By Noah Brasseur
For those who just want the TL;DR review, buy a movie ticket and watch “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”, even if you are not a D&D fan. Seriously, this show is a blast.
Now, for a more in depth (and spoiler-free!) review…
I feel the need to preface this by clarifying I am by no means a D&D fan. My familiarity with the franchise extends only to a binge watch of the “Vox Machina” series and watching the occasional “Dimension 20” clip when it appears on my YouTube recommended. I have, at most, a surface level understanding of how the game works.
That said, this movie is an absolute joy to watch.
I went in with very little hope it would be a good movie. It seemed, to me, little more than an attempt at capturing the nerds and geeks like Marvel had so many years ago. I had assumed it was just another studio attempt to throw something at the wall and make it stick.
What I got instead was an incredibly competent and well put together movie that oozes love for the subject matter.
The protagonists in this movie are fantastic and easily lovable, and the antagonists are just as easy to hate for all the right reasons. By the end of the film, I found myself genuinely hoping the heroes would win and feeling the stakes at play.
Part of that investment is due to the movie taking itself seriously. It allows the emotional beats to genuinely simmer with the viewer, instead of undercutting the moment with a cheap laugh. And it is a surprisingly emotional movie; the plot is driven by it, and done so competently. Characters feel like real people with genuine emotions even while exploring a mystic world.
And what a world it is! The movie proudly displays several unique locations, each gorgeous in their own manner and a pleasure to look at. I enjoyed how much this movie leaned into the expansiveness of the source material and sent the characters into areas that were practically alien in comparison to others. Also, this world introduced me to the concept of an Owlbear, which is exactly what it sounds like. And it is adorable.
It was not unique in that aspect; the movie also heavily leaned into the pure weirdness that magic can be, which was a delight. Too often, magic in moves is relegated to bolts of orange and blue lights whizzing toward an enemy, not doing much else than being a fancy projectile. Instead, the movie had shapeshifting, time shenanigans, teleporting, and much more, all adding up to some of the most exciting and creative action scenes I had seen in a very long time.
Of course, not everything about the movie was perfect, and there are some criticisms to be had about the world and magic; primarily that the CGI felt like it needed more time in the oven. The team utilized practical effects when they could, but even still, the vast amount of things that needed to be added in post ended up making some scenes obviously shot on green screen or some spells not looking totally in the world.
While the humor was mostly good, there were definitely a couple duds in there, particularly towards the beginning. None of the jokes were good enough for a full laugh-out-loud, either, but it was enough to keep me feeling entertained throughout.
The beginning in general suffered, as it is primarily an exposition dump to introduce the world and characters. Once it breaks past that point and all the main players are introduced, the movie finds its footing. In a sense, the film is like a train. Painfully slow at the start, but by the end it feels like you’re flying.
