What makes a real, Dungeons and Dragons-type movie?
Being a former player of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons way back in the day, is a plus and a minus. I know what to expect from any movie that purports to be designed along the lines of AD&D. Someone who has never played AD&D, Warcraft, or its ilk, much less the Tolkien trilogy books, wouldn't know better.
Till this day, the movie in my memory that best comes close to the spirit of AD&D is from 1980, HAWK THE SLAYER. Someone who knew and played Dungeons and Dragons wrote that movie script. The following decades of movies that relied on AD&D mythos seemed to fall short, as if the directors never played the game and instead assumed these were just, 'swords and sandals' retro flicks of yesteryear Hollywood, a la 1950s and early 60s.
My ambition holds out that some adventuresome director succeeds in filming a AD&D movie based on the AD&D 1980 game module, "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks". Such a movie would combine AD&D with science fiction. It makes no sense to write, 'spoilers' here since there is no such movie yet.
A faraway land is being plagued by bizarre creatures and monsters around its mountainous frontier. A team of adventurers gather for an expedition to to the distant, frontier Barrier Peaks to reconnoiter and discover the source and cause of the origins of the strange creature attacks. If possible, put a stop to the attacks. The intrepid team of dungeons and dragons adventurers find a strange, massive, metallic dwelling lodged into a mountainous saddle. Being of a medieval-like mindset, they have no concept of a crashed spaceship. The alien spaceship was carrying animal creature specimens from other planets, some of which survived the crash and escaped to wreak havoc. Inside the derelict crashed spaceship, the adventurers will encounter a myriad of dangers, including from that of technology for which they have no concept. Some will discover energy hand weapons. If they survive the dungeon master's roll dice of random acts, they will avoid shooting themselves with it. If their intelligence and wisdom levels are high enough, some lucky characters will learn to use the hi-tech weapons and keep it with them throughout the expeditions.