No two people’s experiences with Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) are the same. An adaptation of a tabletop roleplaying game, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” poses a unique challenge: The driving factor of D&D is player choice and collaborative storytelling, both of which are unavailable in the film medium. As a result, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is written as a straightforward fantasy without players or dungeon masters yet still manages to emulate D&D gameplay and culture.
The movie was released in theaters on March 31, grossing almost $38 million in its opening weekend in the United States and Canada. It chronicles the adventure of four misfits: Edgin (Chris Pine), Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), Simon (Justice Smith) and Doric (Sophia Lillis). After years apart, the team has reunited to retrieve the Tablet of Reawakening to resurrect Edgin’s wife and save his daughter from Forge (Hugh Grant), the Lord of Neverwinter. Working as Forge’s advisor, the powerful wizard Sofina (Daisy Head) lurks in the background for most of the film. As a fantasy action-comedy, the film is fun and frenetic. However, the character development and overall plot arc are half-baked.
Everything about “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” screams classic D&D shenanigans and rag-tag adventure. Iconic character archetypes compose the party: the sarcastic jokester bard; the insecure, amateur sorcerer; the brusque, stoic barbarian and the environmentalist druid — all of whom are reckless and immoral in different ways. The plot is characteristically D&D too: a quest calling for some powerful objects from some powerful sources, diverted by several minor missions. Furthermore, the film makes up for D&D’s narrow range of appeal with comedy. Relatable to players yet accessible to all, the humor riffs on classic player experiences such as wacky situations and unconventional fights.
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” does D&D combat true justice. Everything from the choreography to the camerawork is smooth and engaging for any viewer. In D&D gameplay, fights can be the most boring part. Action rounds account for three seconds of character movement at a time, meaning a fight with four or more players can take hours to finish. “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” kindly spares the viewers of that torture. However, that is not to say the movie is not solely a smooth ride in other respects.
With the relatively extensive time dedicated to Holga and Edgin’s backstory, it feels rather clumsy for Edgin to introduce Forge and Simon with no more than an offhand comment. There is no explanation for how these characters met, so there does not appear to be any clear motive for Simon to join Edgin’s ranks for another adventure, nor is there a prior version of Forge to compare against his traitorous self portrayed in the film.
Moreover, D&D is heavily character-driven by virtue of being a player-directed game. Despite this premise, the film lacks rich character development and substance. Characters enhance the overall comedy in the movie, but every emotional scene falls flat. Edgin is the protagonist, yet even his sad scenes and confessions feel disingenuous and almost vapid coming from such a sarcastic character.
As a product of the film’s focus on action and comedy, the characters merely function for the fantasy adventure story “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” tells, with little attempt to make them nuanced or interesting. Edgin has the strongest arc, as he learns to prioritize his daughter’s needs over his selfishness. However, he ultimately becomes yet another male protagonist motivated by his dead wife, playing into the sexist trope in which female characters are killed to further the development of a male character. Furthermore, the manifestation of Edgin’s trauma after having lost his wife has the most cliche presentation, complete with slow-motion flashbacks of his wife giggling and smiling under bed covers.
Aside from Edgin, Simon undergoes an interesting arc as he struggles to control his magic and grapples with low self-esteem. Nonetheless, he gradually gains confidence, which allows him to become a competent sorcerer. Other supporting characters, namely Holga and Doric, are deprived of strong arcs of their own. Holga’s characterization is diminished to comedic relief, as her complicated feelings about her divorce and her tribe are played for laughs without the same gravity as Edgin’s backstory. Even her climactic death cannot breathe due to the tonal whiplash between action-comedy and serious, end-of-movie drama. Doric joins the party for environmentalist reasons unrelated to Edgin’s journey, and seems to only exist to be featured in captivating magic sequences.
The most disappointing characters are the villains. While fun to watch, they possess no substance. Narcissism and wealth define Forge, and he is clearly devoid of redeeming qualities, which rob his character of nuance. Ostentatiously evil, Sofina presents a serious danger to the protagonists, yet her motivations amount to nothing more than wanting power for power’s sake. Neither of the villains present an ideological threat outside of merely being evil. They exist so the protagonists have something to fight against, but because that something lacks depth, the film’s narrative ultimately feels hollow.
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” makes for an action-packed, comedic romp through a fantasy world without attempting to innovate on or deviate from genre tropes. The clever magic mechanics, thrilling fight sequences and comedy spice up an otherwise stereotypical D&D storyline, sidelining character development and sacrificing thematic richness. The film is fun for fun’s sake: nothing more, nothing less.
