'The Last Witch Hunter': A D&D Player's Fantasy Come True

The Last With Hunter may bomb in theaters. It may be a poor fantasy-action film. It's getting poor reviews, but star Vin Diesel is more interested in the fact the movie is a D&D player's dream come true.

More specifically, his. That's right, super-buff action star, Vin Diesel is a veteran Dungeons & Dragons player, with over 24 years of experience. His character, Melchor, was a drow (dark elf) witch-hunter. In fact, Diesel got to write the foreword to a very special edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

"If you go and see the 30th Anniversary book of Dungeons & Dragons there's one name - my name is the only name on the whole cover of this thing. And it has a foreword - all they asked me to do was write the foreword. But they put the foreword as the cover. You hear me in that cover talk about a witch hunter. Named Melchor. Most people don't know what Melchor is. Everyone knows who J.R.R. Tolkien is but most people -

SR: It's The Silmarillion, right?

VD: You know what it is. You're one of the only humans who knows what it is."

I'm pleased to say I actually knew the reference as soon as he said "Tolkien." And boy was I surprised to hear that Vin Diesel is part hard-core nerd. It's actually pretty awesome.

And in regards to the movie, that's why, whether it's good or not, it's going to be an awesome movie. I've played a fair bit of role-playing games (RPGs) myself, and to be able to have a character I've played with for months or even years come to life in a movie would be absolutely incredible.

And now Vin Diesel has his own movie inspired by his D&D character that he actually gets to play.

In review, the movie may be slow. It may not have the great action scenes we expect from a Diesel film. It's only got a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. But the fact it's a dream come true is the important thing about this movie.