Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Score: A- (9/10)

Being an adaptation of a tabletop role-playing game, many would expect a mostly dull cinematic advertisement. Luckily for audiences, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a delightful adventure following a group of failures who mangle their way through occasionally smart plans and comedic dynamics, making it an unexpectedly refreshing iteration of IP material.

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Dungeons & Dragons was first published in 1974, a decade known for its groundbreaking sci-fi and fantasy narratives. The tabletop game evolved, including its corporate takeover by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, in 1997. However, while the game reached popularity long before the internet’s inception, its pop culture impact only grew once social media went mainstream. Nowadays, players roleplay with people across the globe, both in person and virtually, with millions more watching worlds coming to life on their electronics. The game also greatly influenced today’s role-playing video games. Dungeons & Dragons never succeeded beyond its physical board game landscape. Game developers created multiple renditions of the board game to occasional success, with filmmakers following a worse trend with 2000’s Dungeons & Dragons, 2005’s Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God, and 2012’s Dungeons & Dragons 3: The Book of Vile Darkness. Unlike video games, none of the films became critical or commercial successes. Fortunately, Paramount Pictures looked past the former trilogy and towards a fresh start with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

The film makes it clear it’s a Dungeons & Dragons movie right from the start. Comedic bits cleverly mix with typical role-playing hijinx to make the film feel like a campaign come to life. Its best aspect lies in its absence of direct adaptation and instead delivers an original story, taking elements from the board game’s endless supply of lore, items, and weapons. The characters portrayed on-screen feel almost exactly like a player’s character by having a similar level of improvisation. Improvisation is a key feature of the film’s narrative, specifically with Edgin Darvis, a bard and master planner. It helps deliver a desirable mix of comedy and action, depending on which seen it’s in. Whenever Xenk Yendar makes an appearance, a man who is a clear interpretation of an NPC, he often becomes the spotlight in multiple comedic moments.

Additionally, some of the best moments in the film come from the characters’ clever planning and execution. There are multiple instances where Edgin and his crew use their skills and tools to mangle their way out of a mess. One example is Simon’s introduction as he steals jewelry from a religious meeting. Another example is the crew’s plan to infiltrate Neverwinter, the predominant setting of the film, via a teleportation device found earlier in the film, concealed by a painting believed to be someone’s valuable to the High Sun Games. It’s undeniably clever to incorporate a tool from earlier in the movie for a later plot point, which is always done in role-playing but never in films. It’s a small detail almost everyone will love, especially since it occurs throughout the story.

When trying to create a pleasing audience experience, there’s so much going toward Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’s favor. The comedy is well-timed and mixes well into character dynamics. Said character dynamics are enjoyable and impactful, with each character having strengths and weaknesses. Seeing a plan’s execution is often exciting and clever, with each plan only improving as the group’s situation gets more dire. Best of all, the characters audiences follow are failures, and seeing them grow and redeem themselves throughout the movie’s runtime gives people optimism in an era that often looks down upon the idea. Is the movie perfect? No. However, that doesn’t mean the film is shallow or unremarkable. There’s something in it for everyone, and seeing another solid adaptation of a tabletop role-playing game is more than welcome after decades of trying and failing to cultivate what makes the hobby so enjoyable for millions of players.