Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

John Francis Dayley & Jonathon Goldstein

Paramount Pictures

2 hours & 14 minutes

Dungeons

& Dragons:

Honor

Among Thieves directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathon Goldstein follows a ragtag team of adventurers as they go on a quest to defeat the evil red wizard. The film begins with two characters, Edgin and Holga (Chris Pine & Michelle Rodriguez), imprisoned after a heist gone south, making an appeal to be released. They recount the events leading up to their imprisonment in an attempt to curry favor with those on the board. Edgin’s story details the events that led to his wife’s death, and subsequent life of thievery.

After years of this, one final quest to get an ancient relic that will bring one person back to life. He uses this as his one last job to get his wife back, which of course, goes terribly wrong.

After their escape from prison, Edgin, a bard, and Holga, a barbarian, make their way back to Edgin’s daughter, whom they had left behind to go on the heist a year prior. After betrayals and near death experiences, the two are stuck in a position to figure out a new way to get his daughter back. They add more adventurers to their team in order to successfully save their daughter and retrieve the relic. Simon, a half elf sorcerer, and Doric, a tiefling druid, join the team for various reasons, as is common in most D&D campaigns.

The film details perfectly what players might run into in a typical Dungeons & Dragons campaign, from spells like fog cloud, to asking a corpse too many questions. I found myself laughing at aspects that I had done myself while playing the game, but also found those without that experience were able to laugh as well. The film is full of inside jokes and lore that fans of the game can enjoy, but are not detrimental to those who have not played. It does well to cater to both audiences allowing everyone to enjoy their experience at whatever stage of knowledge of the game they have. There was just enough detail to allow for players to feel excited to see aspects of the game, and for non players to enjoy a very well written fantasy comedy.

The cast was also very well done in my opinion, and they all played their characters beautifully. A particular favorite was Rege-Jean Page’s performance of Xenk, the paladin. Though Page had a more minor role in the film compared to the rest, he captured the characteristics of a paladin well. As someone who has played a paladin before, I thought he did a great job of capturing the essence of what it means to be a paladin in the games. Very charismatic, and someone who will jump in to help others, but also not willing to compromise values. Every actor played their character exactly the way one would see in the game, but this was a personal favorite of mine.

If you love the fantasy genre, and want to see something with lots of comedy, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is the perfect film for you. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll see a cameo of Bradley Cooper. Running at two hours and fourteen minutes, it’s long enough to get lots of story, while not being too much to be overwhelming. All in all it was a great experience, and I would recommend seeing it if you have the chance.

Brittany Groves California State University, Stanislaus