Dungeons & Dragons 3: The Book of Vile Darkness

Dungeons & Dragons 3: The Book of Vile Darkness is a 2012 British Fantasy Adventure film released direct-to-dvd and the third installment in the Dungeons & Dragons film series

Plot
A Paladin named Grayson has sworn to the order of the God Pelor to rid the world of the influence of Nharguul the Foul and his Book of Vile Darkness, and must join a group of theives and murderers in order to achieve that goal.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) Like all DnD movies, it is literally just there to capitalize on the idea of the board game with yet another half-assed story about a team of people saving the world.
 * 2) Unlike some of the others (including the previous one), it tries to be more mature, but thinks that entails making it super dark, violent, and edgy, as well as adding in some graphic sex scenes.
 * 3) Most of the characters, while they're supposed to be morally ambiguous, are just completely unlikeable instead and have no unique personalities besides being a bunch of bad people who do horrendous things. They also resort to a lot of cliche bad-guy things like forcing Grayson to kill one of their own in order to join them, why would anybody want to join them if that can happen? This group is pretty much like The Wild Bunch if they had no likeability whatsoever.
 * 4) There's a relationship between Grayson and Akordia that has no buildup and neither have any chemistry, it's pretty much there just to fill time.
 * 5) As you may have guessed by the abruptly short runtime, nothing in the world has time to be explained thoroughly, which forces them to rely on a bunch of cliches instead. Literally the first five minutes is an "edgy" photo reel with a long dialogue explaining the plot.
 * 6) Speaking of cliches, there's a lot of overdone story beats that feel very much like a stereotypical DnD campaign, like where the hero loses everything, buys a bunch of new stuff, then joins a clique that just happens to be going the same way he wants to.
 * 7) Weird makeup that looks really fake, with a standout example being Bezz's puss under his mask that looks more like melted candle wax.
 * 8) Very weird editing that's clearly pressed for time. In the beginning, Grayson and the knights of Pelor are attacked by barbarians, only for it to cut to black and show Grayson waking up alive while everyone else is dead and his father is missing. Did the barbarians spare him for some reason?
 * 9) Poor production value, due to having a lower budget than the two movies before it (which looked pretty bad on their own), plenty of costumes and sets look pretty fake.
 * 10) A lot of poorly choreographed fight scenes that look more like LARPing with a bored team.
 * 11) The main villain is a lazy plot device with no personality at all who only shows up at the very end to validate Grayson's journey, and he has a very cliche group of minions to boot.
 * 12) A very lazy climax where Grayson is suddenly able to easily defeat all the bad guys with sudden magic and faith.
 * 13) A non-existent ending that leaves multiple loose ends and lets some of the horrible characters get away with the horrible things they did.



Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The acting is an improvement over the previous movie. It's not great, but the actors (who were generally new and cheaper as a result) generally do a decent job.
 * 2) At least it tries something new with the series, rather than being another generic Lord of the Rings knockoff, even if it went a bit too far.
 * 3) It explores some actually interesting themes, like how Grayson is forced to do some bad things in order to achieve his goals. It even explores some interesting thoughts on religion and hypocrisy in some.
 * 4) Speaking of Grayson, he's actually a decently interesting character as he's (for the most part, anyway) not a blatant Gary Stu, and is in fact quite weak compared to those he's forced to work with. He's also more morally straight and often tries to keep a cool head and diffuse a situation, often by appealing to the selfish natures of his companions, which is pretty interesting. Admittedly, that last part is a little cliche, but the idea of doing some bad for the greater good is interesting.
 * 5) Though the effects and production value are still pretty bad, some parts still stand out, like improved special effects and plenty of costumes that are actually pretty well made (with the exceptions mentioned above).
 * 6) Pretty good cinematography which is a massive improvement over it's predecessors.
 * 7) Some actually kind of clever lines, like how Akordia offers to let Grayson keep a twelfth of their spoils to which he replies "A twelfth? But there's only six of us." "And I only see half a man."



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