D&D Honor Among Thieves Better Than Expected

Expectations were understandably low for the second attempt at adapting the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game into a movie. The first movie failed so miserably, those that had the unfortunate experience of watching it would like to see it wiped from existence and memory. Honor Among Thieves is a total reboot and a surprisingly decent attempt at adapting the game.

The movie centers on Edgin (Chris Pine) and his attempt to escape prison and reunite with his family. Helping him on his quest is Holga (Michelle Rodriguez). When a former partner (Hugh Grant) betrays him and takes his daughter, he needs help from his former associates to get the job done.

The quest involves traveling across old battlefields, speaking with the dead, fighting dragons, and transporting through portals. There were plenty of jokes along the way as well, despite the heavy premise of reuniting a lost family.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is targeted toward families and has appeal to kids with its accessible comedy, costumes, special effects, and overall “fun” feel to it. The villains aren’t too scary or complicated. The heroes are all relatable and, for the most part, likable. The story and setting are all simple, based on world-building from the game and easily recognizable fantasy tropes.

For older audiences, the movie will come off as a little basic, with thinly-developed characters, average acting performances (despite an all-star cast), middling jokes, and nothing particularly compelling to bring in longtime fans of the game. At the same time, there really didn’t seem to be anything offensive, such as violating the lore or overtly mocking the source material. It is an original story and seems to fit adequately in the game’s world.

The male characters are largely meek and insecure, offering up comedic relief but ultimately rising to demonstrate their character and bravery in the end. The movie clearly wanted to avoid mocking all of its female characters or utilizing them for comic relief however. Some may find this annoying but frankly it isn’t prominent throughout the story or done obnoxiously.

Overall, the movie was more enjoyable than expected but still average. There is not much that stands out to make it memorable or re-watchable. The hardcore fans tend to be a little bit older and while they won’t hate this movie, they won’t love it either. Families with kids will get a good experience out of it but it is hard to imagine a lot of kids under 12 knowing what D&D is or ever playing the game.

Judging by the hype around the much larger Super Mario Brothers movie, Honor Among Thieves is likely to underperform at the box office. Given it’s large budget and advertising campaign, it is difficult to see this movie being profitable or justifying a sequel. To truly resurrect this franchise and capture the imagination of a starved audience, this movie needed to be stronger.

Still, it’s a decent theater experience and worth watching with the family when it is available on streaming services.