Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God.

Centuries after his death the evil Damodar rises from beyond the grave and returns to life, armed with the most formidable of weapons - a black orb of unimaginable power, which will enable him to wreak terrible revenge on the Empire of Ismir, whose inhabitants once vanquished him.

It falls to five champions of Ismir to stop him, with prodigious feats of bravery and sorcery. They must face spectral ghouls, thundering armies, and huge winged dragons. Be vigilant. Be bold. The quest begins - let no one turn back.

This film is obviously most likely to appeal to fans of role playing games but it could find a wider audience because it’s certainly better than the film based on the same game that was released a few years ago, that featured a far better known cast and a far bigger budget. Wrath of the Dragon God, is fairly average, it’s inoffensive for the most part without ever reaching the heights that you might hope for. This is due to the fact that the actors are all basically unknowns and because of the low budget effects, and rather basic, yet at time meandering storyline. The actors do a reasonable job and in terms of fantasy it’s generally got the right idea – villains, monsters, heroes, swords and action and magic. However that’s perhaps where the film fails – there’s just not enjoy magic.

Wrath of the Dragon God is a decent attempt at making a Dungeons and Dragons film it’s really only let down by the budget. If it had received a larger budget I think it would have looked a lot better and might have got a cinema outing rather than going straight to DVD.
What is evident is the quality of the image, on blu-ray the film looks very good, the visuals are clear and crisp and whilst it’s not going to appear on every screen at your local John Lewis as a test disc to show blu-ray at its absolute flat out best, it’s still a decent transfer for this film.

By Kevin Stanley