Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

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I think it's probably safe to say that my friends who I have played 'D&D' with would classify me as a sort of "perpetual noob" to the whole game. I enjoy playing it when I do, but often need to be taken by the hand and guided with a lot of it. Therefore, I do kind of feel like I'm the perfect audience for a movie like this. I'm a bit of a newcomer to it all, but have enough of a familiarity with it to recognize a thing or two throughout the film.

However, I do have to admit to one thing right off the bat... I'm not entirely sure why it's so highly acclaimed, and despite really enjoying it, I don't know that it deserves both of its "Tomatometer" ratings in the 90s. Of course, the "Tomatomer" is not the end-all be-all of whether or not you "should" enjoy something. I'm just saying, I'm rather surprised. 'D&D' was always one of those things I thought shouldn't be attempted for a movie because everything is just too broad. You could make almost any movie with a medieval theme and decide to call it 'Dungeons & Dragons' because it will put butts in seats for you. Hell, they DID that back in 2000, and guess what one of the overall "bad" movies was that year.

Over the last few years, 'D&D' has actually been making a bit of a comeback with shows like 'Stranger Things', basing the majority of its creatures from the 'D&D' universe, and even covering the "Satanic Panic" aspect of the game in Season 4. Beyond that, we also currently have 'The Legend of Vox Machina', which, I'm just gonna say now, IS the better source of 'D&D' entertainment over this movie. That's just my opinion, but if you have Crave, tune in and check it out. Hell, try it out even if you aren't into 'D&D'. My glowing opinion of that show may be why I didn't think this was all that special. But again, still quite enjoyable.

We are first introduced to bard, Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) and barbarian, Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez); two friends who have been imprisoned for attempting to steal a "Tablet of Reawakening", which Edgin would use to resurrect his now deceased wife (killed by a Red Wizard), and make his family whole again, along with his daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman). The friends are aided by a rogue named Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), his mysterious friend, Sofina (Daisy Head), and amateur sorcerer, Simon Aumar (Justice Smith). With the two of them facing an extention on their sentence, they manage to make their escape after two years of imprisonment, and head back to Neverwinter.

There, they find their old acquaintance, Forge, has become Lord, and Sofina is still loyal by his side. During the theft of the "Tablet of Reawakening", there was a bit of a kerfuffle involving a time stopping spell gone wrong. Edgin, unable to avoid it, passes the tablet to Forge, and entrusts him to take care of his Kira while he's gone, knowing his capture is imminent. Now here to get the tablet and his daughter back, Edgin (and Holga for that matter) are double-crossed, and learn that Forge has been feeding his daughter lies about him this whole time. Then, after another narrow escape, Edgin and Holga devise plans to rob Forge's vault, and retrieve not only the "Tablet of Reawakening", but more importantly, his daughter.

Needing help for this mission, Edgin and Holga seek out their old friend Simon, and are introduced to a tiefling druid named Doric (Sophia Lillis), whose forest home is getting destroyed by overlogging, so of course, she's down for a bit of revenge too. Together, they use their abilities of cunning, strength, magic and even shape-shifting to set everything right. I had to appreciate that even though they decided to do another thief story (like the last one), they did a good job of putting some variety into the character classes this time. That said, I have to say that it didn't do what it could have to show what a bard could actually do. I mean, we just get a dude playing a loot here.

Anyway, despite a few little nitpicks here and there, I still got quite a few genuine laughs, and found some of the action sequences to be great (there's a really cool shape-shifting chase I liked a lot). It was nice to see them use creatures and races from the game, and I feel like if you don't know anything about 'D&D', it can still be a fun watch. I think for my own taste, I'd still highly recommend 'Vox Machina' over this, BUT, there's certainly nothing wrong with this either. If nothing else, this is a fun​ time that'll have you sharing your favourite characters and why by the end. Nothing perfect, a cool nod to 80s fantasy, but I think I may be still to much of a perpetual 'D&D' noob to really see what everyone else seems to be seeing.

​3/5

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