Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among ThievesAdventure! Excitement! Thrills! Chills! Laughs! Love! Intrigue! Magic! All this and more can be yours in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves...by Hasbro! D&D (I'm calling it that for short) is a movie that could easily be described with all of the aforementioned qualities, drawing inspiration from the classic tabletop roleplaying game series of the same name (sans the "Honor Among Thieves" appelation). It is about an erstwhile lawman turned conman named Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), who breaks out of prison to reclaim his daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman), and resurrect his dead wife, Zia (Georgia Landers). Not all goes according to plan, and adventure and hilarity ensues.
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It's obvious to anyone at this point that Hollywood et al has been scouring the nostalgia-drenched properties of yesteryear to transform them into new blockbusters with varying degrees of quality. It's not a new trend, but to me it has never been more pronounced. This is evident in this new D&D movie; there was an adaptation of the game that is considered to be of decidedly inferior quality made in 2000, but we won't talk about that. Chalk it up to a combination of events--the unparalleled success of the realistic fantasy series, "Game of Thrones", and the license-to-print-your-own-money phenomenon of superhero movies--but the time was right for revisiting this material. I'll resist expounding at length about the vast and muddied history of Dungeons & Dragons (the game), not to mention my own decades-long experience with running and playing in numerous campaigns, but suffice to say, I missed very few of the Easter eggs peppered generously throughout this movie. (Loved seeing a pair of small rust monsters playing tug-of-war over a piece of armor up in the rafters.) And it's necessary to mention that despite being an accessible adventure story for all audiences, there is an unmistakable sense that this movie will find its true calling with fans of the source material, even if it takes some liberties in the process. (Not with the setting, but with the mechanics. No endgame spoilers, but liches have truesight in Fifth Edition, and I'm pretty sure somebody is one. I could go on, but I won't, because nobody likes that.) Sometimes these nods to the source material are awkwardly acknowledged, such as when Doric (Sophia Lillis), a "tiefling druid" (will make more sense if you crack a Player's Handbook) transforms into an "owlbear" (same diff, but read your Monster Manual), and the characters have to identify her owl-headed bear as...well, an owlbear. At other times, it is more ambiguous, such as the appearance of a displacer beast, and the rather intriguing way by which it produces its illusory double. Set in Faerûn--a location in the D&D campaign setting called "Forgotten Realms"--D&D (the movie, I know this is going to get confusing) has a plethora of sweeping vistas depicting assorted fantasy locations in the setting with varying climates, resembling those grandiose overhead shots of castles and stuff found in The Lord of the Rings series, not to mention "Game of Thrones". Combine all of this with a varied party of lovable characters, and you've arguably got the most successful commercial for Hasbro's flagship RPG series to date. (Unless you've also experienced Critical Role, but I digress.) Oh, and it's also a funny movie that cribs extensively from the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers movies with its quick wit and over-the-top, CGI-laden action set pieces, checking all of the boxes of a big-budget extravaganza designed to appeal to as many people as possible.
To be fair, there's a great deal of charm in D&D, owing largely to the colorful cast of roguish characters--including some who are actually rogues in the D&D sense, such as conman turned Lord of Neverwinter, Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant). Even if the character interplay is achingly reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy, what's that saying about if it ain't broke? Co-directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio, the action and dialogue feels formulaic, and yet only when compared with some of the more successful blockbusters in recent history. (Not gonna say Marvel again...) D&D has been described as a "heist" movie (à la Ocean's Eleven), but this plot point is just circumstantial to the film's primary interest, which is to pack in scenes of comedy and action with nary a moment to catch your breath. Leave plausibility at the door as Edgin and his partner-in-crime, the barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), trek across a frozen tundra and emerge unscathed (and without frostbite). Roar with laughter at the obese red dragon, Themberchaud--who is himself a Forgotten Realms Easter egg--who rolls over his prey with his immense girth. And chuckle at the awkwardly dry wit of their sorcerer companion, Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), whose last name is in and of itself (you guessed it) another Easter egg for Forgotten Realms fans. It's actually quite interesting to see how much of the vast and expansive lore of this setting gets explored in this movie...or cannibalized for the sake of the plot, depending on your attitude toward it. Nevertheless, there's a lot of quirky fun in moments like the arbitrary condition of the speak with dead spell to ask a corpse five questions exactly. D&D serves as an unorthodox yet compelling primer for neophytes to indulge in any hidden urges they may have long held secret to nerd out and finally get into Dungeons & Dragons. So while the movie may have been produced to be a glorified commercial, it manages to achieve something more important for its audience: it invites them to get in on the magic that has always been Dungeons & Dragons.
Recommended for: Fans of Dungeons & Dragons, surely, but also fans of fast-paced, high-action and comedy-rich superhero movies, because ultimately D&D borrows too extensively in its design from the likes of The Avengers (whoops, did it again) to be ignored. Who knows? This flick might be just what it takes to get you to finally pick up a Dungeon Master's Guide and a twelve-sided die.
To be fair, there's a great deal of charm in D&D, owing largely to the colorful cast of roguish characters--including some who are actually rogues in the D&D sense, such as conman turned Lord of Neverwinter, Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant). Even if the character interplay is achingly reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy, what's that saying about if it ain't broke? Co-directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio, the action and dialogue feels formulaic, and yet only when compared with some of the more successful blockbusters in recent history. (Not gonna say Marvel again...) D&D has been described as a "heist" movie (à la Ocean's Eleven), but this plot point is just circumstantial to the film's primary interest, which is to pack in scenes of comedy and action with nary a moment to catch your breath. Leave plausibility at the door as Edgin and his partner-in-crime, the barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), trek across a frozen tundra and emerge unscathed (and without frostbite). Roar with laughter at the obese red dragon, Themberchaud--who is himself a Forgotten Realms Easter egg--who rolls over his prey with his immense girth. And chuckle at the awkwardly dry wit of their sorcerer companion, Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), whose last name is in and of itself (you guessed it) another Easter egg for Forgotten Realms fans. It's actually quite interesting to see how much of the vast and expansive lore of this setting gets explored in this movie...or cannibalized for the sake of the plot, depending on your attitude toward it. Nevertheless, there's a lot of quirky fun in moments like the arbitrary condition of the speak with dead spell to ask a corpse five questions exactly. D&D serves as an unorthodox yet compelling primer for neophytes to indulge in any hidden urges they may have long held secret to nerd out and finally get into Dungeons & Dragons. So while the movie may have been produced to be a glorified commercial, it manages to achieve something more important for its audience: it invites them to get in on the magic that has always been Dungeons & Dragons.
Recommended for: Fans of Dungeons & Dragons, surely, but also fans of fast-paced, high-action and comedy-rich superhero movies, because ultimately D&D borrows too extensively in its design from the likes of The Avengers (whoops, did it again) to be ignored. Who knows? This flick might be just what it takes to get you to finally pick up a Dungeon Master's Guide and a twelve-sided die.