Creatively Written ‘Dungeons And Dragons’ Designed For Game-Playing Fans
April 17, 2023
“Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is an interesting film based upon one of America’s most popular tabletop roleplaying games, Dungeons and Dragons.
The film’s biggest strength is the creativity in its writing. During tabletop games, virtually everything is plausible, and this is something the writers took advantage of to great effect. At one point (spoilers ahead), the protagonists are attempting to sneak into a treasure vault, but to gain entry, the crew decided to attach a portal to some of the treasure entering the vault. Such a creative method is very reminiscent of similar schemes in tabletop roleplaying games.
The movie was clearly made for D&D fans. There is little introduction or explanation to the film’s setting outside of the character’s own backstory. The movie offers little to no information on the motives of the film’s main antagonists.
The movie stars Chris Pine, known for playing Captain Kirk in the Star Trek series and being the voice of Peter Parker in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse.” Pine is joined by Michelle Rodriquez, Sophia Lillis, Rege-Jean Page and Justice Smith. Rodriguez plays Letty in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, while Lillis is best known for her role as Lillis Beverly March in “It.” The choice of actors likely did the film a favor by not associating its characters with other films.
The film’s biggest strength is the creativity in its writing. During tabletop games, virtually everything is plausible, and this is something the writers took advantage of to great effect. At one point (spoilers ahead), the protagonists are attempting to sneak into a treasure vault, but to gain entry, the crew decided to attach a portal to some of the treasure entering the vault. Such a creative method is very reminiscent of similar schemes in tabletop roleplaying games.
The movie was clearly made for D&D fans. There is little introduction or explanation to the film’s setting outside of the character’s own backstory. The movie offers little to no information on the motives of the film’s main antagonists.
The movie stars Chris Pine, known for playing Captain Kirk in the Star Trek series and being the voice of Peter Parker in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse.” Pine is joined by Michelle Rodriquez, Sophia Lillis, Rege-Jean Page and Justice Smith. Rodriguez plays Letty in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, while Lillis is best known for her role as Lillis Beverly March in “It.” The choice of actors likely did the film a favor by not associating its characters with other films.
One of film’s biggest strengths is its self-awareness when making jokes. At one point, the protagonists resurrect a body to locate an ancient artifact, but the body they resurrected died well before he even saw the artifact.
The film follows Edgin, played by Pine, as a member of a righteous secretive order, who forsook his oath of justice for riches, and attempts to return to his daughter after being captured during a heist gone wrong.
The film follows Edgin, played by Pine, as a member of a righteous secretive order, who forsook his oath of justice for riches, and attempts to return to his daughter after being captured during a heist gone wrong.
Joining Edgin is his former partners in crime Holga, a barbarian and typical fantasy brute, and Simon, a wizard struggling with self-confidence. In addition to his former partners, Doric, a shapeshifting Tiefling (horned human within the film’s setting).
Some of these characters, such as Edgin and Simon, undergo tremendous growth during the two-hour-and-14-minute runtime of the film with Edgin becoming much less selfish and Simon becoming more self-assured.
Holga undergoes subtle reflection upon her previous actions. Unfortunately, Doric does not seem to undergo any sort of change throughout the film.
The film has a very good message for its audience: It’s OK to fail. The film, however, is not subtle with this message, and virtually tells it to its audience at the end of the second act.
Finally, some of the jokes may have been entertaining, but certainly reminiscent of other movies.
The film has a very good message for its audience: It’s OK to fail. The film, however, is not subtle with this message, and virtually tells it to its audience at the end of the second act.
Finally, some of the jokes may have been entertaining, but certainly reminiscent of other movies.
