Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves review: A fantastical family flick!
By Gabii Rayner
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) is one of the latest theatre releases to cause an opinion stir, with Hidden Remote’s own Ricky Valero even describing the movie as “extremely boring”. But many, including myself, beg to differ!
What is Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves about?
The Chris Pine led action-comedy is a fantasy heist based on the general concept of the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop game. This is a game in which players can take part in various ‘campaign’ stories, develop their own histories for their band of characters, and engage in a form of roleplay acting as they quest!
The movie in question follows the lute-playing thief Edgin (Chris Pine), axe-wielding warrior Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), sorceror Simon (Justice Smith), and shape-shifter Doric (Sophia Lillis) as they attempt to gather intel and magical objects in order to rescue Edgin’s daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) from the hands of the conman Forge (Hugh Grant) and his mysterious advisor Sofina (Daisy Head). You don’t need to have played Dungeons & Dragons to follow that!
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves — Reviving comedy?
Whilst the plot of Dungeons & Dragons isn’t anything particularly revolutionary, its sheer charm is what sells it. The characters, though fairly thrown together, develop the camaraderie that comes with a typical Dungeons & Dragons game between friends or family, and the film becomes truly joyous.
One of the biggest successes of the movie comes in its attempt at reviving comedy in the cinematic world. Over the past decade, many critics, online commentary channels, and film-goers appear to have noticed a decline in both the quantity and quality of comedy movies. Despite the multiplicity of MCU comedy attempts after the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, truly good comedies have been few and far between.
It is for this reason that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves comes as a breath of fresh air. Although not every joke is a big hitter, and some you can see coming from a mile off, it is the attempts (and the bursts of laughter in the audience around you) that make the film fun in its purest sense. A few Easter eggs even exist for well-versed Dungeons & Dragons players, giving an unexpected thrill.
A particular comedy highlight comes in the form of Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page. Fitting into a sense of glorious radiance in the Paladin Xenk Yendar, Page delivers some of the movie’s best moments. Throughout his time as part of the heist team, he is charming and he is perfect as the lawful good that a Paladin should be, in stark contrast to the rugged, morally-grey Edgin.
But Page is just one element of a film that truly surprised me. I was expecting cringe, I was expecting cheese, and even though I absolutely got those things, they were delivered in just the right way. It was even countered with some great horror moments, and pretty good special effects! Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves is nothing short of a fantastical adventure, and I will returning to its world if it continues as a franchise, perhaps utilising different campaigns, stories, and casts in a similar way to the Knives Out series.
But with such divisive opinions on the film overall, maybe you should check the movie out for yourself and let us know what you think!
‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is out now in theatres.