After having several people recommend it, I finally got around to watching Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (currently available to watch for free from Amazon Prime.)

I say finally but me watching a movie in the same year that it was released is somewhat unheard of. I’m years behind on movie watching (mostly because I’ve been underwhelmed by what I have recently seen).

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D): Honor Among Thieves stars Chris Pine (Edgin), Michelle Rodriguez (Holga), the delicious Regé-Jean Page (from Bridgerton fame, Xenk), Justice Smith (Simon), Sophia Lillis (Doric), and surprisingly, Hugh Grant (Forge).

(That’s right. I didn’t know Hugh Grant was in this movie until I started watching it. Apparently he’s on a kick of playing bad guys. I guess that now he’s in his 60s, he’s finally trying to break out of the rom-com male love interest stereotype.)

Honor Among Thieves is categorized as a “fantasy heist comedy film” and is based on the tabletop role-playing game D&D, set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

(I also learned, as I tend to go down rabbit holes when I get curious about something, that D&D: Honor Among Thieves has no connections to the previous film trilogy. And then I had to look up the previous film trilogy because I had no idea it existed. The first movie of the previous trilogy, released in 2000, bombed at the box office. So I’m using that excuse as to why I never heard of it/don’t remember it.)

Turning a game into a movie is not a new concept. Over the last few decades, Hollywood has done numerous game-to-movies, with a strong focus on video games. (Or in the case of Jumanji, turning a book into a movie that was turned into a game.) Some of these game-to-movie titles include Uncharted, Resident Evil, Lara Croft, Mortal Kombat, Warcraft, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Battleship, and one of my faves, Clue.

D&D is a tabletop role playing game and was first published in 1974. A table-top role playing game (RPG) is a cooperative, storytelling game where the participants develop a character (within a character class of the structure of that RPG) and each player describes her character’s actions to move the game/story along. Typically, a game master (think of the GM as a “referee”) controls the initial story opening and setting, and the GM will respond to a player’s character actions by describing the outcome of those actions (controlled within the roles, setting, and rules of that game). And the outcome usually involves rolling dice and then adjusting the result for the character’s statistics and environmental factors to see whether the action was successful.

The great thing about RPGs is that one’s imagination is the limit of characters and character actions (within the constructs/rules of the game, but when in a fantasy world, this can be limitless). Which leads my first problem with the movie (other than it just being underwhelming). The movie didn’t feature one of the core features of the game—character statistic leveling.

Okay sure, Holga got a weapon upgrade (the massive axe), which could be seen as a strength increase. Simon gained wisdom. And maybe Edgin could be seen to gain charisma. But all of these increases were not prominent or exaggerated in a spectacular way where the audience would know it was something. Instead, their level-ups were subtle like any good story’s typical character development.

My second issue revolves around the description “heist comedy.”

Was it a heist? Okay, sure. But I’d argue the heist wasn’t the focus of the movie. Then again, what was? Edgin saving his daughter? Holga finding a new family? Doric preventing environmental disaster? Simon finding his powers? The collective group saving the world? It was all of these and that was part of the problem—I’m not sure it knew what it wanted to be.

But the bigger disappoint is the “comedy” descriptor.

Did the movie attempt to be funny? Okay, yes. I might have quickly chuckled a bit once or twice. But it really wasn’t what I’d call a comedy. Even despite Hugh Grant’s Forge tap dancing around truth in true con-man style, I just didn’t find the movie that funny. (And maybe Chris Pine should not sing.)

And I rolled my eyes won’t even comment on the chubby, out-of-shape dragon who can’t breath fire and was reminiscent of a fat dog.

Honestly, I really wanted a D&D movie more like, or a live-action updated version of, the 1980s D&D animated TV show.

For those younger than 40, the animated show, which ran from 1983 to 1985, featured a group of 6 teen friends (& their pet unicorn) who were transported to the D&D realm when they rode a roller coaster somehow infused with dark magic (or had some sort of portal, I really don’t remember the specifics now). They meet the Dungeon Master (the GM) who gives each a magical item and that item determines the type of character they become (e.g., sorcerer, ranger, bard).

The main antagonist is a powerful wizard who wants to rule the realm and believes the power from the the 6’s weapons will help him. And the entire plot of the show revolved around the 6 trying to find a way home but getting derailed, normally by fighting against the villain’s plot/helping someone else and then missing the exit/their chance to escape back to the “real” world.

Now that is a movie that I would’ve been happy with. Even better if the teenager characters were swapped with middle age folks instead. What a riot that would be—ha!

Instead, Honor Among Thieves is a generic fantasy that could have been set anywhere, MiddleEarth, Hyrule, Ivalice, Nirn, etc., (bonus points if you know Ivalice or Nirn) with lackluster, and somewhat tired dialogue and a meh plot.

In the end, I guess I was expecting something much more related to the game instead of a story that felt more like fanfic set in the D&D world.

Have you watched Honor Among Thieves? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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