If you’re looking for a new adventure movie, you don’t have to look much further than Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The movie, built on the Dungeons & Dragons world takes from the table top game, brings a world full of fantasy, magic, zombies and adventure to life. And yes, there are even dungeons and dragons in the movie.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves follows the story of Edgin (Chris Pine) a former Harper and his friend Holga (Michelle Rodreguez) as they partner with other misfits to take down a big foe and get Edgin’s daughter back. Much like the table top game, each member of the team is a different class within society, bards, magicians and warriors. Each with their individual skills being utitlized at different times to hopefully help the group and move forward in their quest.
Despite the heavy leaning on D&D world and terms, the movie doesn’t require you know much about the world or the characters going into it. It of course, doesn’t hurt if you do know some of the terms or have played in the future. You may find yourself recognizing different locations, different terms and things like the gelatenous cube (which was also used in Pixar’s Onward which was heavily influenced by D&D as well).
But it’s not a game playing out on the screen. Instead, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, is based around more the story with a dash of D&D included. Just grab your snacks and a drink and settle in for an adventure story that is going to take you to places you haven’t seen before. There are, of course, Easter Eggs for players in the movie, but they’re not a heavy focus and may be something that you miss while watching the movie.
One surprising thing about Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is that despite it’s over two hour run time, the movie doesn’t feel like it’s that long. The movie flows well between the action and jokes, with a little bits of D&D jargon, traps and creatures thrown in. There are times that the movie, or the story is a bit predictable, but there are no points in the story that will have you checking your watch for the time or have you wondering why that part of the story was included at all. It’s light at times, a little dark at others and fluffy enough to be a good popcorn flick.
The movie goes a long way to take the Dungeons & Dragons world and make it more approachable to non-players and to people who may have only heard of the game. Really anyone can go into this movie and just enjoy an epic fantasy story with a bit of humor without being bogged down with terminology or what would normally happen in game play. It’s almost like they took the core elements that the game D&D were based on and just plopped a fantasy movie into it. There are some terms and creatures that may be foreign to viewers, but it’s not any different than seeing any other fantasty or sci-fi movie with new characters and creatures.
Approachable, funny and witty, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a movie that the whole family can enjoy. While we’re not sure exactly how the fans of the table top game will feel about the movie, it is an improvement in story and graphics from the last movie franchise in the early 2000s.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will be in theaters everywhere this weekend.
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About Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves brings the rich world and playful spirit of the legendary roleplaying game to the big screen in a hilarious and action-packed adventure.
