In short, you are the hero of your own story, which you create together with your friends and their created heroes.
It is a game of pretend, with dice and rules to decide what happens next. You get to choose to be literally anything, ranging from an elven wizard to a werewolf warrior.
You and your friends have to work together to explore imaginary worlds, slay deadly monsters and solve complicated puzzles.
The lure of “D&D” is that the approach to any problem is open-ended. Encountering a dragon? You can kill it, of course. Or you could sneak past it. Or…seduce it, even! (Please don’t.)
Ultimately, the decades-old game is one where you can use your creativity to have fun with your friends and be the hero of your childhood imagination. Now, back to the review.
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” takes place in a fantasy world where humans, dwarfs, elves and other strange species live amongst each other, and magic is a real thing here.
The story follows a bard named Edgin (Chris Pine) who finds himself jailed with his BFF and female warrior, Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), after a failed heist on behalf of a strange wizard (Daisy Head).
The duo manages to escape prison and discover that their former colleague, Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), has become the important Lord of Neverwinter.
More importantly though, he is holding both Edgin’s daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman), and the magical tablet they sought in the failed heist.
So, eager to take both back, Edgin and Kira assemble their new team, including an unskilled wizard, a shapeshifting druid and a charming paladin, each with their own particular set of skills.
Trying to adapt a very complicated game into a single movie is no easy feat, and to the credit of directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, they did an acceptable job with it.
There are plenty of terms and jargon which will be lost on non-“D&D” players, but the film still keeps people engaged. In fact, its greatest strength is its cast, with Pine bringing to his role his usual rough charisma.
That said, the performances of the other leads, including Rodriguez, Justice Smith and Sophia Lilis are to be commended as well.
There’s also the paladin character of Xenk (Rege-Jean Page), who acts as a perfect foil to the morally dubious Elgin.
He literally is so perfect that Elgin can’t help but dislike him, especially since Xenk is incapable of understanding Elgin’s humour and sarcasm in the least.
Oh, and Grant is always a win. Like in “Paddington 2”, the rom-com star plays a very hammy villain and it is obvious he is having fun in the role.
Even if you end up disliking the film, it will probably still earn a star for having Grant be, well, Grant in all his glory. Love that man.
If you go in expecting the film to be a barrel of laughs, just like the game, you’re in luck as there are comedic moments aplenty.
The audience will likely be rolling around in their seats during the scene when the crew is resurrecting corpses for interrogation.
The catch? Each corpse can only answer five questions before returning to the grave. And Elgin characteristically wastes a few questions on queries like: “Did that count as a question?”
Comedy aside, the film is a feast for the eyes, with cinematography and special effects bringing to life the magical world in which the characters inhabit.
Action sequences are also kept exciting, with chases and battles taking place in diverse settings, with the audience never being left lost at any point.
These scenes of high tension are also accentuated by the score of composer Lorne Balfe, who uses a combination of chanting and musical beats to keep the audience pumped.
It’s great to see the use of practical effects in a high-budget Hollywood film. Those should always be used together with CGI where possible.
While you may not personally understand the allure of “D&D”, the writers of the film clearly did with how imaginative their creative choices are.
Additionally, the themes of bravery and brotherhood are ever-present in the plot, which is a good commentary on the spirit of the game itself.
Hence, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is worth a watch, regardless of whether you have played the game before. Who knows? It might just pique your curiosity!
As of press time, ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is screening in cinemas nationwide.