Movies for Breakfast DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES Review

Clear off the table, grab your dice, and prepare the snacks. It’s time for some Dungeons & Dragons!

Synopsis

A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.

Review

From the brain of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley comes the live action Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Starring Chris Pines as Edgin Darvin the bard, Michelle Rodriguez as Holga Kilgore the barbarian, Justice Smith as Simon Aumar the sorcerer, and Sophia Lillis as Doric the druid in a party of characters one would expect to see in a normal Dungeons & Dragons campaign are all present. Also present are Hugh Grant as Forge Fitzwilliam the rogue, Daisy Head as Sofina the red wizard, and Regé-Jean Page as Xenk Yendar the paladin. Taking place in the world of Dungeons & Dragons the only thing I wanted from this film was for it feel like an actual campaign from the popular tabletop Role-Playing Game. What I got from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was exactly that.

After being betrayed by Forge Fitzwilliam during a heist, with the assistance of a Red Wizard, Edgin and Holga are captured and imprisoned with Simon narrowly escaping. Once they escape from the prison Edgin and Holga track down Forge to find he has used his new wealth from the heist to take over as the Lord of Neverwinter. On top of this he has also become the guardian of Edgin’s daughter after telling her that her father decided to leave her. In order to get his daughter back and take down Forge for his betrayal they find Simon and are joined by Doric who also wants Forge to be dethroned.

The party embarks on an adventure taking them to various parts of the Dungeons & Dragons world, with enough little easter eggs and jokes to make players of the game smile from ear to ear. If you aren’t a fan of Dungeons & Dragons though the film doesn’t depend on the viewer having this knowledge. It makes sure to explain things in a way that everyone can follow the spells, items, and skills the party all use to reach their goal. These different spells items used are brought to life with the great effects and usage of the camera to pan and zoom through this world alongside the party.

Like a normal Dungeons & Dragons campaign though not everything goes as planned, as they have to act on the fly and come up with new ways to get around obstacles in some of the cleverest, or dumbest depending on how you look at it, ways. Exactly how a party would go through these obstacles in the tabletop game. While Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves does not play out like a group of people sitting down to play the game at home, the actions, spells, plans, and everything about this party’s adventure fits that tone perfectly.

For example, during one scene the party must get information from a corpse, by using a spell they can ask it any three questions. During the exchange the group discusses among themselves causing them to use up their five questions before getting any real information. This plays out the same way a Dungeon Master (person controlling the tabletop game) would act when the party playing the game comes across the same situation. It might come off as silly at times as a result, but its part of the fun and charm of the game. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is very reminiscent of the Dungeons & Dragons television series that started back in 1983 that was praised by fans of the game for its usage of characters and plot points that brought the game to life in animation.

Closing Thoughts
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a very fun movie, with a lot of great effects, and a great cast of characters. While there were plenty of Dungeons & Dragons easter eggs and inside jokes to make the average player smile throughout the movie, there is no requirement to know anything about Dungeons & Dragons prior to get the full enjoyment out of this movie. This makes it a great overall movie that it didn’t feel it needed to be pretentious about itself and knew how to have fun with its writing and characters. The fun attitudes and predicaments the characters come into make the full 134 minutes of runtime fly by in one is one of the best adventure movies released so far this year.

It should be noted that Lionsgate even released the full character sheets for the party members so their spells and abilities they use throughout the film can be tracked back to the actual game. Just taking that extra step to show how much love and care went into the full production of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. So, for anyone who got curious while watching Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves who wants to know more about the game and use the movie as reference there is a way.

Trailer