Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Director: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley

Starring: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Justice Smith

Primary genre: Fantasy

Secondary genre: Action

Third genre: Heist

Fourth genre: comedy

New day, another blockbuster with rich material is being adapted to fit the Marvel formulaic constraints of cookie cutter filmmaking. After Courtney Solomon’s disastrous adaptation back in 2000, “Dungeons & Dragons” begged for a brand new take due to its worth of a cinematic presentation rich scope and vivid mythology. The problem is that we are in the year 2023 and audiences have become saturated with fantasy epics full of orcs, monsters, shapeshifters, barbarians, con-men, dragons and undead sorcerers. It is obvious still that superhero Marvel-ian tropes have infected pretty much every script which aims to have fun.

Emulating these ingredients, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” does not have much going on for originality opting out to check every single box of the modern, deconstructed now genre by copy pasting several scenes and traits from other superior films (e.g., “Shrek” (2001), “Stardust“ (2007), “The Avengers” (2012), “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014)) while its world building attempts are no better than those failed and forgotten wannabe franchise starters (e.g., “Eragon” (2006), “Conan the Barbarian” (2011), “47 Ronin” (2013), “Jack the Giant Slayer” (2013), “Seventh Son” (2015)). With “Dungeons & Dragons" following into familiar footsteps, a box office failure under a spectacularly misplaced marketing campaign is imminent but only time will tell.

Although “D&D“ has been masqueraded as the ultimate “woke” vehicle (diversity! strong female characters! stupid men!), it surprisingly contains some hefty emotional (yet conventional) material despite a somewhat clunky execution (i.e., rapid fire one liners constantly undermine the proceedings). Its heroic quadrant comprised by borderline “special” and annoying individuals whom we are used to see in many other sequels, reboots and remakes, bear at least distinct characteristics and mini arcs that walk them through this action comedy heist pastiche of a story.

The highlight of the film is though the relationship of Pine/Rodriguez, both actors sharing excellent chemistry and comic timing rarely seen in a male/female bond. This adventurous duo looks and acts their respective parts, complementing each other - the brains and the brawns, in several scenes and maintaining this connection in a meaningful way, especially towards the climatic finale unaffected by modern audience culture and demands. Hugh Grant on the other hand, is having the time of his life playing a silver tongued con-man but his evil wizard minions come and go to the foreground only to serve nothing more than action filler.

However, despite being buried under an exposition heavy and overly simplified plot which sees the heroes going back and forth into fairly standard sword and sorcery locations along with unnecessary flashbacks, there is some fun to be had in a few sequences, particularly a castle escape and a dragon skirmish. The directors make most of their $150 million dollars budget by shooting in real locations ignoring the usage of glorified green screen landscapes with a complementing production design.

Yet, for one of the earliest (and most popular) properties in the genre, there is no visual potency or flair, the film strongly lacking in the imagination department as opposed to other entries that go far out to present a fictional living and breathing world even if the budget is not there (“Solomon Kane“ (2009) comes to mind).

“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is not the disaster that most (if not everybody) feared it was going to be. There is some minor excitement and a few well executed laughs and its protagonist duo bears an undeniable charm which is missing from most effects heavy blockbusters today. Yet, it is a visual disappointment unable to capitalize on the richness of the source material’s mythology following a pretty expected story filled with plot exposition.

Fun and forgettable

+Pine/Rodriguez excellent chemistry

+Surprisingly emotional core

+Hugh Grant

+Some decent laughs

+Real locations

-Fairly standard fantasy entry

-Visually boring

-Most jokes do not stick

-Predictable