Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
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Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Movie Review
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 fantasy heist comedy film directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley and starring Chris Pratt. It’s a surprisingly strong genre flick.
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“That is one pudgy dragon!“
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A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a long lost relic, but their fun adventure goes dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. First and foremost, I of course heard about this property, but I don’t know anything about it, thus this was all new to me. For the most part, the movie is welcoming new fans, though it did feel a tad complicated in its first half with too many characters and magical elements left underexplained.
But a fantasy movie done in a lightweight, comical tone? This is the stuff I’m talking about. This is what Hollywood should do more of. It genuinely resembled a work of Terry Pratchett in its jovial atmosphere that made me delighted throughout. The humor was at times aggressive and your standard American popcorn movie humor targeted at largest audiences possible, but it still did make me laugh on a couple of occasions as the dialogue is quite good.
Chris Pine was perfectly cast in the role of the bard. He is the emotional and humorous anchor of the entire story and the most believable hero of the bunch. His insecurities and penchant to make fun of everything were quite amusing to witness. Michelle Rodriguez as his barbarian best friend was also superbly cast and she was just wonderful in the role of this warrior woman who still has a big heart.
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Rege-Jean Page as this cool paladin was hilariously overly serious and dignified, which perfectly contrasted Pine’s protagonist. Sophia Lillis was great as the druid capable of morphing into various animal shapes. Her action scenes were by far the coolest in the film. Hugh Grant was too silly, but still fun as sort of a villain. The Red Wizards were the true villains of this story and Sofina in particular was the most menacing of their members. The battle that the gang had with her was quite awesome and wonderfully executed.
All of these actors were so well cast/typecast and the characters are fun and especially strong within a group, but individually they were barely developed and functioning more as genre archetypes than real people. The film has a lot of heart and it has its moving sequences, but it was still not truly emotional and the fake death scene toward the end was insufferable as always. When will Hollywood finally stop doing these awful scenes?!
Dungeons and Dragons benefits from incredible special effects work on a smaller budget than is usual for this type of movie, proving once and for all that budgets don’t need to be as steep as they were in the past. It looked miles better than your average Marvel movie these days because for once they used both practical and computer effects. Couple that with the film being shot on location and the result is a gorgeous, epic fantasy film with some breathtaking imagery.
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The action was overwhelming as usual for modern blockbuster productions, but at least it was well executed for the most part, though the comedic tone squashed any stakes that the film could otherwise have had. The fantastical elements were superb with the various creatures being quite memorable and the spells also led to some cool duels and the heist elements were an intriguing addition to this genre. The maze filled with chests made for such an enjoyable video game feel to that section in the film. The overall production and costume design were terrific and the film is well paced, though a tad too long. The score also could have been more memorable. But it being this bright and colorful was a breath of fresh air in this era of terribly-looking, dreary movies.
I didn’t know anything about Dungeons and Dragons going in, but this movie is welcoming to both fans and newcomers thanks to a strong screenplay that isn’t too complicated. The film has too much action and very low stakes throughout, but the humor is overall solid, the VFX are superb and some of the action scenes are quite cool. This is a rare fantasy flick that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which was a welcome change in pace from overly serious, boring epic fantasies from the past. The jovial tone was phenomenal and the film looking this bright and gorgeous in an era of horrible-looking, dreary CGI mess was a real breath of fresh air.
My Rating – 4
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