be good filler while we wait for Lord of the Rings. And Marlon Wayans is funny, unlike Jar Jar.

--brian

A better link - and a first Impression

[localman]

This looks pretty poor. And I'm an pretty easy to please guy when it comes to movies. It looks like not enough people involved with the production of the film have ever played D&D - or any other role playing game for that matter. Or maybe they just have a very shallow interpretation of it all. After this movie, people who have never used their imagination will think "Oh yeah - I know all about D&D". Six weeks later it will all be forgotten.

I'm pretty excited about Lord of the Rings, though.

Ack! Troll... Where's my +3 Flameblade? (more..)

[Bradly]

All humor aside. Even thought I think that this poster is quite touched in the head, it just reminds me how diverse the geek-culture is. Or how devoted to perpetutating the sad stereotype that gamers (D&D specifically) are evil bad people, it is guys just like this that burned "witches" in Salem.

What is up with that? I don't play anymore, but it
seemed at the time that it was a really good creative way to pass the time. I wasn't into religion (although I went to church), and am a devout agnostic (atheist without the commitment) to this day.

Its funny how readily Christians (mostly protestant Christians in my experience) slip from the "suffer not a witch to live", to the New Testament "every man loveth his neighbor" when it suits there argument.

BTW, I didn't notice other comments going in this direction so I posted it under the original poster. Sosumi.

positive ID

[willis]

Actually, it is Carmina Burana -- or at least something heavily based on it. I've listened to CB on cd and in concert, and though I don't remember that exact section, it sounds like somebody just chopped up the vocals a bit so that it is in harmony or something else with the original...(have to sound a LITTLE original, right?) The killer is that the end of the audio IS the same as CB, exactly.

The thing that pisses me off is that the rest of the Carmina Burana is really pretty too, but people always play that first part, and then always say "Oh, that's excalibur!".

If you've got a few bucks, go by a cheap CD, it's pretty!

willis/

Waiting for LotR

[Enoch Root]

There's a couple of problems with that movie from the onset of the trailer... To name a few:

The impossibly goody-two-shoes empress who believes everyone should be nice is gonna be the leader of the good guys?

Thanks to that Scary Movie guy for proving once again that in action movies, black guys should play the scared comedic thief with no morals and a thirst for easy cash.

Blue lipstick??? That's supposed to look evil?

If the dragons look like CGI at this resolution, can you imagine them on a movie screen?

"Then we'll make them go through a dungeon! Yeah! Because, you know, we've got dragons, but where are the dungeons? Huh?"

My little brother DM'ed stories that sounded more original when he was 11.

That being said, for some reason, I still find this exciting. First, it's gonna be a filler while we wait for LotR... And if they can make something that slick with the shoestring budget and two-bits director they have, can you imagine what Peter Jackson and a decent budget will turn up?

If I had a time machine, I'd go straight to Christmas 2001!

Re:Waiting for LotR

[the_tsi]

You're forgetting a major point. Dungeons and Dragons has Richard O'Brien. With RoB, you can "time warp" to 2001 (and then do it again... and again...). So you probably want to see D&D after all.

-Chris
"But it's the 5D100 that really drives you insa-a-a-a-ane."

Re:You fools!

[Bradly]

I also defy Singaporean(?)law. You know why? It doesn't apply to me.

You challenge us players to what? What argument are you making? Whether god exists in the way that you believe he does? It is not an argument, it is a discussion. There can be no conclusive proof that either side is correct, although I am _sure_ that you believe otherwise.

Or do you just want somewhat to show up so you can browbeat them with your beliefs.

By the way can someone who doesn't believe in god be a satan worshipper? Or are we just the same as satan worshippers because be don't believe what you believe?

I think you are hilarious, but I don't think I'd want to meet you, you might shoot me to end my dark reign of terror. (Gandolf Halfling: Am I in the same room where he's casting all these spells? DM: No! Your in the tavern!)

He rolls a save vs. death. You missed.

Re:Conscience strikes....

[WhiskeyJack]

....for double damage! Roll 6d6 and let's see how badly that really hurt....

-- WhiskeyJack

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[Stephen Samuel]

Somebody goes out and shoots the guy that's been teasing him for the last 2 years and, when they find out that he's played D&D, they try and ban D&D.

Another guy goes into the military, gets demolitions training, then comes out and blows up a couple hundred Oklahoma civilians. Do you see them trying to ban the military???

NOOOOOO!!!!!!

Now, that's hypocracy for you.
`ø,,ø`ø,,ø!

The visuals are SOOOOOO BAD!

