Overhead at Origins:
“Would you seriously attack 2 battleships with a bomber and a carrier?”
“You have died of dysentery.” -Said by someone in a game where everyone points guns at each other.
“You look halfway competent. Can you tie this up?” -Said by a man in a chicken costume to a con employee.
“Have you seen their marketing? It’s a lady with a boob hanging out carrying a machine gun.”
After the events I listed yesterday, I took some time off to get some dinner and sit for a while. Then I hopped into the IceTowers tournament, which I won a few years back and have trying to recapture my title ever since. (I’m still the only player ever to win two IceTowers medallions in the same year.) I didn’t win, and as seems to be happening every year, the event is shrinking while the broken aspects of the game are showing themselves more. There’s a good chance that I won’t be playing next year.
The tournament ran long, but I made my way into a The Gamers: Dorkness Rising screening about 15 minutes late. It was standing room only, which I was only able to take advantage of because of the press pass. People were very excited to see the sequel, which has been 5 years coming. Afterwards, I stayed to see the movie Geekin’, one of the other gamer movies I profiled for one of our gift guides. Here’s some brief thoughts on both.
I missed the first part of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, which is not “The Gamers 2” because it’s not a sequel. We don’t find out until the very end for any connection between the two movies, and it’s tenuous but quite funny. The movies follow similar lines in that much of the game takes place in the fictional campaign world, with the same actors playing their fictional counterparts (except for Luster the Mage, who alternatively swaps between being a man and a woman.) There is a sub-plot around the DM encountering writer’s block while wanting to write a module, but primarily the movie focuses on the fantasy adventure (which, thanks to support from WotC, is actually D&D now.)
Dorkness Rising ramps up the D&D jokes ten-fold, with the PC’s dealing with having to distract the Paladin while they commit evil acts, the evil character insisting that she’s actually just Chaotic Neutral, items from old campaigns showing up, and the uselessness of Bards (and how often they’re killed- the one in the story takes a page from the Kenny playbook.)
In short, Dorkness Rising is filled with humor that is squarely targeted at gamers, but is easy enough to follow that I think that anyone would enjoy seeing it. Highly recommended, and I hope to do some interviews with the creators when the movie actually comes out. Which, by the way, may still be a while. They’re still trying to get the word out so they can be picked up for bigger distribution, and this is definitely a film that deserves it.
The room almost completely cleared out for Geekin’, showing that the Gamers name carries a lot of power, not just it being a movie about gaming. Geekin’ mainly follows Morgan, who meets Meredith in person after talking to her on the Internet for months. But then things get complicated when Morgan’s friend Brown hooks up with Meredith.
Geekin’ reminds me of many ways of early Kevin Smith in terms of style and humor (with a D&Dish twist), but unfortunately the dialogue isn’t nearly as strong. It often feels stilted and forced, with the actors not doing a whole lot to make it work. There are scenes in the fictional game world, but the travails of the game world aren’t integral to the story- mainly they’re just short scenes of combat.
There is quite a lot of drama as people make mistakes and are mean to each other, but there seems like the movie is trying to do too much. The final resolution involves Morgan and Brown reconciling, but we don’t see much of their strife along the way. And you really want to feel for Morgan, as he’s the hapless inarticulate nerd in love, but all he seems to do is be punished.
However, there are plenty of funny moments in the movie. The other members of the gaming group steal the show on many occasions, having their own fights along the way that threaten the sanctity of the game. (There’s even a Silent Bob-ish character who shows up halfway through, to further show the Kevin Smith influence.) The dysfunctions shown are pretty accurate, both in how gaming groups can’t get along for silly reasons and just in general 20-something outcast drama. However, I couldn’t help but compare it to Gamerz, which pulls off a bit more emotional resonance.
Geekin’ is definitely worth seeing, but maybe not worth owning. The company that made is does not have a presence in the exhibit hall here. I would probably buy it from a booth, but it wasn’t that great to require a special website order.
Also in attendance were Jon Collins and Tom Hieter of Fellowship of the Dice fame, showing solidarity to other gamer movies (and they also received a shout-out from the host of the Dorkness Rising screening). I talked to them briefly at their booth earlier, and promised that I would put up a review of their movie soon. I liked the movie, but it’s very different than the other two listed here, and so I really wanted to give it a second watch before I write a review.
Regardless, I say, the more movies (and dare I say TV?) about gamers, the better. Keep bringing them on, and I’ll keep watching.
Recent Comments