Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Brings Firey Delight

Chris Pine is now my top choice for Flynn Rider if a live-action Tangled gets made. 

When you think about the best ‘board game to film adaptations,’ I’m not sure I can think of any besides 1985’s Clue. Is there an unseen “monopoly” on this genre in the film industry? If they can all be as surprising and entertaining as Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, then I’d say yes. 

We all know the old expression, “If adventure has a name it must be Indiana Jones,” to add to this I’d argue if Fun-Silly-Self Aware-Fantasy-Adventure movies had a name, it might be this new take on the Dungeons & Dragons world. Honor’s biggest praise lies within its breathing script which is non-reliant on your knowledge of the source material. The humor is well earned, and in many instances, set up well, making paying attention to the smaller lines of dialogue help contribute to the overall experience. 

Another element of the script that brings to pass the success of Honor would be its ability to do whatever it wants. Let me explain, normally, if you were to write a script where characters just randomly appear, or gain new powers, or even if new characters are introduced late into the story, these would bring the enjoyment factor down. It works here because those behind the film understand what to leave behind during the heist and know the right things to steal from the treasure that is the game. 

This is a world in which very early on it’s shown how outlandish and absurd many of the locations and the powers of each character are. The vast change of locations for example, of which there are many, is seamless because the characters within the film go about their day because these are everyday, normal occurrences for them. In turn, this helps the audience’s investment. 

It also helps that the characters are all fun and interesting to watch. The cast is fantastic, and the camaraderie found here between the leads is similar to that of Guardians of the Galaxy. Pine shines as the easiest to relate to, as well as presenting the most charisma with a compelling backstory to boot. Another highlight in the cast is Hugh Grant as swindling con-man Forge, who is not all he seems on the surface. 

The action, while at times can suffer from CGI issues, is exciting. One of the best sequences of the film comes from when our heroes journey to the underworld to obtain an important item. The design was cool, the humor was top-notch, and the use of setup and payoff was excellent. 

Its main villain is needed for the story and works for major character development, but is overall unmemorable. The story’s main focus is our main group of misfits, yes due to that, the time spent developing the villain is very short and weak. The faction this villain belongs to is everywhere in the film, but other than following orders, there’s not much to motivate Honor’s villain or the audience’s interest in the character. 

What works so well about Honor is that you do not need to play the game in order to understand the movie or enjoy it. This is not the next big Hollywood epic, but for being based on a board game, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is definitely worth rolling the dice.