Honor Among Thieves is everything Dungeons & Dragons fans hoped for

This is the first, spoiler-free look at Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves comes from the movie’s debut at the 2023 SXSW Conference. We’ll have more in-depth coverage as the movie’s release date approaches.

We’re living in a new golden age for fantasy movies and shows. It’s gone a long time since epic fantasy stories were produced with low budgets or scripts showing open contempt for the genre. Now, elves, dragons, and magic are as big a part of the pop culture zeitgeist as sitcoms were in the ’90s. Despite this, the enormous success of Game of ThronesMovies and fantasy series are often dark and depressing in both tone and visuals. That’s just one of many reasons why the movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is such a shock to the system: It’s an attempt to prove that we’re finally ready to embrace the fun, chaos, and full-on weirdness of the fantasy genre.

What makes Dungeons & Dragons unique as a game is the way the system works as a huge sandbox. Despite the fact that players use many of the same tools, no two games will be the same. The new movie, from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, based on a script written by Daley, Goldstein, and Michael Gilio, feels like an invitation to sit on the latest session in a campaign they’ve been running for years.

It’s like watching an episode of Critical Role and realizing the group hasn’t just crafted a good story out of the blue, they were playing together for a long time even before the cameras rolled. Even before Honor among Thieves’ bard Edgin (Chris Pine) tells a story about his background so the audience can understand his motivation (his actual words), and we see his past adventures with most of the other characters, the movie feels like the latest chapter in a very long and intricate story.

Photo Credit: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

The best stories invite you to enter a vast, complex world, which feels as if it was there long before the characters. Honor among ThievesWorldbuilding is a game of chess. It names several key factors. D&D locations, like Baldur’s Gate and Waterdeep. The real connection to the game is in how the movie uses actual sets and locations to portray the grandeur of the planet and the history of its people. In a way, the approach feels similar to James Cameron’s original AvatarCameron is able to focus on creating a huge world while keeping it simple and predictable.

Honor among ThievesThis approach is a win-win situation. The story of a group of misfits going on a quest to find a magical artifact in order to pull off a heist isn’t very complex, and it’s often predictable. But it’s effective and to the point, designed to let the characters and the world speak for themselves.

For viewers who’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, the movie’s world won’t be harder to wrap your head around than Westeros or Middle-earth, apart from all the creatures and cultures, from dragon people to lizard people to cat people. The Tabaxi are the rulers of this movie. There’s a similarly large variety of creatures, like owlbears and mimics. The film employs plenty of practical creature effects that look incredible, though at times, the CGI touch-ups don’t blend as well as they could. It’s a testament to the writers’ trust in the audience that they don’t overexplain how things wOderk in this world, whether it’s the magic, the characters’ abilities, factions like the Harpers or the Emerald Enclave, or the anachronistic technology that puts this movie closer to Willow or The Princess BrideThere are more Lord of the Rings.

However, there are many differences. Dungeons & Dragons This is where you will find the best fantasy franchises. Honor among Thieves This film shines. That starts with the film’s portrayal of magic, which is unlike anything else on TV or film. They don’t have wizards flailing their magic wands and shooting CGI light rays around. They need to have the physical ingredients, gestures and words as well as concentration in order to create all sorts of spells. The movie makes it very clear that there are limitations to magic — just covering a sorcerer’s mouth stops them from casting spells, for instance.

Photo Credit: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

As cool as the magic is, however, Daley and Goldstein make sure every member of the main party gets a moment to show off their class skills, from the barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) raging and kicking everyone’s ass in stunningly choreographed action sequences to Pine’s bard motivating his teammates to accomplish their goals. The standout, however, is Sophia Lillis’ tiefling druid Doric, who steals the stage with her use of Wild Shape in the movie’s best sequence, a single-shot escape through a castle that showcases different creatures and proves that druids are the best class. (Fight me.)

Arguably no character feels like they come straight from a gaming session as much as the paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page). He is this movie’s take on Jesse Plemons’ character from Game NightA serious, serious character who is often surrounded with silly doofuses. He also feels like that one older player who joins a table of newbies with an OP character they’ve been playing for years and who takes the game super-seriously, refusing to break character and constantly reminding you they “do not tolerate colloquialisms.”

For fans of the game, or any of its hundreds of derivative products, it’s a genuine joy to see these dynamics play out recognizably on the screen without shame, to see known locations realized in such lavish detail, and to see this world populated by the creatures that make D&D such a unique franchise. Scene-stealer: The intellect devourer. Also, the movie does an excellent job of showing how different tone players experience when running their own campaigns. This includes everything from horror to fun to thrilling heists to epic high fantasy.

This is the key to the movie’s success. It manages to mix many genres and tones while remaining humourous. They are always failing at puzzles and fighting. It’s a hoot and a riot to see them be total goofs, but also a triumph when they finally succeed. There’s no embarrassment about the fantasy elements or their origins here, and no attempt to hide or undercut the nerd stuff with sarcastic, dismissive comments. No one mocks each other’s names or skills. The appearance of a displacer beast or a gelatinous cube doesn’t elicit quips about them being ridiculous creatures: They’re just treated as dangerous.

The film’s humor and seriousness are reflected in its portrayal of the characters. Rodriguez’s barbarian is still reeling from a broken relationship, and when her storyline pays off, it’s hilarious — but the audience is still invited to feel and empathize with her pain. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves doesn’t re-create game mechanics or a sense of improvisation as well as, say, Legend of Vox Machina, But it’s the best Dungeons & DragonsThe movie was everything we could’ve hoped for. Not only is it a fun fantasy movie, it’s a great adaptation of a gaming session. And it’s an invitation into a new and more visual version of a world dedicated players already love — and that the filmmakers seem to love, too.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among ThievesOn March 31, the film premieres in cinemas.