‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Is a Maze for the Uninitiated

Dragons, despots, dwarfs, elves. Interspecies political infighting. Marx-less proletariat uprisings. Bald guys with blue lips. You know: the usual. Not too many dungeons, though. But once you’ve weathered “Dungeons & Dragons,” you might want to go stretch out in one.

For 25 years, the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons has been keeping otherwise productive people occupied and, if you believe some court testimony, inspiring more psychotic behavior than “The Catcher in the Rye.” This, we’re sure, is slander; those people were time bombs anyway.

But we’ve seen the movie, which apparently requires a more intimate knowledge of D&D; than is possessed by the normal--I mean, average--moviegoer, or which can be explained during the brief prelude that begins the picture. Either that or it’s just confusing.

In brief, the commoners and the Mages (the ruling class) are at odds, as are Empress Savina (Thora Birch) and the power-mad Profion (Jeremy Irons) who wants to thwart her dreams of democracy by getting his hands on the precious Dragon’s Eye and the scarlet scepter that controls the Red Dragon. Ridley and Snails (Justin Whalin and Marlon Wayans), a kind of medieval Cosby-Hope road team, begin as mere thieves but through their dealings with Marina of the Magic School (Zoe McLellan), Norda the elf (Kristen Wilson) and Elwood the dwarf (Lee Arenberg) become major players in the salvation of their people (or, you know, whatever).

Some of the effects are quite interesting, particularly the dragons, and something that looked like a many-tentacled gum wad. A sequence in which Ridley conquers a lethal maze in order to get to the Dragon’s Eye is good too. But Courtney Solomon, whose chief qualification for directing this movie seems to have been his ownership of the film rights, has neither the capacity to make us care about any of his characters nor a cast (with the exception of Wayans) to help him out. Whalin is awful, Birch is saddled with lines that would make a silent film star blanch and Irons devours huge chunks of scenery with the ferocity of one of those dog-fighting dragons, which scream through the computer-generated skies with the greatest of ease.

* Rating PG-13 for fantasy action violence. Times guidelines: Gruesome scenes of physical torture and pain.

‘Dungeons & Dragons’

Jeremy Irons: Profion

Justin Whalin: Ridley Freeborn

Marlon Wayans: Snails

Thora Birch: Empress Savina

A Sweetpea Entertainment Production, released by New Line Cinema. Director Courtney Solomon. Producers Courtney Solomon, Kia Jam, Tom Hammel. Executive producer Joel Silver. Screenplay by Topper Lilien & Carroll Cartwright based on the fantasy role-playing game. Cinematographer Doug Milsome. Editor Caroline Ross. Costume designer Barabar Lane. Music Justin Caine Burnett. Production designer Bryce Perrin. Art director Jindra Koci. Set decorator Tomas Hais. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

In general release.