Instead of playing Dungeons and Dragons last week, the group decided to go and see Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves. For me as the Dungeon Master, it was a chance to pick up some more ideas, maybe not for that game, but really it was just a chance to see if the new Dungeons and Dragons movie is a fun time.

My expectations were middling going into it. I’d heard from other reviews and people who have seen it that it was good. But where does that fall into the mix of being a good movie critically and mainly just a popcorn flick? Let’s take a look, there might be some spoilers but minimal.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – Plot

Edgin wants a simple life of doing what is right. Well, maybe not that simple as he throws in his lot with a group called the Harpers. He is partly tasked with keeping bad folks off the streets and then taking artifacts or things too dangerous to be in the world or at least the people’s hands who have them. However, that all goes wrong when his wife is killed by one of the evil groups he’s dealt with.

Forsaking his Harper vows he tries to lead a good life for his daughter but without his anchor falls into drink and depression. Things do get better when he gets someone who helps him through the process. But good things don’t last when he finds of a chance to get his wife back but is betrayed by someone in his own party. So breaking out of prison, how does he get his life back, wife back, and now daughter back, when everything has been taken from him?

Thoughts

Firstly, this is very much a popcorn flick. I tried to tease that it might be more but it’s really not. You sit down and watch it to get a lighter fantasy story with Dungeons and Dragons tropes mixed in. Now, aren’t those the same as fantasy, some of them, but generally how they are done is going to be different.

Use of Dungeons and Dragons

And that’s really the highlight of this movie. It could have easily juts been generic fantasy. They could have picked some random fantasy script slapped Dungeons and Dragons on the marquee and called it good. But that is not what this movie is. They spend a lot of time to make sure that it feels like Dungeons and Dragons, and not just that but to make sure they get it right.

That detail is going to be lost on some people. If you don’t know Dungeons and Dragons it’ll seem like a slightly different fantasy. It’ll still be a popcorn flick, but it will be missing some of that heart. When you play Dungeons and Dragons, or know it fairly well, it’ll feel like Dungeons and Dragons.

The Story

I think the story is where it really can start to drive in that Dungeons and Dragons feel. Things like the monsters, and some jokes about intelligence help, but to make it really feel, the story needs to feel like that too. So what does that even mean?

In a Dungeons and Dragons campaign you often go from one quest to another. Mainly think one set piece to another. Where you interact with some of the story, find new characters and fight something. That works well in a campaign at home because everyone is directly involved in the story.

On the flip side, it often doesn’t work well in movies or books which are meant for a longer sitting but also need a specific end. In Honor Among Thieves, though, it works. Why, because it matches the light tone. You expect them to go and get a random thing. How the party comes together makes sense even though it’s a random(ish) group. It isn’t as tight and nice a story as you want in a lot of movies, but it helps give it the Dungeons and Dragons feel.

But, and this will be a negative for some, it also has a Marvel feel to it. It has that super hero feel in some of the fights or moments where everything comes together. For me, this isn’t a major issue, but it definitely tries to lean on what is successful to find it’s success.

The Acting

Finally, let’s talk about the acting. Mainly because this is an interesting mixture in the cast. You have bigger names like Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant in the movie. But then you have lesser known talent to pair with them like Rege-Jean Page, Sophia Willis, Justice Smith, and Daisy Head. It’s an interesting combination of talents playing in main roles.

But that combination works well. I think they did a good job casting the characters so that they made sense for their roles. With a niche in a a niche genre of fantasy, you need a few bigger names, but also it’s nice that it’s not just big names so that you can enjoy what everyone is doing, not just have an actor who is in it for a paycheck. Yes, they all are, but the up and coming or lesser known all need to do well. And even with the more established, they do a good job of putting in effort.

Who Is It For?

Great question on this one, I think for a lot of people this is going to be a fun popcorn flick. In fact, I don’t think that many people are going to watch it and think that it sucks. But it isn’t also going to be one that people are seeking out.

I put it in that camp of people will often stop and watch The Fifth Element when that is on television. But is it a movie people seek out? I feel like it isn’t. That is a good thing, it’ll have staying power. It is also a bad thing, because people will wait on it.

Final Thoughts – Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

This is a movie that I really enjoyed. Is it great, no, but it is a ton of fun. And that is what I wanted in that movie. And the big thing is that it gets it right. I don’t mind movies taking liberties with the story it’s adapting. But with Dungeons and Dragons I am glad that they kept it close to the source materials.

It could have gone more generic with a fewer nods. But it does a good job of building on an really open world of Dungeons and Dragons. It leans into the source material so it stands out like it should. And they tell a true story to the source materials.

My Grade: B+
Critical Grade: C
Fun Grade: A

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