Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

This weekend, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves released in theaters. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves follows charming thief Edgin and his partners as they seek to find a dangerous relic to rescue his daughter and save a kingdom. As a point of reference, I have never played Dungeons and Dragons before and have no background on the world or types of creatures there. Regardless I was still interested in this movie as I like fantasy adventures and Chris Pine.

This movie was surprisingly a lot of fun. It was a lot funnier than I expected it to be. It does a great job of balancing the action and adventure with humor so that the film is just an enjoyable ride from beginning to end. The pacing in the film is great as well. The movie never feels slow or uneven and maintains a consistent tone. The characters themselves are a lot of fun as well. They each have their own special skill similar to that of a team in D&D and each has their own style in terms of humor. I also really enjoyed the fantasy epic aspect of the film. Fantasy films are some of my favorite types of movies so seeing a new movie not tied to an exciting film series was just so exciting to see. The world-building was also really well done. The movie establishes all of these different creatures and groups of people and does a great job of explaining each one. The movie was also very accessible to someone who has never played D&D before. It clearly explains what certain things are. While it probably has some references that players of the game will appreciate, it didn't overpower the story or make me feel like I was missing things. The action sequences were also really fun with each one being in some fun new setting fighting some magical creature. Finally, I felt the film had a surprising amount of heart to it and actually managed to deliver some solid emotional moments.

While I had a lot of fun with this movie, certain aspects keep it from being an A movie. The main issue is that movie is just a bit generic. It doesn't add much of anything new to the fantasy genre and feels more like just a generic fantasy blockbuster. It isn't bad by any means but the film just doesn't capture that special feeling of doing something new. I also felt that the movie gets a little heavy on exposition in the early parts of the film with the main character literally telling us his backstory.

Overall, this was a movie that was a lot of fun with a surprising amount of heart. While it doesn't really do anything special in the genre, it is still a well-done film and something I wouldn't mind seeing more of.

Score: 7.5/10 Grade: B Recommendation: Check it out