Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

• Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley
• March 10, 2023 (SXSW) / March 31, 2023 (US)
• Based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons

A group of thieves run afoul of the wrong people and find themselves trying to stop a dangerous plot.

I didn’t go into Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves expecting too much. I vaguely remember seeing the last cinematic attempts at adapting Dungeons & Dragons and not being very impressed. I think that puts me in a rather large group of people TBH.

Not only that but my familiarity with Dungeons & Dragons has more to do with the 80s cartoon than with the tabletop role-playing game. And I’m not even sure how close that was to the game. But it was a good show. That was Saturday morning appointment television. Anywho…

Speaking of which, I appreciate the now famous (?) nod to that D&D cartoon in Honor Among Thieves. It was nice to see them in live action (though unofficially) and to be honest it did hurt me a little bit. I wished I really wish they would do a live action adaption of the 80s cartoon. There’s a Brazilian commercial from a few years back that she just showed how good it can look. Anywho number two…

Honor Among Thieves stars Chris Pine as bard and former spy Edgin Darvis, Michelle Rodriguez as barbarian Holga Kilgore, Regé-Jean Page as paladin Xenk Yendar, Justice Smith as half elf sorcerer Simon Aumar, Sophia Lillis as tiefling druid Doric, and Hugh Grant as rogue and con artist Forge Fitzwilliam.

Xenk is more a punchline than a character while Simon is a pathetic individual with zero self confidence who is really hurt over a single bad date with Doric. I guess it is meant to be funny and make their eventual (kinda) pairing meaningful, but it just makes him sad and her willingness to give him another shot amounting to a pity date. They all benefit though from contributing elements to the resolution that the others cannot.

Holga and Edgin are the heroic core of the story with both having some baggage. They eschew the usual trope of a romantic pairing by keeping them just friends but very close friends. Edgin is generally the brains while Holga is the brawn as well as the inner voice that pushes Edgin in the right direction.

There is a surprising amount of heart and feeling for a film based on Dungeons & Dragons. Holga was banished from the Uthgardt Elk Tribe for marrying a halfling outsider (what is Bradley Cooper doing in this?!) who has since left her because of the life she leads and that she cannot move past her banishment. That scene between Holga and Marlamin (Bradley Cooper?!) was rather moving.

Edgin is dealing with his feelings over the death of his wife that was caused by his actions as well as the estrangement of his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) who is now under the care of Forge-a former member of Edgin’s band of thieves. She harbors a great deal of resentment towards him and he feels guilt over all his actions.

Edgin needs to grow as a human being. While it may be noble to try to bring back his dead wife in an attempt to repair the mistakes he’s made, you can view it as a metaphor for living in the past and finding wrong ways to deal with grief. I may be reaching a bit but with the former having substance I’m willing to put it out there that the latter may as well.

But this is also a fun adventure film that alternates between great action scenes and humor without one necessarily hurting the other. The action is great. It’s stylized and done with a sense of fun. Often the film blends the two and even ventures into macabre humor like the graveyard scene.

Forge is the main villain of the story and Grant is just so great. The character in part plays into the type of roles that grant made famous but with the aim as a villain. Forge is also pompous and slimy and conniving yet completely spineless. He’s ultimately comedic, but not to the point of the viewer believing he couldn’t pose a threat to the heroes of the story.

He has allied himself a Red Wizard of Thay (very bad wizards) named Sofina (Daisy Head) with plans of her own who is the service of powerful Red Wizard lich and the ruler of Thay Szass Tam (Ian Hanmore). Both are evil for the sake of being evil but they add a great amount of creep by having Szass Tam speak with Sofina from the shadows which made him seem so much more evil and demonic.

This movie is certainly not a one-off film. Since our other villain of the story is acting on behalf of an evil wizard that never interacts with the main cast, there is certainly room for more. Yet despite that it stands firmly on its own. It is completely self-contained with room to grow the story.

There is just a general quality to this. The story’s elements are set up and then there’s a payoff. There are jokes. Action. This is a surprisingly well done film. It is a movie whose ending builds logically from the beginning.

The magic elements are creative. There is not only imagination but rules. They quickly establish that while magic can do a great deal it has limits depending on elements of the situation. It forces some creativity on the part of those making this film and differentiates a Red Wizard from a wild magic sorcerer.

Visually Honor Among Thieves is not bad. They are certainly aiming for Lord of the Rings style, but never quite gets there. Close but not quite. From the costuming to the overall look it borrowed from those films but the hair all looks like they went to a nice hair stylist in Beverly Hills. It bothers me how well groomed everyone is. I know it is nitpicking but that really bothers in general stuff like that. It is an element that does not match.

Hair aside, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a well-done movie with plenty of heart and action. There plenty here to please anybody looking for a well-done fun movie.