Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Scott Hardie: “It ruled.”

I passed on a chance to see this in theaters because the trailers looked iffy and because this particular I.P. has an ignominious history of misbegotten adaptations. But now I regret it. This is really funny and charming, deflecting criticism by refusing to take its source material seriously. I have played D&D with many groups of people in my life, and one thing that all of them had in common was a sense of humor, a readiness to pause the quest for literally any joke that someone in the room found amusing. It's precisely that spirit in which this movie unfolds: The studio clearly spent a vast fortune on special effects, including a fantastic one-shot chase sequence that moves through the halls of a castle and courtyard in defiance of gravity and scale, and yet the jokes always matter more than the special effects and a "story" that no viewer is expected to follow or care about. In fact, my only wish is that the studio had spent a little less money on it, because its failure to turn a profit pretty much dooms any chance of a sequel. This is highly entertaining, and I recommend it to anyone whether they're fond of the game or not.

− February 6, 2024 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply