Bullet Points: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Fantasy films based on nerd games don’t have the best track record. A Dungeons & Dragons film was attempted back in 2000 starring the ‘where the hell is he?’ Justin Whalin. It didn’t do well. What it did do, however, was show Hollywood that a film based in this world couldn’t work and us fans had to wait decades for a second attempt. Let’s see if it was worth the wait….
Synopsis: A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.
- Enter our Heroes: We first meet Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodgriguez) in their prison cell. We quickly learn that Ed is the smooth-talking con man and Holga is the muscle. She beats the shit out of a massive troll fella and then we watch as Ed comes up with a successful plan to get them out of the prison. It’s all very funny, too. The long title of this film might be a turnoff to some as those types of films rarely do well, but this one appears from the very beginning to lean heavily on the likeability of Pine and Rodriguez.
- Building the Team: Once they’re out, they do what any other folks in their position would do; they build a team. There’s no montage here as we get to witness a bit more about each member. We get Simon the sorcerer (Justice Smith), Doric the tiefling (Sofia Lillis), and later Xenk the paladin (Rene-Jean Page). Each of them very much follows the script of the Dungeons & Dragons playbook and it all makes for lots of fun as they work off of one another.
- Stopping Evil: A former comrade of Ed and Holga’s has now become the Lord of Neverwinter. If it sounds like a ridiculous name for a city just remember this is a fantasy movie. He’s a con man and hasn’t lost his touch but it isn’t his charm that caused his massive rise in status, it’s his partnership with a Theyan Sorceress named Sofina. Theyans are like Sith lords who have all sorts of dark magic and they are always up to no good.
- Adventure: The story isn’t just your usual good vs evil. Ed and Holga have something more important in this than just stopping the bad guys, they’re trying to get their girl back. Ed’s daughter and Holga’s sorta/kinda adopted daughter Kira. She’s been living with Forge (Hugh Grant) and while she’s been safe and happy, she’s also being lied to about her father and what he’s trying to accomplish. It adds to the weight of the film. These are thieves, of course, and the lengths they go to succeed is usually based on what they have to gain in the endeavor. In this case, Ed and Holga have everything to gain.
- The Arena: As the thieves make their way into the city for the final showdown with the bad guys, we’re treated to very game-like battle in an arena. There are random creatures, cages, and strange pillar things that remind you very much that this is all based on a game.
- Plans A, B, C, and D: Ed isn’t good for much, but he sure knows how to make a plan. Or maybe several plans. Pine pivots plans like a career politician looking for his next job as he and his team set their sights on the Theyan threat to the city. The stakes are certainly raised when this happens and that isn’t always a good thing. The smart way they do it here makes sense as the once thieves now shift into heroes as they’re the only thing standing in the way of the evil beings trying to take over the land.
The Verdict: A really incredible watch with a cast so talented and charming that I can’t think of another movie in recent memory that I want a sequel to more. I was never the biggest fan of Chris Pine in the Star Trek universe. I thought he was maybe too good looking, or maybe it was just that the writing never fit with his style. I can see that this is very much his style. It feels very much like the boost that Chris Pratt got when he did the Guardians of the Galaxy series. Fans of fantasy things will be huge into this movie and it does more for the genre than Warcraft or any of The Hobbit films. It’s slim on the world-building but it’s heavy on the character building. Take it from me, this film is as delightful a film as you will see anytime soon. Check it out on Amazon Prime.
