Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves – Film Review
I must admit my expectations for Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves were very low. I had never played the tabletop role-playing game or watched previous movies but the star-studded cast and directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley gave me some hope.
The movie, which is not connected to previous films, stars Chris Pine as Edgin Darvis, a bard and former Harper, who raised his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) with his best friend, the barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), following the death of his wife. He and Holga are sabotaged by the rogue Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant) during a heist to find a resurrection tablet and they are sent to prison. When they escape two years later, they discover that Forge is the Lord of Neverwinter and has been poisoning Kira’s mind against her father.
After they thwart Forge’s attempt to execute them and escape Neverwinter, Edgin and Holga form a ragtag team – featuring amateur sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and Tiefling druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) – to break into Forge’s vault, steal the tablet and win Kira back.
In the marketing, it is made very clear that you don’t need to know anything about D&D to enjoy this movie. That’s almost true. You will enjoy it more if you have some experience; you will appreciate the references and understand the significance of things. The story itself is easy enough to follow but it’s quite hard to keep up with all the new names. I was like, “What’s a Harper? What’s a Tiefling?”
The film is goofy and charming and entertaining to watch. I was expecting it to be more consistently funny, with the Game Night directors at the helm, but I still laughed out loud a bunch. However, I wasn’t invested in the story, which is quite weak and messy. After the main set-up, we just follow their quest to collect the things they need to mount their mission. I think trimming the runtime down by a good 20 minutes would have made it better. There are some fun setpieces but the CGI is often quite poor.
Grant is the scene-stealer as the hilariously hammy villain Forge. He would have been annoying if he was used too much so thankfully he appears sparingly. Regé-Jean Page is amusing as Xenk, a paladin who doesn’t grasp sarcasm, and Michelle Rodriguez is in her element as the kickass, muscular Holga. She does all the physical work while Edgin comes up with the plans. It’s rare to see the male lead of an action film do so little stunt work so I liked that he was the brains, not the brawn.
I am not the target market for this movie but I still enjoyed it (to an extent) so I imagine diehard fans will love it.
In cinemas Friday 31st March