Okay, so here's an article I wouldn't have thought to write when I started doing this. I guess there's actually quite some precedent for movies based on the world's most famous tabletop role-playing game.
Some history: My knowledge of D&D largely comes from my father, especially since he still had plenty of 1st Edition AD&D materials lying around for me to peruse while I grew up. When he shifted over to playing the video games, I kinda shifted with him, so I didn't stay up to date with the later editions much. While I was vaguely aware of the 80s cartoon, the first film in 2000 was more prominent, as it came out when I was in high school. I didn't see it in theaters, but I remember watching it at a friend's house and thinking it was cheesy, but still kinda fun. The line about "Ridley" being the new word for "dumb" became a bit of an in-joke for us at the time. Since then, I hadn't done much with D&D, outside of the occasional video game, but when 5th Edition started to build up the brand's popularity again, I got back into it, and have since learned that two more movies got made in the meantime. Now that the new one is out, I figured I'd do a full sweep of all four, including rewatching the first one and reviewing the new one, all in one article!!