Film Review: Dungeons and Dragons - Honor Among Thieves

 

Sexuality/Nudity Acceptable

Violence Acceptable
Vulgarity Acceptable

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable

This movie was a lot better than I thought it would be.

I think this is a case where the marketing of the film did not really allow the fun of the movie to come through.  I felt the same way about the original Guardians of the Galaxy, where the trailers made the movie look awful, but I was wonderfully surprised at how good it was.  And while D&D is not as good as that original Guardians, the parallels are strong.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves starts with Edgin the Bard (Chris Pine) and his barbarian friend Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) as they escape from prison after a heist gone wrong.  They go to find Edgin's daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) who has been living with Edgin's former associate, the con man Forge (Hugh Grant).  But things do not go as planned.  I do not want to give away some of the story's interesting twists and turns, but Edgin and Holga must pull off one more heist to get Kira back.  They turn to another former associate, the mediocre magic user Simon (Justice Smith) and the humorless shape-shifter Doric (Sophie Lillis).  Along the way they also are aided by the noble warrior Xenk (Rege-Jean Page) as they get into a series of adventures that will involve magic helmets, talking corpses, dungeons, and yes, dragons.

One of the things that this movie does incredibly well is the incorporation of sweeping visuals.  While there are at times an overwhelming number of green screen CGI shots, directors John Francis Daley and Johnathan Goldstein took a page out of Peter Jackson's playbook and shot a number of scenes in beautiful and exotic vistas.  I have nothing against CGI per se, but there is something transportive about locations that you know are real but look magical.  These are the same directors that gave us one of the best comedies in years: Game Night.  What both of these movies have in common is a strong visual style that is used for great effect.  In D&D, the directors draw you un with their sweeping, dynamic use of the camera that makes you feel as if you are part of this epic adventure.

That is not to say that the CGI is bad.  In fact, there is a particularly wonderful "single-shot" sequence where the Doric is shape-shifting her way out of danger that is both imaginative and visually exciting.

The movie has to walk a tricky balancing act between the comedy and the action.  Like Guardians, there is a lot of wacky humor and is always dangerously close to slipping into parody.  But also like Guardians, it never takes you completely out of the movie.  The stakes are real and the humor does not take that away.  

One of the sources of this disjointed humor is the the variations in performances.  In The Lord of the Rings, everyone treated the material with seriousness of a Shakespearean tragedy and spoke in vaguely English accents.  In D&D, everyone feels like they are performing in a slightly different movie.  Pine acts like he is in a Marvel film.  Grant plays things like an over-the-top comedy.  Page plays everything straight like a BBC drama.  Smith and Lillis act like a mismatched pair from a teen rom-com.  this should make everything into a muddled mess, but instead it works for two reasons.

The first is that despite the different styles, everyone is fully committed to the story.  They are all invested in the reality of their world and their dangers.  For that reason, you as the audience will also become invested.

The second is something that will really only makes sense to people who have played role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.  When you sit in that circle and begin your adventure, you usually have people with different characters and different attitudes.  Some take the game very seriously and even speak with the cadence of the character they play.  Some are a bit more casual and play the game basically as themselves.  And there are others who use the game as an opportunity to have some fun, cause some mayhem, or crack a lot of jokes.  Every game of Dungeons and Dragons feels different based on the people you bring to the table.  And each unique personality creates a strange brew of fun.  That is the feeling I got when watching Honor Among Thieves.  Each character felt like someone in the real world was playing them to great effect and having a good time.

Overall, the performances are very good.  This might be Pine at his most charming.  He has great chemistry with everyone in his group.  Rodriguez plays the tough-girl part with surprising depth instead of the flat way should could be portrayed.  Grant chews up every scene he's in, but looks like he is having fun.  Smith's nerdy turn could get old, but the story allows for growth in his character.  Lillis has a difficult time with Doric, since she is not given much of a personality except humorlessness.  She's the kind of person who seems like they often fold their arms and say "That's not funny."  She does create a nice contrast to Smith, but it would have been nicer to see more personality come through.

In terms of plot, the movie is relatively straightforward: find the person who helps you find the thing you need to get to this objective so that you can perform the task... etc.  It works, but this is not a plot with a lot of surprises.  The main MaGuffin is a tablet of resurrection.  Early in the film I could see where the plot was going to take us.  And yet when the moment arrived I still found it touching.

The movie actually has a number of nice themes at play.  One of the big ones is redemption.  Edgin made mistakes and became a thief.  But this life took him away from his daughter.  The movie focuses on overcoming those mistakes and making up for his past.  One of the other really big themes is that of failure.  Almost all of Edgin's plan fail in some way.  But Edgin gives an excellent speech about failure and how it is a part of life.  The movie explores the idea of how to deal with failure and use it to learn.  It is not the most original theme, but the movie effectively captures how the only way to really fail is to not try.  It is a good reminder in all areas of life, especially the spiritual life where anyone failure is a common experience.

The movie never quite hits the heights that Guardians does.  Sometimes it leans just a little too heavy into the humor, but never in a way that makes the story unlikeable.  This is a fun movie and an enjoyable adventure that is much better than it should be.  

I recommend taking a trip to the realm of Dungeons and Dragons.