[GeekDork]

Noticed the black border around some objects, especially the fireballs those peksy mages cast at the attacking dragons near the end (why don't they use some spell which can't miss? They seem to be above level 5...)? The cityscape isn't great either.
Acting seems sub-par, only the thief manages to deliver his C/N alignment. The rest seems to be all either N/N ("who cares?") or C/E ("I'll just kill you, right?")
And WTF is an "internet keyword"?
I just can't wait to read the critics...

A stroke of originality!

[MaximumBob]

Wow! They came up with the plot for an action movie full of lots of swordfighting! And then they thought, "You know what this trailer needs? Orff's Carmina Burana!"

Re:A stroke of originality!

[jonnythan]

Hmm...I don't think that's Carmina Burana. Then again, I've heard a total of maybe 10 minutes of CB (the part they played in Excalibur :), so I may just have not gotten that far.

;)

Another reason to hate my PC

[ackthpt]

Download 28 Meg file

*twiddle thumbs*
*twiddle thumbs*
*twiddle thumbs*
*twiddle thumbs*
*twiddle thumbs*
*twiddle thumbs*
*twiddle thumbs*
*twiddle thumbs*
*twiddle thumbs*

Windows Media Player pops up

(CrudMaster.dll rolls dice)
Invalid File Format
(nothing in cache directory, either)


--

corporate rules

[razorguy0]

we want more cool movies to come out so we have 2 choices: 1. go see cool movies, as much as possible, the bean counters will see large box office and ok a number of BAD clones of the original. Don't go and see any of these movies, maybe the head bean counter will be able to do the "make original movies dude" math. 2. become a billionaire, then setup a production company that only makes cool movies! MPAA ... money isn't really the issue to them, it is to 2600.

Time Warner

[Stalcair]

Why are they bad again? Are they bad because they merged with AOL, or is there more?

Just curious, and my brain is rather fried right now from trying to fix my network, so I really can't remember what they have done.

Re:CGI Quality

[mr3038]

couldn't they have borrowed the ILM/Illusion Arts team that did Dragonheart?

They *could have*, but because all nerds are going to view this anyway why bother. After all everyone knows that while ILM does really good work their work is also really expensive.

On the other hand it could be that people in charge have no clue what CGI should look like nowadays and this was not a low cost solution only.
_________________________

Re:wow its huge..

[Geeky Frignit]

Downloadable, yes it is. I got it and played it back at full screen in quicktime. Makes things much better, IMHO.

Re:Sigh... what are you kids thinking?

[Stephen Samuel]

I request that someone Moderate The parent of this thread back up... For two reasons:

1. It looks like it's a genuine, honestly held belief.
2. You may disagree with it, but that's not the point of moderation.
3. I can't count.
4. It's led to some serious discussion, but most people are now missing the source of the discussion by default.
5. The issue of free speech gets it's real test when you have someone honestly speaking something you viciously disagree with.
6. Don't you wish that book-burning christian sites would allow the geek reply in their space?? Well, here's a chance to live by example.

I defend to the death your right to speak your stupid opinion (and my right to respond).
`ø,,ø`ø,,ø!

Oh, lookie.

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

A Beholder
----------

Giving money to T-W isn't the issue

[FortKnox]

The issue isn't giving money to time-warner... its if my loan will be approved so that I can afford a popcorn and drink.


-- Don't you hate it when people comment on other people's .sigs??

The Geek Coming

[MacSamurai]

I don't think you're showing enough Geek Spirit here! Come now if you were hardcore you should do what me and my buddies are, dress up in your favorite character class and lay siege to the castle!...er movie theater. I call upon all the Geeks in the land to rise up and rejoice, the day of judgement is at hand, no longer shall we be afraid to admit that we are gamers! Throw off the chains of social subjucation, take up arms, draw thy sword, and go forth. For, now we are truly free Geeks!!!

The trailers are on apple.com

[Delirium Tremens]

• 480x360 (28773 k)
• 320x240 (13874 k)
• 240x180 (6121 k)

Internet Keywords

[sulli]

This refers to "Internet Keywords" (tm) from Real Names. I don't know a soul who uses them, though, except possibly Mado nna .

Re:Conscience strikes

[arcturus21]

Movie writers, directors, and actors are all overpaid as it is. I don't see why that would be bad, nor do I see why I would want to support them making an even more disgusting figure than they do now.

Save your money! Run for the hills!

[The Gline]

My God, if this awful trailer isn't enough to convince people to stay at home and play the game (that's probably more entertaining than the damn movie in the first place), then there's very little to convince. What genius thought of the jive-talking elf?

