Honour Among Thieves gives die hard fans of the game and general audiences alike the feature celebration the monolith deserves.
BY ALEX GILSTON MARCH 16, 2023
Dungeons and Dragons is one of the most popular tabletop games of all time, which spawned a - terribly received - film series in the noughties. Fast forward twenty years and Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves plans to rectify this, giving die hard fans of the game and general audiences alike the feature celebration the monolith deserves.
Honour Among Thieves drops us into the Forgotten Realms in the company of Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) who are both incarcerated for a heist gone wrong. As they both escape they gather a party of people to help with their ultimate goal; save Edgin’s daughter from the villainous Forge (Hugh Grant), and steal back an amulet that could bring Edgin’s wife back to life. Honour Among Thieves is a globetrotting huge scale adventure that plays out similarly to a campaign. The structure of which lends itself well to a two hour film. Going on different little adventures to help with the final goal whilst also building a bond with the characters before us as they go through their own personal arcs. It’s packed with wit and goofiness but also wears its heart on its sleeve, leaving for an emotionally charged conclusion.
The strong core of Honour Among Thieves can be attributed to its well built up ensemble cast. Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez captain the ship with a driving force that glues everyone together but Justice Smith and Sophia Lillis bring up the rear beautifully as Simon and Doric. Hugh Grant leans into icky territory and makes for a great pantomime villain. The scene stealer ends up being Regé-Jean Page as the paladin Xenk. He holds a stoic presence and he gets to rip it up in a stand out scene in the under dark against a group of enemies.
The world building is undeniably rich, and part of the reason it works so well. The attention to detail makes it immersive. The point of Dungeons and Dragons is that you feel like you are in the shoes of your character and being able to see everything you’ve only imagined in your head previously in front of you on the screen is a beautiful thing.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is injected with a special brand of affection and care that makes it difficult not to love. It’s not often we get high quality grandiose fantasy adventures reminiscent of franchise titans like Lord of the Rings and Narnia anymore. But it captures that vast magic that made those films so special. There’s a pull for general audiences with a star studded cast and fun hijinks to boot. Above all that it’s a love letter to the fans of the game filled with detail, lore, and satisfying easter eggs that’ll have you feeling like Leonardo DiCaprio clicking and whistling at the screen.
STAR RATING
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