When the 2005 direct-to-video sequel Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God limped onto screens, it managed the improbable feat of being even more disappointing than its 2000 predecessor. That first film, for all its vaulting ambition and hefty budget, had at least failed in spectacular fashion—an utterly misguided adaptation of the megapopular role-playing game that shows how not to translate tabletop magic to celluloid. Wrath of the Dragon God, by contrast, simply sank without a trace, a cheap and cheerless affair that few bothered to watch and fewer still remember. One might have assumed that its director, the British cinematographer Gerry Lively, would have taken this as a sign to steer well clear of the franchise. Not a bit of it. Apparently undeterred by the indifference greeting his previous effort, Lively returned to the director's chair in 2011 to shoot yet another sequel, released a year later under the unwieldy title Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness.
The script, written by Brian Rudnick, draws its inspiration from the Book of Vile Darkness—an optional supplemental sourcebook for the game's 3rd edition, published in 2002 and notable chiefly for being the first D&D publication explicitly labelled for mature audiences. This fact appears to have been seized upon by the filmmakers as a licence to indulge in the sort of grimdark posturing that mistakes edginess for depth.
The film opens with a lengthy narration detailing the exploits of the evil sorcerer Nhagruul the Foul, who, facing his own mortality, fashioned the eponymous tome as a means to extend his wicked influence beyond the grave. The book possessed a rather unfortunate habit of turning anyone who perused its pages irredeemably evil, and under its baleful influence, Nhagruul's followers wreaked havoc upon the kingdom of Kharkot until they were finally thwarted by a band of courageous warriors—devoted followers of Pelor, god of light, who styled themselves the Knights of the New Sun.
The narrative proper commences centuries thereafter, by which time Nhagruul and his creation have faded into half-remembered legend and the Knights' influence has waned considerably. Our protagonist is Grayson (Jack Degres), a young Paladin who presents himself for initiation into the order only to suffer the humiliation of rejection—his amulet, he is informed, is worthless. The indignity is compounded when barbarians launch a brutal assault upon the Knights' stronghold, abducting Grayson's father Ranfin (Anthony Howell) in the chaos.
Determined to rescue his father, Grayson adopts a desperate stratagem: he infiltrates a band of mercenaries known to collaborate with the barbarians. This unsavoury crew is led by the sorceress Akordia (Eleanor Gecks), accompanied by Bezz the Vermin Lord (Barry Aird), the assassin Seith (Lex Daniels), and the barbarian Vimak (Habib Nasib Nader). The mercenaries have been retained by the villainous Lord Shatrax (Tsvetan Hristov), who harbours ambitions of reassembling the scattered pages of the Book of Vile Darkness. Their immediate objective is a horn that serves as a guide to the book's location, currently guarded by a deadly wyvern. Grayson slays the beast and saves Akordia's life in the process, precipitating a romantic entanglement that sits rather awkwardly with his Paladin vows of abstinence from worldly pleasures.
Shot on location in Bulgaria, The Book of Vile Darkness represents a marginal improvement upon its immediate predecessor. The special effects, whilst hardly likely to trouble the major studios, are deployed with greater restraint; practical effects and physical action take precedence over digital spectacle. This is commendable in principle, yet Lively's direction remains pedestrian at best. The action sequences are frequently incoherent, marred by choppy editing and a paucity of spatial clarity. More troubling is the film's assumption that viewers will arrive with at least a passing familiarity with D&D lore. The exposition is threadbare to the point of negligence, leaving the uninitiated to puzzle over references to Pelor, the nature of Paladin oaths, and the significance of various magical artefacts.
That said, there is a genuine attempt to honour the "darkness" of the source material in the scripting. The decision to populate the narrative predominantly with evil or unsympathetic characters—Grayson's mercenary companions are, by any reasonable measure, utter rotters—creates an unusual dynamic wherein the protagonist must constantly struggle to maintain his moral compass amidst corruption. This moral tension, whilst hardly subtle, lends the proceedings a certain frisson absent from previous entries.
The film also embraces the "mature" designation in literal fashion, featuring a handful of scenes with nudity and sexual content—a first for the franchise, though one suspects this owes more to commercial calculation than artistic integrity.
The cast is largely composed of unknowns, with Anthony Howell representing the most recognisable face thanks to his stint as Sgt. Paul Milner in Foyle's War and his extensive voice work in video games. Eleanor Gecks has her features obscured by elaborate facial tattoos in a somewhat unsuccessful attempt to disguise her casting as eye candy; nevertheless, she shares a credible romantic chemistry with Derges, who proves rather less convincing as the troubled protagonist.
Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness is not an unmitigated disaster. There are moments when the film achieves a certain watchable competence, and dedicated fans of the game may find enough references and recognisable tropes to sustain their interest. For the general viewer, however—indeed, for anyone beyond the most undemanding of D&D enthusiasts—this remains a waste of time: a cheap, cheerless fantasy adventure that squanders its modest improvements through indifferent direction and a script that mistakes grimness for gravitas.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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