"Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" is a Fun Movie
And it Does the Misfit Riff Raff Trope Well
As a recent inductee into the hallowed annals of Dungeons & Dragons gameplay, this movie was a pleasant adaptation from the usual crass and disappointing revivals of game-to-movie detritus.
Which is my very kind way of saying I expected this movie to be really really bad and I’m pleasantly surprised and happy to have been proven absolutely wrong.
It’s rather unfortunate that the base expectation for video games or any sort of adaptation of a popular franchise into the movies is disappointment bordering on disgust.
There’s no love in the club.
But we come in with such high expectations because the source material is so rich and fulfilling, that anything less feels like a dismissive slap in the face.
It often feels like these movie directors are trying to build a dining room set from scratch— but the furniture company has already provided pictures, diagrams, instruction manuals on paper and online, and a 24/7 hotline to their expert carpenters. It’s just putting the pieces together but every director (or production company) tries to put their own spin on it and reinvent the wheel and they don’t understand inertia so the best of intentions falls flat on their face.
I love that they love what they’re doing. But as wholesome as those feelings are, that’s not enough to make a good movie.
Luckily, this ragtag bunch of losers actually feels like a Sunday gaming session with some friends. It feels like they’re having fun, and it feels like whoever put this all together enjoys the source material and, dare I say it, respects it.
This feels like a great introduction into the world of TTRPGs, and I love how acceptable it is to like things like this now.
Found Family
This is my favorite trope. It relates directly to life and it’s something that, when done well, can be the absolute best thing in the world. Even better, mind you, than enemies-to-lovers.
The found family trope is when unlikely friends join together to complete a common goal. There is no way in hell these characters should get along or should be friendly in any way, yet here they are, defying the odds and being the best of friends. Here they are loving life together and enjoying each other’s company in a way they’d never experienced before.
There’s something so innocent and pure about choosing your friends, who then become family. It’s like saying: “Out of all the people in the world, I choose you.” With no strings attached, no romance, no transactions. In a world where I can have anything or be anyone, I choose to be your friend.
That’s what this trope means to me.
Here, Edgin (Chris Pine) befriends Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), Simon (Justice Smith), and Doric (Sophia Lillis) to make up a team to save his daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman) from ex-best-friend Forge (Hugh Grant).
They’re all very broken people. They come with their own emotional baggage and problems and desires to be fulfilled and while that lends itself to the internal drama of the movie, it reminds us that with all these negatives, we still deserve a positive; we still deserve to be loved.
Ensemble casts in movies are hard to do well because you have a limited amount of time to make the most impact. Each character should have a whole arc but many movies nowadays struggle to have a single protagonist with that much going for them so the fact that they were able to squeeze in 3ish character arcs that interacted with each other and derailed or helped the plot was fascinating to me.
Like an actual session of D&D, you may not know what each character is going to do, you just know they are going to affect it in some way, be it for good or for bad.
Dungeons & Dragons Lore
I have only scratched the surface with my delving into D&D lore. I got the Player’s handbook, The Monster Manual, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide [I got these books in a really weird way at a comic convention last year and it was kinda awesome, kinda cool, but most definitely weird] to start off, but there are decades of literature, fan books, art, and legacies to wander through.
It can be off-putting because of the chaotic depth of its abyss. So many things to know, so many rules to be aware of, how do you even start?
And the answer I have found, after hours scouring the interwebs, deep dives into YouTube explanation videos, talking to many a friend who plays or DMs:
Just start.
Whether you start now or later, you will never know enough and the best (and most fun) way to learn is by doing. Of course you will make mistakes. Of course it will be confusing. But as with all things, you learn. You get better and you will have fun.
That’s what I’ve learned always. Fun things make learning hard things easier. So don’t sweat the details. Don’t worry about perfection. Just do it and go with the flow. Find a friend who knows a tad more than you and knight them as the Dungeon Master. Get your pals together and throw some dice together.
It’s well worth the time.
That being said.
I enjoyed this movie because of the lore. I don’t know much, but the little I did know were like personal Easter eggs I enjoyed finding and munching on. The character introductions in the movie are like when you begin a campaign with friends and everyone introduces themselves and figures out what inciting incident forced us together.
The combat was one at a time, like how turn-based attacks work in D&D.
Xenk (Regé-Jean Page) is that NPC you meet that is too powerful to join your party, but helps you out on your quest because you asked him nicely.
The entire team is comprised of a well-thought out character list: the bard (Edgin), the barbarian (Holga), the sorcerer (Simon. Dude what kind of sorcerer is named Simon. That’s just hilarious to me. Like “The Dark and Powerful Sorcerer of the Deep Chasm: Simon), and the miscellaneous half-tiefling (Doric). Each one brings a unique set of skills to the campaign that can help them on their quest, which we see demonstrated as they try to ransack a city.
The bridge scene is the best portrayal of a PC accidentally fucking up a DM’s carefully thought-out and too complicated puzzle and then having to find a way around it.
Those are just some of the things I noticed off the bat.
I know for a fact there are more little nods to the lore and intertextual pieces that I’m missing. But y’know.
I’m a casual fan and a more avid storyteller.
I’ll leave the diving analyses to the pros.
I’ve Watched This Twice
I didn’t mean to watch this twice. The first time was because I wanted to. I saw the trailers and how silly it was and thought “Well damn. I’m sold.”
I also really wanted the D20 popcorn bucket but alack. My sister convinced me not to buy it because I shouldn’t waste my money on plastic but. It was a D20 bucket! I could have put tinier D20s inside of it! That’s the real reason I went but I got nervous waiting in line and my sister’s disapproving voice echoed in my head.
The second time I watched it, I did so with a friend.
And honestly, this is like Bullet Train to me. It’s super fun. It has a lot of great set pieces and the story may not be the best, but by god is it fun. The characters look like they’re having fun! I love that!
As a creative, I’ve come to that point in my life where I just want to create. I want to write and film and draw (I can’t draw) and make things to prove to the world that I existed, if only for a brief moment.
If I can create with my friends and have an amazingly fun and happy time doing so?
That would be the best.
Seeing how excited and loving these characters are, on and off the screen? How their chemistry pops and bubbles and their smiles are just contagious crinkles? It makes me happy to see.
I want to see this movie. I'll probably pick it up from the library.