This movie is everything that the first movie should have been.

I still would have preferred to not have Damodar back, but at least he didn't have blue lipstick this time. Overall, I like the intensity that Bruce Payne brings to his performances, but I still haven't seen a role where he balances that intensity with believability.

If you play D&D, you will find moments of every game you've ever played in this movie.

I really liked our hero, Sir Baric, and I liked the Barbarian, Lux, and the Rogue. I thought the wizardess was a little weak, as was the cleric.

My favorite scene though is one of the closing scenes, where you see the wizardess and the rogue cleaning up the temple of Obad-Hai after receiving major healing there - a really nice gamers' touch I thought.

My 6-year old's mouth was hanging open for pretty much the first 10 minutes of the movie, he lost interest once there was a lot of talking, or course, but he really liked the scene where they traverse the tiled floor backwards (a classic D&D staple).

I thought that the black dragon-lich looked wonderful, but I would have liked to have seen more about the human lich, and his motivations.

An extended DVD version is definitely in order, there were at least 40 minutes of commercials in a 150 minute segment, I would really love to see more of the interactions between the PCs, and more backstory on the Lich, and the council of mages.

Overall, one of the best D&D movies yet, although Serenity is pretty close (and it's sci-fi!)