Paramount Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves makes two things clear in his first five minutes: he understands his audience and D&D experience is not necessary. He would be forgiven if he assumed this would be another lore-inflated fantasy epic, something that fails to appease fans of the film. Dungeons and Dragons RPG either leans too much into it and confuses “normals”, or it’s just awful like previous cinematic attempts. But while it’s not perfect, directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have managed to deliver a balanced adaptation that’s easy to watch and stays true to its bombastic source material.
honor among thieves takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a diverse fantasy world that also serves as the campaign setting for officers D&D modules, which means that many locations throughout the movie will be familiar to those who have played the game. In a frost-encrusted prison cell, we’re introduced to the charming and overconfident bard, Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), and Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), a brutal but motherly barbarian and Edgin’s best friend. The pair set out to rescue Edgin’s daughter, Kira, from Forge Fitzwilliam, a former accomplice turned con man who has become the villainous Lord of Neverwinter. Forge is played by Hugh Grant, who relies on his usual “clumsy English” persona for the role, while Daisy Head delivers more serious villainy as the Red Wizard Sofina.
Later, Edgin and Holga are joined by a timorous half-elf sorcerer played by Justice Smith, a seriously jaded tiefling druid played by Sophia Lillis, and Regé-Jean Page, who bows to the end in our Bridgerton-He raised expectations as a beautiful and arrogant paladin. But where your Bridgerton The character epitomized all the romantic leads, this guy is a walking parody of all the epic fantasy heroes that have graced the genre. honor among thieves makes it very clear that it is not intended to be some Byzantine epic fantasy. Beneath the layers of its magical, medieval-inspired setting, it’s just a relatively straightforward heist flick: assemble a lovable group of skilled people, break into some vaults, and take down the bad guys.
Thankfully, honor among thieves it also manages to be specifically D&D-flavored without being too silly or embarrassing. It exhibits incredible self-awareness, navigating through recognizable tropes from the titular tabletop RPG without being obtusely meta about the whole thing. In a real game, players are at the mercy of their dice: random numbers dictate whether your action succeeds (casting spells, flirting with the guards, etc.) or fails (falling into traps, offending the guards with your terrible flirting). . The film alludes to this through manufactured spontaneity: almost every interaction feels impromptu, as if spoken to offhand after a roll of the dice. Pine and Grant’s performances are especially notable for injecting witty humor into otherwise stale tropes. It feels refreshingly subversive.
Appeasing nerds shouldn’t be a box-ticking exercise, but honor among thieves should at least be commended for the sheer number of D&D Crammed Easter eggs into its 134-minute runtime. There are multiple dungeons, multiple dragons, multiple treasures, and multiple female buffs accompanied by a generous number of references to what seems to be at least half of the game’s complete spell and bestiary list. Fans of the franchise won’t be left wanting, and most of the inclusions are incredibly true to the D&D sourcebooks (not counting the whole “druids can’t wild transform into an owlbear” debacle).
CGI used to render canon images D&D regions like Icewind Dale and Underdark is decent enough, as is its application throughout the film’s various displays of magic and spells. But the practical effects are where honor among thieves will beat the In fact hardcore fantasy nerds. The most beastly races of the D&D universe are portrayed wearing real monster costumes or puppets, as if they were ripped from something like the dark crystal. It all feels like an homage to the 1980s sword and sorcery movies, and you feel it in all the ornate costumes, prosthetic makeup, and life-like animatronics. And unlike many Marvel movies, it still feels grounded in reality, so the CGI enhances it more than it detracts.
honor among thieves has to appeal to both audiences: those who are familiar with D&D and those that are not. She clearly excels at the former, but while she ultimately achieves the latter, she doesn’t entirely avoid the pitfalls experienced by equally ambitious and storied IPs trying to break into cinema. (I’m looking at you, warcraft.)
honor among thievesThe story progresses at breakneck speed, refusing to waste precious minutes of pacing to provide background on the various locations, items, or characters to accommodate the endless onslaught of D&D peter jackson references Lord of the Rings trilogy managed to patiently guide its viewers through the vast lore of JRR Tolkien: honor among thieves does not offer such courtesy. Stereotypical fantasy-sounding phrases like “Faerun”, “Gracklstugh”, and “Emerald Enclave” are often heard during on-screen conversations, rarely being repeated or providing any insight into their meaning.
you don’t really need background on any of the references peppered throughout honor among thieves to enjoy the movie. It’s still very clear what’s unfolding on screen, jargon notwithstanding. But his dedication to appeasing the game’s nerdy fanbase doesn’t excuse the other movie sins that tarnish it. The story is incredibly predictable for a franchise that prides itself on its creativity, and most of the characters feel underdeveloped because the movie tries to cover too much with the time it has.
This is especially true regarding his villains. Grant’s portrayal of Forge as “mister bad” is great fun, but there are plenty of other villains in this, to the point that his character is sometimes lost as more and more sinister characters appear to take up the mantle of the Great. “Real” bad. There are simply too many wicked cooks tampering with this fantasy-flavored soup.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves certainly disappointed by the scale of his own ambition in places, but he still had fun – More fun than I’ve had watching a fantasy movie in years, actually. It’s insanely funny, and more than enough ingredients to appease anyone who’s ever rolled a 20-sided die. You can even forgive the slightly chaotic pacing to accurately capture how it feels to play through a real D&D Campaign.
For those not participating in the game, honor among thieves it’s still perfectly enjoyable because it doesn’t take itself seriously. Yes, she’s flippantly humorous and self-aware, but she’s not pretentious about it. If something, honor among thieves is unabashedly camp, vibrating closer to people like Shrek and The princess Bride than your typically hardcore action-adventure flick. It’s a reminder that the fantasy genre is still allowed to be ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with indulging in stoic intellectual fantasy, of course, but seeing Daley and Goldstein’s ensemble of “Bardians of the Galaxy” roaming around with well-behaved zombies and obscenely chubby dragons is a breath of fresh air.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves hits theaters on March 31.