Movie info.

[TrevorB]

IMDB Link:

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0190374

Re:Movie info.

[slothdog]

From IMDB:

Recommendations
If you like this title, we also recommend...

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)

Erm....'nuff said.

Canadian government plot

[KarmaChameleon]

I get this when I type DnD into IE5... it leads me to think this movie is some sort of plot by the Canadian Armed Forces to dominate the minds of geeks everywhere.

kc.

Re:Canadian government plot

[Mike1024]

Hey,

when I type DnD into IE5... it leads me to think this movie is some sort of plot by the Canadian Armed Forces

These canadians have a thing called the Department of National Defense, leading to the acronym DND. This is in thier domain names (like http://www.dnd.ca/).

Search engines tend to give priority to keywords found in domain names, because they tend to have more chance of having a relationship. This is happening here.

Michael

...another comment from Michael Tandy.

Conscience...

[Mike1024]

Hey,

Conscience strikes: should I see this movie and give my money to Time-Warner?

Why not go to your cinema, pay to see a small, independent movie then when they let you in, 'accidentally' go into the wrong screen (These big multi-screen cinemas sure are getting big nowerdays) and watch it, whilst giving your money to the small independents?

It's not really legal, but as has ben said so many times before: It's not stealing unless something is missing.

Michael

...another comment from Michael Tandy.

It's Episode 1 all over again...

[amaroq]

The impossibly goody-two-shoes empress who believes everyone should be nice is gonna be the leader of the good guys?

Remind you of anyone? I'll give you a hint: in real life, Slashdot readers as a majority seem to favor pouring hot grits into her pants.

Thanks to that Scary Movie guy for proving once again that in action movies, black guys should play the scared comedic thief with no morals and a thirst for easy cash.

Mes-a name-a Jar-Jar Binks!

Blue lipstick??? That's supposed to look evil?

Well, red and black face-paint worked for Darth Maul...

If the dragons look like CGI at this resolution, can you imagine them on a movie screen?

Mes-a name-a Jar-Jar Binks!

"Then we'll make them go through a dungeon! Yeah! Because, you know, we've got dragons, but where are the dungeons? Huh?"

Sorry, I don't have any witty comment about that one. But you get the idea.

Re:Conscience strikes

[E_D]

On the contrary. Time-Warner will still be hurt and MORE pressure would be put on them if they couldn't get decent actors/actresses, writers, directors, etc because of a boycott. The boycott would also put pressure on the people involved to not participate in any Time-Warner films.

Yes, the people involved wouldn't make as much money, but it would be the fault of a boycott on Time-Warner policy. The point of a boycott is to put pressure to "force" change. You can't put pressure on a company as big as Time-Warner without hurting someone.

So yes, it does mean you should avoid it if your conscience dictates it.

the saddest thing....

[Papa Legba]

The saddest thing is that they have made a movie about a game that is about your imagnination. How ironic can you get?

How can we tell that this is a D&D movie over any other type of movie? Dragonheart was a D&D movie right? So was conan the barbarian , etc. Are we going to get to see a character get knocked over by a wayward dice roll? That would be the only definative way to tell it was a D&D movie.
They all owe their life to Lord of the Rings anyways so can't we say this is just a trailer that movies coming out? sorta like a compare and contrast thing with LoTR.

Dah

[bdigit]

The year is 2024, I have finally managed to finish the download of the quicktime trailer of D&D, the movie has been out for over 20+ years now. The slashdot affect once again has shown to be too much for a server to handle.

wow its huge..

[josepha48]

This is probably the biggest trailer that I have seen yet. This is NOT a lowband trailer. It is almost 30 megs. Good thing for workplace and highspeed lines.

I don't want a lot, I just want it all!
Flame away, I have a hose!

money to TW? nah

[cheezus]

Conscience strikes: should I see this movie and give my money to Time-Warner?

thank god for mpeg-4 bootlegs!

---

Re:money to TW? nah

[MarkLR]

Since the production company that put up the money to produce it depends on ticket, video and DVD sales to recoup its costs, I guess you don't care about them making a sequel or any other movies in the future.

Quicktime Lesson

[green pizza]

Quicktime is not just an app, a file format, or a plugin, but rather an entire media layer for Mac OS and Windows (granted Apple's Mac OS uses it a great deal more than Windows). A Quicktime file (such as a .mov) can contain not just audio and video, but several tracks of each (alternative languages, for example) but also text, effects, vector graphics, and more. These days Apple is pushing Sorenson Video 2 as the codec of choice for most Quicktime movies, and as it stands this codec is only available for Mac OS and Windows. Asking Apple to port the Quicktime architecture and some Quicktime-savvy players and other tools to Linux is not the only way to try to get modern .mov playback on Linux. You may want to contact Sorenson or a Linux developer to look into the possibilty of licensing Sorenson Video 2 for a Linux player.

