Finally Watched…Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Here is the last of the currently banked reviews. I hope to get a few more banked at some point, the sooner the better.

Fantasy, especially high or dark fantasy, are not really my cup of tea. I have nothing against it, but it isn’t for me. It’s one of the reasons I never played Dungeons & Dragons, along with me being too much of a control freak when it comes to storytelling to lead to a good experience for everyone involved. Video games are easier because there’s only two voices: mine and the game creators, and I’m willing to accept theirs as the dominant voice, even in games like BioWare’s more famous (and sometimes infamous) content, where your choices lead the story down one of a few different paths. It’s like combining video games and Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks.

I really didn’t watch the first Dungeons & Dragons movie many moons ago because it looked lame, and apparently it was one of those movies so bad it became comedy. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves decided to embrace the comedy and the stranger aspects of the tabletop role-playing game franchise, and from the trailers it just looked like a lot of fun. So I decided to check it out when the opportunity arose. And now I have a review of it, some months after I saw it, though the bulk of the review was written right after I saw it. Edited for spelling and clarification, here is my review.

RELEASE DATE: 2023
RELEASED BY: Paramount Pictures, Entertainment One, & AllSpark Pictures
RUNTIME: 2 hours 14 minutes
RATING: PG-13
VIEWING SOURCE FOR THIS REVIEW: MGM+ Hits
STARRING: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, & Sophia Lillis
SCREENWRITERS: Johnathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, & Michael Gilio (Chris McKay credited for story with Gilio)
DIRECTORD: John Francis Daley & Johnathan Goldstein
BOX OFFICE: $93,277,026, $208,177,026 worldwide gross, according to IMDB
ESTIMATED BUDGET: $150,000,000 according to IMDB

The Plot: A helper of the law turned criminal after the death of his wife and needing to raise his daughter, Edgin Darvis (Pine) and team was betrayed by Forge, who stole the one chance Edgin had to resurrect his wife. He and his barbarian friend Holga (Rodriguez) were sent to prison, but escaped during his pardon hearing (which was unnecessary as they were pardoning him) with a mission of getting his daughter (Chloe Coleman) back and the tablet needed to bring his wife back. Since that time, their con-artist betrayer Forge (Hugh Grant) has taken over a castle with the help of the red wizard Sofina (Daisy Head), who helped betray them and has sinister plans of her own. Edgin and Holga recruit their wizard ally Simon (Smith), who isn’t very good, and a shapeshifting tiefling named Doric (Lilis) to aid in their mission. But can these screwballs save the world?

Why did I want to see it?: I know it’s not my genre, and I don’t have any interest the games. But frankly the movie just looked that fun. Props to the people behind the trailer. I’ve also heard some good reviews about it, so why not?

What did I think?: Before I forget, I caught the cartoon reference. Nice Easter Egg for fans that won’t lose the casuals. They’re even credited on IMDB, but I missed if they were in the movie credits. Shoving the credits into a corner so you can read them so they have time to get in some extra station advertisements is a mistake and discourages me from watching credits. Streaming sites wanting me to skip them doesn’t help. If there were any other nods to the games, I know I didn’t catch them, but lucky for me I didn’t feel like I need them. Owlbear. Bear with an owl face. Seems to explain itself.

I have to give credit to the action scenes. While I’m sure Shad Brooks of YouTube channel “Shadiversity” could nitpick the sword scenes, including the guest appearance by Regé-Jean Paige as the Paladin Xenk, I rather enjoyed all the fights, both with weapons and with magic. Granted my experience with high fantasy is low, but magic has rules and they work within them to make their plans work. It’s not just a deus ex magica.

The story also works. There was some concern when the creators were talking about how fun it was to emasculate the males at a time when that was already starting to become man-hating clichés, but Xenk was fine. Edgin is supposed to be messed up. His character arc isn’t that he has to admit to himself he’s a failure because deep down he knows, but to admit it openly to others and own up to it. He does own up to his responsibilities, even if he doesn’t admit to them unless confronted. He’s a good guy deep down. In the same vein, Simon needs to find the confidence to become the great sorcerer his family line would expect him to be.

Holga can take on some serious muscle men, but instead of being a girlboss it’s because she’s a barbarian. Of course she can take on strong dudes because she’s strong herself. She’s built for it, not some 5 foot, 150 pound waif of a girl slicing her way through swarths of giants or something. (I wish that was more than a slight exaggeration.) She doesn’t have a character arc, though she’s made her share of mistakes, and she can be beaten. This is how you do a strong woman; make it make sense to the world. Like magic, there are rules and the story follows it. Not much to say about Dorik character wise but she’s important to the team, as she befriends these humans we’re only told she doesn’t like due to some history with humans. Kira doesn’t get much to do, but is important not only as “princess in the tower” who buys into her “uncle’s” lies, but also takes part in saving the world.

As for the villains, Hugh Grant does a good job as the con-artist but he’s not a focal point of the movie. Daisy Head doesn’t get a lot to do as Sofina, but she slowly builds up as the real evil of the story, and the heroes have to work hard to beat her. Every element is introduced, and the good guys are able to use them to win.

The comedy works, as does the story itself. There is the usual 2020s quirky dialog, but it actually comes off as charming. They know when to be serious and when to be silly, and thus both are pulled off pretty well. In short, this is the movie that a lot of Marvel Studios stuff recently thinks it is. It has a strong women, but they make sense at being that strong and confident. It has weaker men, but finding their strength, confidence, and conscience is part of their character growth. Both men and women work together rather than engage in some story-breaking gender division. They need each other. It’s silly when it needs to be but serious when it needs to be. It’s not the greatest movie ever, but it pulls off everything modern sci-fi/fantasy movies fail at because the writers and director know what they’re doing, and keep everything in proper check.

Was it worth the wait: This is not my genre, but I’m glad I took a chance on it. This is a really good movies, and fans of the game seem to like it. As an outsider, the casual audience, I just really like everybody among the good guys and want to see them win, and want to see the villains lose, all in a world I found interesting and a story that was actually fun for the rights reasons. I probably still won’t play the games, especially given some of the nonsense they’re putting in for “modern audiences” at the expense of their existing fanbase of men and, yes, women…let’s be honest. This wasn’t my kind of game anyway. The movie, however, I’d totally watch again.