I\u2019m a bit of an oddball for my age bracket when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons. I\u2019ve played the pen and paper game, while in middle school, and liked it but found the actual process kind of slow, and of course when you put a bunch of teenaged boys together in a room, they will begin to act like idiots at some point and the game becomes secondary. (They didn\u2019t stay idiots, though; that group now has two successful lawyers, one of whom has defended death-row inmates; a senior VP at a big insurance company; and whatever I am.) I loved some parts of it, including the character creation, and thought others were slow. I did get very into video role-playing games, both within the D&D universe, such as the Pool of Radiance (which I never completed \u2013 I couldn\u2019t beat the final boss, even when I tried to play the game again in my 20s), and without, like the Bard\u2019s Tale and some Ultima Games. Regular readers know I became obsessed with the original Baldur\u2019s Gate trilogy about twenty years ago, and I won\u2019t try the newest game because I\u2019m afraid I\u2019ll disappear into it for days or weeks. So I have some nostalgia for the game, but it\u2019s limited, and when people ask if I was a D&D player I generally answer with something like \u201cnot really,\u201d because I don\u2019t know the lore or the rules anywhere near like dedicated players do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus I approached the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves<\/em> movie (free on Amazon Prime<\/a>) without any particular bias towards or against the film; I don\u2019t think I was predisposed to like or dislike it, or to criticize it for any lack of fidelity to source material. I did worry it would be too fan-servicey, or corny, or maybe just boring because plenty of video-game stories lack the depth required for a two-hour film. D&D: Honor Among <\/em>turned out to be a lot of fun, witty, fast-moving, a little too silly at times, but very enjoyable, and the rare film that left me hoping we\u2019ll get a sequel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chris Pine plays Edgin Darvis, a bard who begins the film in prison with his comrade Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), a barbarian fighter, after the two were part of a large robbery gone very wrong, which also led to Edgin\u2019s daughter Kira going with one of the members of their crew who escaped the authorities, the thief Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant). We see their parole hearing, where Edgin dissembles at length, waiting for one particular judge to arrive, allowing the script to give us Edgin\u2019s and Holga\u2019s back stories \u2013 he was part of the peacekeeper group the Harpers until a Red Wizard they\u2019d arrested killed his wife, after which he teamed up with Holga, who became a sort of surrogate mother to Kira, and later Forge and the elf Simon (Justice Smith), a young mage who, like low-level magic users in D&D, isn\u2019t good for much because he\u2019s so inexperienced. When Edgin and Holga finally get out of prison, they find out that Forge is now Lord of Neverwinter, and perhaps not the welcoming old friend they expected to find. They reunite with Simon and draft the tiefling druid Doric (Sophia Lillis), a shapeshifter who, we find out quickly, Simon is rather sweet on. Hijinks, magic, and combat ensue as they try to find the missing magic item they were after in the busted burglary that landed the two in prison, while also rescuing Kira and uncovering whatever Forge\u2019s game is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story\u2019s fine, although you can see in general where things are heading and the film doesn\u2019t rely too heavily on big twists and plot surprises. It\u2019s the characters and the actors who make this so much fun, notably Pine, who wisecracks like Michael Bluth with a bit more savoir-faire and less befuddlement at what people around him are doing. Pine sets the tone from the rambling monologues he gives to stall for time at the pardon hearing, making it clear that the script is going to lean heavily on humor and his personality, and less so on the lore of the source material \u2013 which is good, because I don\u2019t think anyone needs a film about the 5e core rules set or lengthy soliloquies about critical hits and saving throws. His interplay with Rodriguez is very strong, as she\u2019s doing a sort of Rosa D\u00edaz\/Cara Dune mashup that contrasts nicely with his \u201cI\u2019ve got this under control\u201d smartass vibe. Smith has his moments as a supporting character whose importance increases as the story moves along \u2013 again, thematically consistent with the rules of the game \u2013 and it seems like the script sets his character and Lillis\u2019s up for bigger roles in any future installments. Grant is a complete ham, but it works, and having some knowledge of his behavior over the years, including on the set of this movie<\/a>, well, perhaps it wasn\u2019t that big of a stretch for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Combat in role-playing games can be a slog for players, and even in the best of circumstances it\u2019s still driven by probabilities whether through dice or cards or some other similar mechanism, which would not translate very well to screen or page. The combat sequences in Honor Among Thieves<\/em> dispense with all of that \u2013 the characters just fight, mostly Holga, who can take out a whole army, although Simon plays more of a role as the party gains experience. It\u2019s a subtle nod to the way the game is played without ever slowing down the overall story; the fights are entertaining, well choreographed, and, most importantly, quick. (There\u2019s also very little blood or actual on-screen violence \u2013 it\u2019s all cartoonish or out of sight, less violent than a typical Marvel movie.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some clear plot conveniences here and a visit to the Underdark that raises all sorts of questions about architectural stability and sanity. I also wouldn\u2019t call any of the character development or overall themes \u201cdeep,\u201d as the script is happy to give us these four adventurers and allow their chemistry to keep things light and fun, which is this film\u2019s greatest strength. I laughed quite a bit, and I was reasonably invested in the plot, even though I think anyone can guess the general outline of the conclusion. It\u2019s a great, not too serious adventure film in a genre that doesn\u2019t often get this treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m a bit of an oddball for my age bracket when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons. I\u2019ve played the pen and paper game, while in middle school, and liked it but found the actual process kind of slow, and of course when you put a bunch of teenaged boys together in a room, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1357,27,122,161,215],"class_list":["post-10024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2023-movies","tag-adventure","tag-fantasy","tag-highly-recommended","tag-movies","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10025,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10024\/revisions\/10025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}