For now, why not just contact the producers of these websites and their downloadable movies and request that they provide an MPEG-1 or DiVX version as well.

Great visuals, poor acting...

[Sinistar2k]

I was incredibly excited about the D&D movie until I watched this trailer. For some reason, I was certain that this film would hold me over until Lord of the Rings is released next year. But, there were a few things that struck me as warning signs:

1. The bad, evil sorcerer keeps his hair parted, and when wind blows into his coiffed creation, he looks like Buster Poindexter.
2. It co-stars Jar Jar Binks. Oh, wait, no, I guess that's just Marlon Wayans. Same thing.
3. The main character says, "Trust me," right there in the trailer. The use of the phrase "trust me" in a trailer is a sign of impending crap storytelling 90% of the time. To my recollection, the only film that really bucked that trend was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which used "Trust me" in the trailer, but then didn't suck.
4. The male lead looks like he's fresh from a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers casting call. It just seems "seriously wrong".
5. The use of the word "kinda" in a fantasy setting.

It seems like this is pointed squarely at the teen movie market, but one would think that the market who would connect best with D&D is the 18-34 market (y'know, people who were alive when parents across the US were afraid that their role playing kids would become involved in the occult and commit suicide when their characters died).

Admittedly, I don't know the story here. Maybe it's the same as the old D&D cartoon - a couple of kids are magically transplanted into the game and have to play it to get out. In that case, all this hokey teen crap works, because they would be from a different world, but if we are to believe that these characters were part of this world from day one...

Please, Peter Jackson, deliver us from bad fantasy films.

Re:Great visuals, poor acting...

[British]

It looks like Jeremy Irons is doing a bit of overacting in the trailer alone....

As for the modern day dialog in a fantasy setting, look no further than any dialog in Xena.

Re:Great visuals, poor acting...

[bratgrrl]

And don't forget the wimpy princess. And the Carmina Burana ripoff. And the Myst ripoff. Studly white hero. Stepinfetchit. romance with wimpy princess. Sigh.

Fast Food movie

[Duperman]

Let's just see how long it takes Taco Bell to get screenshots onto their large beverage cups. Duperman

The Lord Commands us to judge...

[NathanielPRobbins]

The Lord Jesus Christ commanded, "Judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24). He told a man, "Thou hast rightly judged" (Luke 7:43). To others, our Lord asked, "Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" (Luke 12:57).

The Apostle Paul wrote, "I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say" (1 Corinthians 10:15). Again, Paul declared, "He that is spiritual judgeth all things" (1 Corinthians 2:15). It is our positive duty to judge.

Many who piously quote, "Judge not," out of its connection, in order to defend that which is false to God's Word, do not see their own inconsistency in thus judging those who would obey God's Word about judging that which is untrue to the Bible. It is tragic that so much that is anti- Scriptural has found undeserved shelter behind a misuse of the Scripture just quoted. The passages you quote, pertain to a hypocrite. Which you would understand if you had ever bothered to read more than bits and pieces from the Bible. As a True Christian, I am ready to be judged by the Almighty God, and thus am worthy to use His Word, conatained in the bible, to pass on His Judgement.

Take it and be Saved. Or ignore it and suffer the eternal consequences.

Re:We both know there is more to D & D than that..

[Fat Rat Bastard]

Yeah, like no one has ever killed in the name of Christ (or Budda or Yaweh or any other God of choice). The Crusaids... that was just a christian field trip, right?

Nathan

Jaw-dropping

[Jothom]

I thought that the movie was going to suck, but I have to say that after seeing that trailor, I am thoroughly impressed with what they have done with the movie. Brings back memories... Couldn't help but think what kind of saving role you would have to do to accomplish running down a hall of flames and jumping through a small hole with a door closing. ;)

The return of Logan St. Claire!

[ChicagoFan]

As a fan of the "Sliders" epsidoes that were actually halfway decent, it's nice to see Zoe McLellan getting a major movie role (she's Marina, one of the folks on the quest).

ChicagoFan

Tom Baker's in this?

[British]

I would have never though the fourth doctor(Doctor Who, for all you youngins) would be crossing the genre barrier into this.

This will be a geek extravaganza! Expect people camping in front of movie theaters for this and centerfolds in Starlog!