Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
“Dungeons & Dragons” has been being relentlessly advertised at theatres for almost an entire year. Nearly every film I saw was accompanied by a trailer for this one. And honestly, the trailers and press looked really charming and fun and it had me rooting for it to be a good film. Well set your fears aside, because “Dungeons & Dragons” is thankfully very good.
It scratches that weird itch that almost everyone has. The desire to see a story and world that's ALMOST “Lord of The Rings”. ALMOST “Final Fantasy”. ALMOST “Game of Thrones” (minus the brutality and terrible final season). Fantasy of a real particular recipe. Humour, lots of creatures, magic, elves, etc. Luckily the film nails all these aspects. And if I had to relate it to another fantasy franchise, I'd say it almost leans closer to “Shrek” than “Lord of The Rings”. And I mean that in the best possible way.
The entire cast knocks it out of the park, especially Chris Pine (who always seems to deliver) and Hugh Grant. Both are able to work their roles (hero and villain respectively) with enough humour to make you laugh, but enough gusto to make you believe in their characters goals. And speaking of humour, the movie is very funny. I frequently chuckled and even laughed aloud a few times. The tone reminded me a lot of “Hellboy”. Especially a scene where they run a line of questioning corpses with a totem.
The film is loaded with practical effects, which was a real treat for me. I'm extremely anti-CGI for all but extreme cases. Practical effects are a dying art, so it's so refreshing to see so many live action creatures crafted with care. Of course the movie uses a ton of CGI as well, that's just how movie making is today, but it shows the interest to create actual characters with prosthetics when they can. And I respect the Hell out of that.
In terms of a new franchise of films, I kind of hope this is a one and done for most of these characters. They're all great, but the way the film felt to me made me hope that this is going to be a new anthology style of movies. Next “Dungeons & Dragons” have an entirely new cast and story. I think that'd be a great way to work different mythologies and plots. “Honor Among Thieves” was such a complete story for the characters that I almost want it to be the end. There are a few of the main cast who could return to further their character arcs, but for the main characters (Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Chloe Coleman and Hugh Grant) I feel like their story is reasonably finished.
Regardless of which direction they go in the future, I am really excited to see what they do with this franchise. If they continue with this level of production value and carefully crafted characters, it's hard for me to imagine anything but box office hits.
8.5/10
