Official efforts to get film and television performers off the Dungeons & Dragons grounds have been a die-cast.
A 2002 film and sequel disappointed and largely disappeared. And that’s about it, unless you go back to the early to mid ’80s and the very fine animated series Dungeons & Dragons, a show whose characters were as colorful as their costumes. It also had charm, thanks in large part to a little unicorn. Directed and co-written by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who credits the screenplay for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is the latest – and most expensive – attempt at a film to pay respect to the traditional brand .
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves opened this year’s South by Southwest Film and TV Festival in Austin, Texas and hits theaters March 31. The film stars Chris Pine as a part-time bard and full-time thief, trying to capture the often happy but tense feeling of a Dungeons & Dragons game session. This used to be a challenge for Hollywood.
While the fantasy genre and the game itself have enjoyed a revival today, Dungeons & Dragons influences film and television more often than it leads. Check out the recently released Arcane, the Netflix series based on the video game League of Legends, whose debut installment featured a light-hearted camaraderie that echoed the magic and stealth of the long-running RPG. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and their quests to save the world with artifacts owed a lot to D&D’s all-around magic.
Not to mention the widespread “real-play” videos and podcasts where people reenact their adventures, including the “Critical Role” web series that led to the well-received animated series The Legend of Vox Machina. “Dungeons & Dragons” remains a powerful and guiding force in pop culture for its often carefree unpredictability and the creativity it evokes.
That’s because the game largely lives in our imagination. The worlds and characters are guidelines for us to create and improvise, which also makes it challenging to adapt. While the D&D brand has had its share of popular books—the original titles, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s Dragonlance, are widely respected, as are many of RA Salvatore’s Forgotten Realms novels—the world is hugely complex and mostly alive. in the players’ heads.
We caught a screening of Honor Among Thieves ahead of the SXSW premiere. While a good review is coming, here are five quick reactions to the movie. We’re aiming to be as spoiler-free as possible – and won’t reveal some of the film’s biggest Easter eggs and nods to “D&D” history – but keep in mind that the text may contain some light revelations beforehand.
The tone is cheerful and lively: Despite running for two hours, Honor Among Thieves feels pretty light and moves from quest to quest relatively quickly. Pine as the sincere thief Edgin is in full charm mode, and Michelle Rodriguez’s ruthless barbarian warrior Holga is often played for laughs as well. For example, Honor Among Thieves isn’t Game of Thrones seriously and opts for a more family-friendly tone.
The film also strives to capture the togetherness and sociality of the game. Often before action sequences there is a moment for Pine to lead a brainstorming session on how best to strategically plan the fight. As is often the case at the “D&D” table, all eyes turn to the wizard, in this case Justice Smith’s “mediocre wizard” Simon, who at one point has Simon say despondently that he is tired of everyone thinks magic can cure all ailments. And yet magic often saves the day, whether it’s a commonly used “here-to-there” wand, essentially a teleportation item, or Doric, Sophia Lillis’ shape-shifting druid character.
It felt like a nod to the game and a handhold for the audience, when new items or magic are introduced they are brought to the screen with rules: how it works, here are the restrictions. The only thing missing is a dice roll, but Edgin and his team often go through different plans to get out of a pickle to simulate those bad rolls. Fortunately, when a spell is cast, someone will usually say what it is. Note that attaching a rope to a weapon often does not work.
Here are dragons? Not that much really, and we won’t spoil the wildest. But it felt like a solid 45 to 55 minutes before we saw a kite for the first time. There is also no real dungeon, but caves and we can explore the depths of an arena. But fear not, creatures abound, and in a lively opening we meet an aarakocra, a humanoid race of birds, and a fairly tame reptilian humanoid – I’m told it’s a human snake known as a yanti. The Aarakocra is particularly well done, even if, like many in Honor Among Thieves, the character is used as a punchline to a joke.
There’s plenty more, including a mighty Owl Bear imaginable and, yes, a Tabaksi, and the humanoid cat is as adorable as you’d hope. The Tabaxi scene also makes for one of the biggest laughs in the movie, thanks to Simon’s attempts to woo Doric. One problem – and it’s a real minor spoiler – is that a dragon is used as the punchline to a fat joke, and I wish the movie was smarter than that. While I respect the filmmaker’s desire to set expectations even with those legendary “D&D” characters who love dragons, this was not the game to poke fun at obesity.
Ultimately, lowering dragons allows the displacer – a black, panther-like creature with menacing tails extending from its shoulders – to steal the spotlight.
The villains, the NPCs. There are a few twists and turns and, revealed early on, a bad guy chasing a bad guy. Ultimate motivations will spare us, but note that Hugh Grant’s Forge is played to overly manipulative lengths. Grant, like Pine, Smith, and generally the entire cast all look like they’re having a good time in the medieval light costumes, so much so that “D&D” never really gets tense. This is not a criticism, as the filmmakers are looking for a feather-light touch that surprises a heartwarming late-film moment.
The plot is set in motion with a dead woman, but the quest for revenge at least ensures that the film has many characters whose motivations are not immediately apparent. Regé-Jean Page’s Xenk will be treated with suspicion at first, but fans will know that a Paladin Knight fights for good in the end. Page plays the character with a tight stoicism that allows him to be the straight man for some of Pine’s Edgin jokes, but the character felt like a nod to the players’ table. Just when our heroes feel overwhelmed, a top-notch fighter arrives to help them level up. And that leads to a scene that is clearly inspired by the Indiana Jones movies.
Every preschool is different. One of the most popular Dungeons & Dragons related screen titles is Prime Video’s The Legend of Vox Machina, an animated adaptation of an original campaign played by the folks at Critical Role. But just because they both fall under the term “D&D” doesn’t mean they’re similar – even aside from the inherent differences between a movie and an animated series.
“Vox Machina” is intended for an adult audience, which means it contains a lot of profanity, graphic violence and sex. The show manages to capture a level of unpredictability that can only be achieved through the decisions and dice of actually playing the game.
Honor Among Thieves focuses on the broader appeal of the more family-friendly PG-13. However, both bring up a similar lack of respect for fantasy adventures – they advocate always having a paladin in your company.
Tracy Brown, a Times contributor, contributed to this story.
Source: LA Times