I’m just going to say it: this is probably my favorite movie of the year so far. As someone who has been a Dungeon Master of various DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) games for the better part of the last four years, this got a very warm welcome from me. I was a little nervous when I heard that there was a DnD-based movie in the works, since there have been a few attempts to do something similar in the past, most of which have not turned out well. On top of that, movies about video games or even other tabletop games (not counting 1985’s “Clue”) generally are pretty low effort and don’t seem to have much heart in them. However, “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” could not be further from this stereotype . This movie blew all of my expectations out of the water.
As I mentioned previously, I’ve been running DnD games for a while now, so I was really eager to see what parts they did well, and how realistic the party in the movie was in comparison to an actual party. Quite simply, it was very accurate to how a normal party acts. The group comes up with crazy plans that somehow work, like jumping out of a window on the back of an Aarakocra (bird-person) to escape a prison, but also mess up a lot, which can either be attributed to the party not thinking through everything at first, or even just unlucky dice rolls. A bad dice roll is what can make the difference between a plot succeeding with no chance of failure and an abysmal misplay that can lead to dire consequences, and seeing these moments brought to life on the screen made it feel all the more entertaining.
One big aspect that I was really hoping that they left out was the actual tabletop part of the game. I was expecting there to be a scene where they cut away to a bunch of people in a dimly lit basement, huddled around a small table while rolling dice. I thought for sure that there was going to be a scene similar to this, and I felt like a scene such as this would ruin the immersion of the movie for me. A review that I saw afterwards put it very well, saying something along the lines of, “This is a movie about characters in a world, not about the people playing them. Having a cut-away scene such as this would be similar to Brad Pitt breaking character in the middle of a movie, and acting how he would in real life.” Despite my sureness that they would include a scene such as this, they didn’t, which genuinely shocked me. This is what Dungeons and Dragons is supposed to do – it’s supposed to take you away from the dimly lit basement and into a fantastical world filled with adventure, magic, and, well, dragons.
One of the last notes that I had on this movie is the fact that it’s not just for the enjoyment of this classic tabletop game, it’s for everyone. Sure, there are a bunch of references and homages to the game that really only hardcore players would get, but the humor and plot is not solely based around those references. A good example of this is the final fight. During the fight, you can tell that the characters are taking turns playing like they would in the game. It’s incredibly fast, as it’s made to simulate an actual fight, but if you watch close enough then you can really tell that they have taken turns in combat, which just brought me so much joy since it was done exactly as I would have done had I been in charge of the production (don’t put me in charge of any movie’s production, that would be a bad idea). But as a DnD fan who loves combat in this game, it made me feel incredibly happy.
In short, I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys action, adventure, humor, and people who get away with the most insane plots you’ve ever seen. It is currently only available in theaters, but it’s definitely worth a watch.
