Dungeons and Dragons (or D&D) a famous board game closely associated with being labelled a nerd in the past, has become trendy due to association with uber popular “Stranger Things” (Netflix)

As most filmgoers know, converting video/board games to the big screen has a chequered history, at least until “Last of Us” appeared. How will a venerable, niche board-game fare, bearing in mind “Battleship” which is best left at the bottom of the ocean.

As a member of “Harpers” an order of peacekeepers, Bard Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), lived an honest life but temptation of riches led him astray, bringing tragedy to his door, as disciples of a Red Wizard murder his wife.

Having no choice to support himself and his young daughter (Chloe Coleman), he becomes a full time thief. He is later assisted by barbarian Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), Tiefling Druid Shapeshifter “Doric” (Sophia Lillis), lacking self-confidence sorcerer Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), likeable rogue Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), and mysterious acquaintance, Sofina (Daisy Head).

As all good adventures require, there is a movie “MacGuffin” (The Tablet of Reawakening) which must be acquired to enable Darvis’s wife to be restored to full health. Many obstacles will be strewn in the path of the troupe to enable them to achieve their aim. You know the drill, find this, find that, then go there, to discover something else.

The film treads a fine line, include enough nerd detail to please D&D fans and yet not exclude anyone who does not know their “Cleric” from their “Vecna”.

As one might expect, to realise this fantasy world there is a massive reliance on CGI. This includes digging up battleground corpses and fighting numerous monsters, with the troupe ending their quest in a massive “Hunger Games/Maze” style arena.

The characters are fun, Pine breezes through on his usual persona, Rodrigues provides fighting ability, with both Lillis and Smith good value in their respective roles. It’s pleasing to see casting diversity that works without seeming a deliberate choice to create “diversity”.

The film just about works as a whole and represents an entertaining couple of hours but flirts with parody, almost losing the gossamer thin plot in several places.

Regé-Jean Page pops up in a limited role as “Xenk”, adding some panache to the story. He plays a character with no sense of irony or humour, essaying the perfect movie hero before promptly disappearing again, which will do Page’s movie CV no harm.

Grant gets to play an almost pantomime villain, essentially Hugh Grant with a variety of foppish costume changes. Maybe he was tempted into the film with the prospect of his visage appearing on a large balloon in the closing sequences, who knows for sure.

Summary

A fun family film which more or less delivers what it promises, not the greatest film ever but largely avoids the video/board game curse.

The film sets up for a sequel but underwhelming box office may indicate it’s back to the dark dungeon for this fledgling franchise.