Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review Empire Issue Preview: The Mandalorian Season 3, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Andrea Riseborough, Infinity Pool Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is “a film that will appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike way”. Chris Pine Says – Exclusive Image Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Trailer Teases New Action-Packed Campaign

Dungeons & Dragons’ latest attempt at an adaptation was enough of a disaster to make you wish you’d locked the dragons in the dungeon and thrown away the key. But this new effort is courtesy of game nightby John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and establishes them as the go-to team for any attempt to make a board game movie. If it’s not as fun as your latest effort, it’s still as fun as a weekend D&D session and doesn’t require any complicated dice. The first minute establishes that we are in a fantasy land, as a heavily armored chariot carries a monstrous prisoner into a tower reminiscent of Orthanc. However, any sense of foreboding doesn’t last long. It is a fantasy made by people who have seen ShrekSo whenever you’re presented with a looming fortress, a hand-drawn map, or a tragic story, someone will cut the moment with a joke, or Lorne Balfe’s score will deliver a witty tale. The Lord of the Rings parody to make fun of what is happening.

This knowledge is needed because, almost by definition, a Dungeons and Dragons The film should feel like a fairly generic fantasy world. Call John Carter syndrome, but when you’ve influenced almost everything that follows, it’s hard to tell apart. There must be taverns, caves, bad suits, and leather-clad heroes – all tropes. Daley and Goldstein always bring visual innovation, filling the world with birds, halflings who manage not to look like hobbits, and weird cat-faced people. Even his dragons – and the film technically features multiple dungeons and dragons – are a tongue-in-cheek take on familiar terrors. But the images will never distinguish him: all his success depends on the plot, the characters and the jokes.

This is because, under the guise of fantasy, this is a robbery film, a team quest in the best gaming tradition. Ex-convicts Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), bard and barbarian, respectively, set out to steal a treasure for commendable reasons of sympathy. They have to find a way to outrun Forge (Hugh Grant, who is living a better life than him in Phoenix Buchanan) and the evil enchantress Sophina (really mystifying Daisy Head).

Against these formidable enemies, Edgin and Holga recruit Simon, Judge Smith’s precarious sorcerer, charming and unhappy, and Doric, Sophia Lillis’s idealistic shape-shifter. The pairing is a welcome contrast to the relaxed and confident Edgin, with Pine dial charisma at its peak and almost zero effort. Pine in blockbuster mode may be the Chrises’ most consistent fun, here fusing Captain Kirk’s nonchalance with Steve Trevor’s focus on the mission. He collaborated beautifully with his grumpy, platonic life partner Holga, with Rodriguez playing the same character he plays in Fast movie: all about stoicism and physical strength, but here it really shines as a comedy film, plus overwhelming physical strength.

This Ocean quartet becomes almost familiar, and the film gives them room for eccentric and conflicted growth. However, story-wise, it sometimes gets bogged down in side-quests as our heroes look for Whatsit’s Noun to break into the fortified Anywhere location. But just when all is in danger of being lost in fantasy, Régé-Jean Page emerges with a touch of scene-stealing as the outrageously perfect paladin. His tragic hero has no sense of humor and, like a more chiseled Drax, this complete lack of irony makes everyone ten times funnier. He also gets some good chunks with a sword, before his brilliant morale inspires Edgin to (reluctantly) become a much better man.

From there, everything goes exactly as it should. There aren’t any big surprises in the last act, but there is some of the best comedy in the film and a moment where Chris Pine goes hunting with a lute. The highlight of the action includes references to favorite parts of the game and even visual nods to its players. And then you’re hit with an emotional punch. Ultimately, after all, there is a serious core to this story, a core that serves as a truly adorable homage to the game, in the friendship in the found family they build together. As an adaptation of a game that has helped generations of socially awkward teenagers find their tribes and their confidence, it’s a fine note to strike.