Movie Review: Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God

Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God a.k.a Dungeons & Dragons 2: The Elemental Might a.k.a Dungeons & Dragons: The Sequel 

Skyline Dungeon & Dragons Ltd., Studio Hamburg WorldWide Pictures, Sweetpea BVI Ltd., Zinc Entertainment Inc., Germany, UK, Lithuania, USA, 2005. 

Hundred years after the first movie evil formerly blue lipped Damodar (Bruce Payne) is now a cursed undead. Evil artifact gives his life back. Life is good thinks Damodar, now it is time to get revenge on city of Ismir. 

Damodar

Bored tax minister Berek (Mark Dymond) wants adventure. Sitting behind the desk has taken its toll and he is not quite as good fighter as he was before as his former student Valerious (Vytautas Rumsas) points out. Berek's wife Melora (Clemency Burton-Hill) is a low-level mage but she wants to join the Mages' council some day. Her attempt to practise mending spell has quite devastating results.

Berek

Melora

Citizen of Saragasso comes to ask for help as there is something evil in the mountains. Colossal black dragon is sleeping in the cave. Thousands of years ago Turanian people imprisoned dragon god Faluzure and created an Orb that keeps the dragon sleeping. Now Damodar has the Orb and the world is in danger. As a bonus Damodar puts a curse on Melora so she will slowly turn into an undead. 

Lux

Dorian, Ormaline, Nim and Lux

Group of bravest heroes is chosen to stop Damodar. As Valerious is on some trivial mission Berek volunteers instead to lead the party (in your face Valerious!) Barbarian Lux (Ellie Chidzey), cleric Dorian (Steven Elder), elf wizard Ormaline (Lucy Gaskell), rogue Nim (Tim Stern) form the group of adventurers.

Klaxx the Lich

Dorian casts Turn Undead

Liches, spectres, dragons and deadly traps await the heroes. Meanwhile the mages and Melora try to find out information about Turanians. Klaxx the Lich (Aurimas Meliesius) helps Damodar awaken the undead dragon god. And the dragon god is angry...

Dragon god Faluzure

After the abysmal first movie, the budget is now considerably lower. The special effects are standard Syfy-level although there are some quite impressing dragon scenes. What is great is that now the movie is faithful to the Dungeons & Dragons lore. The gamers will notice the references to familiar items and monsters. The plot feels more serious (but not as dark as the third D&D movie) and luckily there are no Snails-style stupid sidekicks. Nim comes the closest of being the comical character, but in a street credible way and he certainly has professional thieving skills. There is also chemistry between Nim and Lux, with their mutual disliking turning into respect. Bruce Payne who was about the only tolerable thing in the first movie, has now fun as the main villain of the story. However at some points the film feels like watching a larping session (dice not included). Still it is fairly enjoyable and reminds of 1980s low budget fantasy adventures or episodes of "Xena: Warrior Princess". 

Rating: Good (if you are a Dungeons & Dragons / low budget fantasy fan) 

Starring: Bruce Payne, Mark Dymond, Clemency Burton-Hill, Ellie Chidzey, Tim Stern, Steven Elder, Lucy Gaskell, Roy Marsden, Geoffrey T. Bersey, Leonas Ciunis, Liubomiras Lauciavicius, Ervinas Peteraitis, Vytautas Rumsas, David Merheb, Aurimas Meliesius, Laurynas Jurgelis, Andrius Zebrauskas, Arturas Orlauskas, Leonardas Pobedonoscevas, Tauras Cizas, Tomas Vaitkus, Arturas Builovas, Mykolas Dorofejus, Ramunas Abukevicius, Evaldas Leskauskas, Tomas Zaibus, Dawn Akemi, John Frank Rosenblum, Ed Stark 

Director: Gerry Lively