Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review
Here’s my Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley and stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis and Hugh Grant.
So before we proceed, SPOILER ALERT
I find it hard to review this without going on spoiler territory so here’s a spoiler warning for good measure.
The film follows this ragtag band as they go on what they initially believe to be a heist which ends up doing something bigger than they initial set out. Leading this party is a bard. Yes, a bard named Edgin Darvis together with warrior Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), sorceror Simon Aumar (Justice Smith) and tiefling druid Doric (Sophia Lillis).
The plot and pacing was OK for me. There were some who thought that it was a tad too long but I felt that this felt just about right. It’s one of those quick games DnD players do on hectic weeknights or busy weekends. I am quite happy that it did not leave me wanting more in terms of fleshing out the characters because it was written to bob and weave quite well. I totally raise a cup to the DMs of the game err movie Mssrs Daley and Goldstein.
Chris Pine as Edgin was fun at most and entertaining at the very least. The dude knows his strengths and its obvious the role was worked tremendously to go on his strengths as an actor. Smooth stuff even when he’s pained, it registers good. You barely go wrong when Pine’s the leading man.
Then we have Regé-Jean Page who plays paladin Xenk Yendar who looked great, delivered great acting and just has 1000 charisma. As this straight-edge, good guy type, he doesn’t do jokes but is very noble. Page came off as noble and I did wish when he joined the party they got to have a lot more great action scenes.
Speaking of action scenes, I was hoping for sword and sorcery type but I was floored when I realized that they did a movie with only one warrior type class with them. So the rest are magic users or skill users and I was a little scared that they were going up against a stronger class of enemy and not all of them are on the same level. I guess they were teaching us that teamwork works extremely well in DnD because like in real life, you won’t be able to play the game if it were just you. Ha. good stuff.
Visuals
I caught one, just one awful CG for this film and I loved every moment that there was CG involved. As a DnD fan, I loved seeing and hearing familiar places (which are also notable video games). It’s just plain gorgeous and the subtle looks to other franchises were also great. I had “The Shire” vibes with Holga’s village and a bit of Game of Thrones nostalgia for Neverwinter. They even trek through lava fields and I could already remember a game that had this exact scenario.
I guess I did want to say that for this review, it felt like “Honor” was the middle child of dark fantasy and high fantasy film and TV franchises. And I definitely want to see more adventures from this cast and even spin off with a completely different cast in later movies.
Creatures
There’s a ton of fan favorites here in the film that are instant classics like the obvious dragons like the chubbiest and cutest Themberchaud…
Then there are a number of familiar ones OR ones that will be future familiar creatures to new fans who will be netted in by the film. These includes the displacer beast, the owlbear and more. Even the scarier ones needs some lovin too.
And let’s not even go to the designs for the undead creatures. The reanimated corpses look spooky as hell but I have reservations for the mutated creatures on Thay. Still it was a visual treat for fans and newbies alike.
Final Verdict:
I had a great time watching Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. It’s easily one of the best movies that’s not branded Marvel or DC and it’s got this fire of youth and promise to it. You’ll love the film regardless whether you’re an avid player of the game or a new geek looking to jump into the hobby. I’m actually happy that this is really good and entertaining.
10/10
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