Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Rolls a Natural 20 for Fun: Review
The post Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Rolls a Natural 20 for Fun: Review appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: In a fantasy kingdom far from today and this world, Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) are loyal friends and adventurers whose adventures recently landed them in jail. Much to their dismay, when they manage to escape they find out that their former friend Forge (Hugh Grant) has become a powerful lord in cahoots with an evil wizard (Daisy Head) — Forge also has a lot of sway over Edgin’s young daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman), who Edgin left in his care. So the task is simple: Take down Forge and the wizard, with the help of a motley crew of underdogs with their own set of special skills. Believe it or not, dungeons and dragons will be involved!
Charisma Check: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is not the first attempt to bring the brainchild of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, popularized in millions of basements and living rooms around the world, to the big screen. But those previous efforts weren’t geared to capture one thing in particular: Why this iconic take on swords and sorcery has had such staying power with fans for decades, despite being a relatively underground property.
Which is to say: Dungeons & Dragons is a fun game to play with your friends, and accordingly a faithful adaptation would be, y’know, fun — and this is the first level on which Honor Among Thieves is hugely successful.
There is a whole level of the film designed specifically to appeal to D&D fans, from the use of game-established artifacts, lore, and locations to basic aspects of the gameplay used as narrative devices. (At one point early in the film, this one-time 9th level Rogue found herself whispering, “Oh no, he didn’t check for traps.”) Creatures previously seen only in the pages of a dungeon master’s guide come to life on screen, and not just via CGI — there’s an impressive amount of practical-looking effects work to make the action on screen feel truly tangible.
But while the game itself is very much embedded in the premise, writer/directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night) have concocted a solid fantasy comedy adventure on its own level, packed with solid jokes that require no knowledge of 20-sided dice to understand, and multiple clever moments that push beyond the expected. Not all of its ideas can be considered purely original: For one thing, the “Hither Thither” Staff introduced here might be a magic item but is, essentially, a portal gun (as seen in the Portal video games). But even then, the writers find inventive ways to include it in the adventure.
Meet Your Party: My game-loving brother noted months ago that the first very good sign for Honor Among Thieves was Chris Pine’s character — Rather than cast the white male lead as a badass warrior, Edgin is the party’s bard, good at planning and lute-playing, but less useful than Holga in a fight.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Paramount)
Edgin being a bard is reflective of the oddball party assembled here, each representing a different sphere of the D&D universe: Holga is a barbarian who was exiled from her tribe for love; half-elf Simon (Justice Smith) has a magical lineage but struggles with simple spells, and teethling Doric (Sophia Lillis) was rejected by her own family but has become a powerful druid with the ability to shift into other animals.
If Honor Among Thieves has one notable flaw, it’s that the ensemble doesn’t get equal screen time. Despite having the most intriguing powers and most complicated backstory of the whole party, Doric at times feels like a bit of an afterthought, as if a few key scenes featuring her character were cut at the last second. (This also makes her character feel like the least accessible to audiences who aren’t familiar with the game’s more nuanced mythology, a trap the film manages to avoid otherwise.)
Also, playing less of a role in this film than you’d expect from the promotional materials is Bridgerton breakout Regé-Jean Page as Xenk the paladin — he’s a great addition to the action when he’s there, but his appearance in the film is limited to a few key scenes, leaving us wanting more. However, Hugh Grant’s skills at scene-chewing villainy remain as effective as ever, and Daisy Head brings appropriate menace as a dark wizard.
The Verdict: What’s remarkable here is how many different hallmarks of Dungeons and Dragons, the game, get incorporated into the actual narrative: A quest for a magical artifact then requires that magical artifact to be attuned to a character for it to work, as one example — it’s a full-on plot point. These sorts of touches might be irrelevant to the casual viewer, but said casual viewer will still enjoy the multiple moments where the directors let a scene play out very much from one character’s POV, the camera spinning as they do through the air or into another arena.
The film’s directors aptly came to this project after directing the very solid comedy Game Night, but while I am sad to report that there is no moment in Honor Among Thieves which is as good as Rachel McAdams saying “Oh no, he died” in that film… There are several which come close. And it really cannot be overstated how there might be dungeons and dragons here, but all of it feels in service to having a good time, while never losing focus on one core aspect of the game, perhaps the most fundamental one.
At the end of the day, D&D is a property packed with decades of lore and imagination, but more importantly, it’s a game played with friends. Thus, it’s all too appropriate that at the center of Honor Among Thieves is a message about the value of found families, and how strong and powerful those relationships can be. That underlying sweetness, the incredibly game nature of its cast, and again, an emphasis on fun make this a film worthy of the brand, one that might even inspire some new converts to discover the adventure possible on their own tabletops.
Where to Watch: Following its premiere at SXSW and fan screenings this past weekend, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will arrive in theaters on Friday, March 31st.
Trailer:
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Rolls a Natural 20 for Fun: Review
Liz Shannon Miller
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