Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
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"massive win for short kings"
— karsten runquist's review on Letterboxd
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 film directed by Johnathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (the same directors behind Game Night and the writers from Spider-Man: Homecoming) and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Ignoring the other Dungeons & Dragons films as this is a reboot of the franchise, it went on to receive positive reviews from critics.
Plot
After his daughter's been kidnapped by his former ally, Edgin the bard must travel across the lands while recruiting a barbarian, a sorcerer, a druid, and a paladin to retrieve a lost relic to save her.
Why It Has A Whole Lotta Love
- Unlike the 2000's film, the special effects and visuals are top-notch.
- The opening Paramount logo has its mountain trademark intro replaced with a blizzardy environment.
- The monster designs are not only great but also faithful to their source material. There are owlbears, mimics, and of course, dragons.
- Adding onto WIHAWLL #1, it stays faithful to its source material compared to the 2000's film.
- The plot isn't a poor beggar's version of Lord of The Rings, it creates a basic quest for an item plot and yet makes it feel funny and engaging. The writers even made fun of why magic can't solve the film's problems by explaining that magic has limitations, such as a staff that can create portals can only work when the area that you need a portal to teleport has to be visible, sort of like the Portal gun in Valve's Portal.
- Even if you don't know anything about D&D, there's much to enjoy here.
- Good acting from Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and of course, Hugh Grant.
- Likable characters like the main protagonist Edgin, the barbarian Holga, the sorcerer Simon, Doric the druid, and Xenk the paladin.
- The comedy is great, such as the party interrogating the corpses at the graveyard leaving one awkwardly idle, Simon accidentally triggering a trap in a dungeon, and a soldier crashing behind the party as they nonchalantly discuss Doric's skills.
- When there isn't a comedy, it does have its blend of serious moments such as Edgin's wife Zia dying.
- There are also many throwbacks to the original D&D media such as the maze scene where there is another party dressed like the characters from the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon of the 1980s.
- Decent pacing.
- Excellent score by Lorne Balfe.
- Johnathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley offer good direction.
Unloved Qualities
- While the soundtrack is decent, it doesn't have the song "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin which made audiences who expected the song to be used in the movie ever since the trailers used it somewhat disappointing.
- While the pacing's decent, the opening scene can drag a bit.
- While the acting is good, Justice Smith gives a mediocre performance, which isn't helped by having him sound like an American trying to be British.
- Development Hell: Warner Bros. was going to make this film, but a legal battle between the company and Universal Pictures made it difficult to enter production, eventually the film was sold to Paramount Pictures and was delayed because of COVID.
Reception
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves received very positive reviews from critics and audiences. At a 91% rating from 233 critics and a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it is the highest-rated Dungeons & Dragons film yet. Critics and audiences praised the humor, tone, pacing, and unexpected pathos. However, it underperformed in the box office due to its competition with The Super Mario Bros Movie ed
Trivia
- This is the fourth D&D film, being a reboot of the entire franchise.