★★★½
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is brought to life with two directors: John Francis Daley (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Jonathan Goldstein (Game Night). It also has three writers: Daley and relative newcomers Michael Gilio and Chris McKay. Despite this much input, the script is fun and engaging, but players of the original game will be the ones who can relate to and enjoy the film the most.
Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) pull a daring escape from a prison where they’re held for thievery. The goal is to reunite with Edgin’s daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman). But when they start their quest, they discover that Forge (Hugh Grant), charged with caring for Kira, has become an influential statesman and betrayed them, convincing Kira that her father abandoned her. However, the plot is deeper than simple control, so Edgin will need more allies to defeat Forge and a conspiracy that threatens Kira and the entire city.
There’s a lot of good in both the script and direction. Still, without the context of being familiar with the Dungeons & Dragons game, audience members might not get as much out of it, especially with the humor and spontaneity of responding to obstacles that are thrown the characters’ way. The creatures, races, and classes (the occupation of a D&D character) will all be instantly recognizable by any avid player – and the paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page) is spot on, much to the party’s occasional frustration. Unfortunately, without exposition on what all this means, the film will look to many as just another light fantasy with a better-than-average plot. This makes a genuine one-star rating difference between viewers who know the popular role-playing game and those who do not. The parts are played well and very much to the classes, but like the monsters and settings, this will not be apparent to the average movie-goer. Except for Hugh Grant, who seems to be enjoying the roles he’s reinvented himself into, no one cast member stands out. This works in the film’s favor, allowing viewers to enjoy the group’s adventures rather than focusing on a particular individual. But overall, there is a real sense that roles could have been better explained, and here and there, moments and character development feel rushed or fall by the wayside.
The locations are exotic and original, giving a genuine flavor of the places existing in a day-to-day manner while being outside the realm of the world we know. The CGI, particularly on the creatures, is beautiful. Some scenes involve characters shifting from one appearance to another, and they’re stunning and, in one instance, totally hilarious. The music is standard adventure fare and keeps the film and fight scenes on pace.
While Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves isn’t Victor Hugo by any stretch, it is a fun film that anyone can enjoy. That said, for players of the game, this has the look and feel of adventures (and misadventures) they’ve experienced both in the role-playing and video game versions. For those who play, rest assured that this film may not be a natural 20, but it more than makes its saving throw against the earlier films.
