Leofwine_draca THE GAMERS: DORKNESS RISING is an indie comedy that explores the wacky world of Dungeons & Dragons and the people who play it. The story is about a real geek who wants to play the game seriously only to have his efforts thwarted by his group of friends wanting to mess around instead. This film is very cheap and slapdash, with wooden acting throughout, and some of the cosplay scenes are largely embarrassing. But there's no denying the enthusiasm of those involved, although to enjoy it you really need to be a fan of roleplaying games yourself.

siderite The first The Gamers film was a 45 minute fun fest, where some young guys in a dorm were role playing and the viewer would simultaneously see them in action. I think the biggest difference from that movie and the sequel is the enthusiasm of the players. In the sequel the players are older, having to deal with real life more, and the feeling has changed.That doesn't mean that it's bad, only different. I certainly appreciated some depth in the characters of the movie. The game master is organizing these games in order to overcome his writer's block. One of the player is always criticizing him because he is more interested in the story than "the rules" and brings frustration and ego into the mix. Things like that were not an issue in the goofy group of young gamers from the first film.The most striking change, of course, is the addition of a female player who changes the "attack, kill and ask questions later" dynamics of usual campaigns. The tension of a possible romantic relationship with the game master also add a little depth to the film.Not all is rosy, though. The girl chooses a character that has few hit points, but which has other attributes, like intelligence in order to negotiate out of conflicts and speed as to get extra hits after criticals, but it only uses the extra hits for comic relief at the beginning and her lack of HPs is not mentioned later in the film. Compare that with the poor bard who dies all the time or with the chaotic neutral wizard female character of a male player that seemed to be there for comic relief and decoration only.I have to say something about the girl gamer. The idea of inclusion in the game of the female perspective and wisdom was welcome, but its role exacerbated to ridiculous levels in the movie. In order to pull that off some of the other characters lost depth and gained a lot of unnecessary silliness. That kind of defeats the idea if the girl seems to only be capable of wisdom if all her male companions are idiots.Bottom line: fun film, but at times too slow and inconsistent. I liked how some actors from the old movie appear as secondary characters, some traumatized from older campaigns (lol Mark). Real life issues (where real life is still goofy, like being a writer for role playing campaigns) creeping in the gamer experience is also a thing that makes the film feel more real than the first. However it cannot capture the wackiness from the original The Gamers. I am looking forward to the Hands of Fate sequel. Wait, didn't they defeat The Shadow (The Shadow? The Shadow! The Shadow.) in the first film?

Protilius Best fan boy movie I've ever watched save "Free Enterprise."In some ways it reminded me of an early Kevin Smith film.If you do any kind of role playing, this movie will likely have you laughing often at its insatiable fun. Don't expect a big budget here, the acting is also questionable at times, but it really adds to the fun of the atmosphere they create. The script is truly humorous with a lot of witty moments worth experiencing.The bard that always gets killed had me rolling. The sexually confused player also had me smiling a bit too. But in the end... It was just a great movie showcasing some better moments in the lives of a few geeks having a great time with role playing.If you are bored, and ever got into role playing, this will do nicely for a distraction. A real unexpected treat.

David W I saw this at the screening at GenCon in Indy. I had some time to kill and decided to check it out. It played to about 1000 people in a packed standing-room-only ballroom.Wow, what a ride! The script was tight. The action tense. The pacing perfect. The character exposition excellent. One thing I really appreciated was that you knew going in that this wasn't a big budget film. Yet it soon became obvious that the creators pushed their sets and effects as far as they could despite their limitations. And it was more than enough. It's true that this film was targeted at a certain audience - gamers/tabletop players - the creators make no effort to hide that. But other filmmakers could learn a lot from them. For in going for the jugular in scene after scene and not worrying about if Mom who happens to be watching will "get it", they got the biggest laughs time and time again. But there's enough universality there that Mom will be laughing too, even if she's not in on every joke. I think too many times I see films that try so hard to lower the bar to the lowest common denominator so that they will appeal to the most people, but the movie just ends up suffering for it.But not this flick. Indeed, this film was so solid that it had the audience wrapped around it's finger from the opening credits. And, while the viewers around me *really* wanted to like the film, they weren't pushovers - gamers can be among the most critical niche out there. I'm so glad I got to see this in a big crowd. At least 10 times the audience was having such a good time that they erupted into applause at a joke or scene during the film. How often does that happen at screenings? It should be no surprise that there was a huge standing ovation when the closing credits rolled.For my own part, I can't wait for this to be released. After it ended, one of the producers said they were shooting for a simultaneous TV/DVD release. That date cannot come soon enough.