@mochaloca85
Sometimes a piece of media comes along that you can tell that everybody involved just had a blast making it. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is one of those films, and it shows in every single frame. The audience for this movie will definitely have as much fun watching as the cast and crew seem to have had making it, and its infectiousness makes it one of the better movie-going experiences of the past few weeks.
The movie opens with two members of our party in what’s basically a parole hearing. Bard Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine at his absolute Chris Piniest) provides backstory for him and barbarian Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez, who I’m 1000% sure rubbed being in this movie in Vin Diesel’s face on the set of Fast X) like he’s a player introducing his new character to his friends at game night.
And that’s likely by design. Writer-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley clearly wanted this to feel like you were watching someone’s D&D campaign. Both have gone on record as being D&D players (though they didn’t base the movie off any of their campaigns), and had a rules specialist on set to make sure most story elements followed established guideline – one plotline, for example, involves Simon (Justice Smith), a sorcerer, struggling to attune with a magical helm before he can use it. The other characters refer to Simon as being a bad sorcerer, and when we meet him at the start, he has low self-esteem and lacks charisma (aka the ability sorcerers use to cast spells).
Not only do Goldstein and Daley spend a lot of time on making the setting mostly game accurate, they also inserted Easter eggs to previous adaptations of the game. Edgin finds himself in a predicament similar to Snails (Marlon Wayans) from the 2000 movie. And we straight up see the party from the Marvel-Toei animated series in the High Sun Games. Antagonizing our party is Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), a rogue who turned on the party on the mission that landed Edgin and Holga in prison. Grant is a delightfully over-the-top villain and my personal favorite character. His line delivery for some of the most ridiculous things is one of the best parts of the movie. Imagine telling someone with a straight face that stealing their kid has made you a better person. That is a thing that he does…and it’s fantastic.
Get your gaming group and go see it immediately.
4.25/5 Tankards.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is currently playing in theaters everywhere.
-Destiny Edwards