Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
This campaign is great for beginners and dungeon masters.
Chris Pine loads his charisma attributes in this fun Dungeons & Dragons flick.
Edgin (Chris Pine) has made a bit of a career of messing up his life. Once a Harper, dedicated to right and justice, Edgin abandoned his life of righteousness when a group of evil wizards killed his wife and left him to raise an infant daughter. Choosing to take up a life of crime, since it pays better, Edgin assembles a motley crew of reprobates to help him with his capers.
The problem is…they’re not very good. His faceman is conman Forge (Hugh Grant), who can barely be trusted. His wizard, Simon (Justice Smith), can’t perform magic reliably. The only solid member of his team is barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), who loves Edgin’s daughter as her own and has dedicated her life to keeping Edgin from making his child an orphan.
When one of Edgin’s plans goes spectacularly wrong, as Edgin’s plans are wont to do, Holga and Edgin end up in jail, with the rest of the crew scattered. Desperate to get back to his daughter, Edgin organizes a jailbreak only to discover Forge has taken the kid, convinced her she was abandoned by an unfeeling father, and become a rich and powerful lord.
Now Edgin must get the band back together and go on a quest to win his daughter back.
OK players, you’ve got your quest, it’s time to roll for stats.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is not the first movie based on Hasboro’s famous role-playing game, but it is easily the best. Filled to the brim with charismatic actors, witty writing, and some cool CGI beasts, this flick is a breezy adventure film that kids will love and parents won’t mind watching on repeat.
Part of what makes Honor Among Thieves such a success is directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s approach to the material. They tease the best of the game — cool creaturs, interesting realms, and diverse playing styles — without making the film feel like a How to Play tutorial. You get all the thrill of rolling a Nat 20 on a powerful beast with none of the stats keeping. The movie does an excellent job of showing you that there are several ways to solve any quest, with characters changing or warping plans on the fly based on what they have available. Daley and Goldstein especially shine in humorous action sequences. A battle against an extremely rotund dragon stands out as one of the funniest set pieces I’ve seen this year.
At the risk of getting my nerd credentials pulled, I don’t have an extensive knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons, but luckily Daley and Goldstein make sure not to scare off newbies by making a film mired in minutia. Even people with no knowledge of fantasy games or fiction should be able to pick up the plot, understand the world, and enjoy the humor. The paladin I’m married to assures me there was plenty of humor built in for those who play the game every Saturday with a group of childhood buddies, but missing a few references didn’t hamper the experience for me at all.
And while the quest in the film was fun, it was also a bit too long. Because of the nature of the game, a good bit of the plot is comprised of fetch quests (retrieving an object so you can move the main plot along). By the second or third of these quests, the narrative was starting to drag. The movie also may have leaned too heavily on inclusion in the writing process, because a few lines in the script felt like the film was explaining plot points to a small child. If you have enough manna to dodge the anvils in the writing, however, the movie is mostly innocuous, breezy fun.
Though there are fun creatures and derring-do aplenty, the best part of the film is undoubtedly Chris Pine’s loveable failure, Edgin. A mixture of sarcasm, charm, and a mildly-tarnished heart of gold, Edgin's main goal is to keep his little family of criminals together. Sure, his plans rarely work, and he is more smart-ass than smarty-pants, but he believes in his people and is loyal to a fault. And by the time he starts singing to distract guards, it’s easy to see why people would follow him, even if he is a bit of a screw-up.
The biggest surprise of the film, however, might be Michelle Rodriguez’s Holga. Rodriguez has long been trapped in the Cars Go Vroom franchise, where she gets to glower and say 10 lines per movie. But here, she’s given more to do than glare and snarl. Yes, Holga is the barbarian of the group and a formidable brawler, but she’s also the surrogate mother of Edgin’s child. It’s rare to see Rodriguez get tender moments in films, and she sinks her teeth into these. She’s completely believable as a sweet and caring woman who will break your femur without blinking.
If you’re dragging through Marvel Fatigue, or stuck in the DC Doledrums, Dungeons & Dragons will act as a healing elixir. Yes, we go through a lot of the Marvel franchise plot points, but we skip over the blue sky beams, there’s mercifully no mention of the multiverse, and there’s a freaking owl bear. This is the sort of movie you’ll enjoy in theaters, and pop on for a family movie night in a few years. And it’s not a bad start for a franchise, either.
Verdict: Those who love dragons, adventure, and Chris Pine will be handsomely rewarded in this entertaining romp.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is rated PG-13 and is available in theaters March 31.
