Movie Review – Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Movie Review – Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves looked like it had D-minus potential. But it was in fact surprisingly satisfying. I’m not saying this is going to make my top-ten list of any genre, but still, we take our wins when we can get them. And this was a win.

Well paced action

Just last week I saw John Wick: Chapter IV and if there is one knock I would give it would be that some of the action scenes dragged on. It almost feels like the editors of D&D: HMT learned from that error and corrected it in their movie. (I know that’s not the case, but it’s a surprise to see a great action movie make a mistake one week to be followed by a much lesser action movie to get that exact thing just right in the next week.)

There is one exception in D&D:HMT where an action scene felt superfluous—Holga’s last fight scene in the armory. But it took up time while other characters were busy, so I’ll give them a pass on this one.

They also managed to inject the right amount of humor into the action, without making it too heavy-handed.

Plot

The plot felt like it was plucked from a video game. There are many scenes where the characters discover a new quest that needs to be undertaken in order to complete the main quest. But I can hardly knock them for that. It’s exactly what D&D is about. In many respects they made the quests feel organic instead of something arbitrary that was added in for the sake of making it play out like a real game of D&D.

Acting

Chris Pine was a really excellent choice for the role of Edgin. He really seemed to embody the characteristics needed for the character. But I can’t say the same about many of the other characters. The acting felt a little cardboard. I think most of that falls on the writing and the direction. There just wasn’t much for any of the characters, other than Edgin, to really work with.

Villain

I’ll preach all day long that a well-understood villain is absolutely crucial to creating a great action movie. They didn’t even try in this movie. The villain is just evil for the sake of gaining power. It’s just that simple. More often than not that will handicap any action movie, but they sort of make it work in this one. It is based on a game. And to my understanding, D&D doesn’t dwell upon making the villains sympathetic. They simply have supreme powers so that the protagonist(s) will have to achieve quest after quest in order to gain the necessary skills to defeat the villain.

I’ll give this movie a pass for not bothering to flesh out the villain. It’s about the same as the Indiana Jones movies using nazis as villains.

Conclusion

On the drive home my wife actually said she enjoyed this movie more than John Wick: Chapter IV last week. I don’t think I’m going to go that far, but I understand what she’s getting at. This movie was about the right length and checked most of the boxes needed to be an enjoyable movie.

Grade: B

About The Peetimes: I found three Peetimes, but it wasn’t easy, or without controversy. The first Peetime is recommended. There’s no action or new characters. The second Peetime would be fantastic, except that there’s a really funny bit that starts 3-minutes into the Peetime. The third Peetime has a lot of short action scenes but will suffice in a pinch.

There are extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Rated:	(N/A) Some Language | Fantasy Action/Violence
Genres:	Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Starring:	Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page
Director:	John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
Writer(s):	Michael Gilio, John Francis Daley, Chris McKay
Language:	English
Country:	United States

Plot
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.