SXSW 2023 Film Review — Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS IS AN ADVENTURE OF A RARE VINTAGE
SXSW’s opening night finds its curtain-raiser in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Bucking the reputation of its much-maligned predecessor from 2000, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s take on the tabletop role-playing game finds a fleet balancing act between fantasy and comedy. A nimble adventure anchored by winsome performances and a surprising trove of practical effects, Honor Among Thieves eschews the gravity of cinematic universes and franchise-building with goofy, digestible fun. Minor spoilers ahead…
In 2023, more often than not, untapped pop culture touchstones are feeling the gravitational pull of franchise cinema. The urge to plant seeds for a multi-picture epic and the next big “cinematic universe” is a strong one, and Dungeons & Dragons - whose single adaptation landed with a thud back in 2000 - is seemingly the ripest for the “big IP movie” treatment. Drizzt Do’Urden, Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, The Temple of Elemental Evil, Ravenloft: with literal tomes and fan-favorite stories at its disposal, Dungeons & Dragons could have made the obvious choice to swing for mythic, sweeping high fantasy. Instead, directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Game Night) opt for a different ambition altogether: to walk the precarious tightrope of fantasy-comedy and capture the cozy feeling of adventuring with friends.
Translating a Dungeons & Dragons campaign with more Feige flair than Gygax vintage, Honor Among Thieves still hews closely to the spirit of a get-your-pals-together adventure. Centered around a pair of thieving rogues, the slippery bard Edgin (Chris Pine) and gruff barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), the film spends much of its first act maneuvering pieces for its stock MacGuffin quest: to revive Edgin’s dead wife with a relic called the Tablet of Reawakening. Banding together with an inept sorcerer (Justice Smith), a shapeshifting druid (Sophia Lillis), and a humorless paladin (Regé-Jean Page), the two thieves navigate treacherous ex-partners (Hugh Grant), insidious Red Wizard plots, and dizzying heists against a familiar fantasy backdrop.
“Dungeons & Dragons has a near 50-year history of Byzantine rules and extensive mythology, but leave it to Game Night’s Daley and Goldstein to configure its sprawling lore in an accessible way.”
Dungeons & Dragons has a near 50-year history of Byzantine rules and extensive mythology, but leave it to Game Night’s Daley and Goldstein to configure its sprawling lore in an accessible way. Naturally, tabletop experts will immediately recognize a parade of references and Easter eggs, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t know your Hither Thither staff from your Helm of Disjunction, Honor Among Thieves deploys its exposition with a digestible, light touch. Among its more comfortable pleasures? A light-footed Chris Pine nestled comfortably in his tried-and-true mode of roguish appeal. In fact, much of the film’s cast slots into their roles deftly, with each character getting a moment or three to shine; a script whose sheer number of zingers inevitably delivers some duds, it’s refreshing to see Honor Among Thieves squeeze some of its best comedy from the stoicism of both Michelle Rodriguez and Regé Jean-Page.
There are very few fantasy tropes that Honor Among Thieves won’t gleefully leaf through, and at first glance much of its blueprint seems to be gleaned from the lowest common denominators of our most popular entertainment: dodgy CGI, mile-a-minute quips, and weightless stakes. However, through its lengthy two-plus hour runtime, it’s evident that Daley and Goldstein very much care about Dungeons & Dragons. The requisite rubbery, sludgy visuals worm their way throughout, but the practical wizardry - from the costumes, to actual sets, to the creature effects - is routinely astounding. Honor Among Thieves vibrant creativity even extends to its wonderfully clever set pieces: A magical, vaudeville-esque romp through a cemetery to interrogate some corpses had the SXSW audience in stitches, and a mid-adventure heist with portals on a moving carriage is as thrilling as it is impressive, showcasing a whip-smart procession of in-camera effects. Unwieldy and overlong, it’s all hardly perfect, but Honor Among Thieves nails it where it counts: capturing the perfect game of Dungeons & Dragons with your friends.
