Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

I still remember my birthday party as a 7 year old in 1984. My mom have fixed a birthday party at our home with some school friends of mine and some other neighbor kids. There were some games that we all played and then it was time to watch a cartoon movie. I picked the film out myself with my dad at the VHS rental store and i choosed a cartoon called Dungeons & Dragons. The kids thought this was a cool film, and we all pretended to be different characters from the film as Sheila The Thief, Presto The Magician, Hank The Ranger and many others. At this time i did not know this was a TV series but it didnt matter. I loved the combination of monsters and different heroes fighting evil in a different world. We did rent some of the other VHS tapes of Dungeons & Dragons as well when they were released, and i can´t tell you how many times i watched them. Looking back today at this cartoon show, it may not be perfect or look as good as it did in the 80´s. But i actually enjoy these seasons for nostalgic reasons, because there is something magical about these cartoon shows that you can´t make in modern cartoons. I never played the board game that turned out to be popular, but i did try the video game called Eye Of The Beholder in 1991 that was connected to Dungeons And Dragons on Amiga. I just remember that the game was enjoyable at that time when i purchased it, but that was over 30 years ago and the graphics are perhaps not so good looking today. A nostalgic game either way, especially for fans of Dungeons & Dragons of course. I did not play both of the game sequels, only the second one called Eye Of The Beholder II: The Legend Of Darkmoon. Reminded me of the first game but definetely improved certain details. In the year of 2000 a movie adaptation based on the board game was released called Dungeons & Dragons from director Courtney Solomon. A terrible film with bad special effects, bad acting and bad characters as well. The film was a big box office flop and still two sequels were made direct to DVD. I still to this day do not understand how legendary actor Jeremy Irons could say yes to be in this film, he must have had a big pay check. It didn´t seem that we would ever see a new film adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons but here we are in 2023 with a complete new adaptation. When i heard about this film i was actually curious to see if they could surprise me, if they finally could get it right. After seeing this film in cinema, can i confirm that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is the best film adaptation on the board game so far, or is this just as bad as the 2000 version with Jeremy Irons?

Edgins Darvis ( Chris Pine ), a bard is sitting locked up at Revel´s End arctic prison with his friend Holga Kilore ( Michelle Rodriguez ), a barbarian. He was arrested after a heist went terribly wrong and now he is hoping to get out to be reunited with his daughter Kira Darvis ( Chloe Coleman ). Since they don´t know if they will be released, Edgins and Holga escapes from Revel´s End prison and travel to Neverwinter. They are about to find out that a lot has happened during these two years, and they are about to face a lot more difficult challenges than before.

Since i still remember the 2000 film version of Dungeons & Dragons i can tell you right away that this latest film adaptation of the classic board game have improved a lot. First of all Dungeons & Drahons: Honor Among Thieves have a much more funny approach than the previous films, with several quite funny moments that i did not expect. I think this was a great idea since i feel that it works better when you look at the characters. If they would have done a more serious approach with these characters, i think it would have been more difficult to make them match with the look of this film. Before i get into the actors and some other details that i appreciate with this film i have to talk about the CGI effects of Dungeons & Dragons. If you think about the film from the year 2000 it looked horrible with action scenes that didn´t work, and it almost feels like they understood how important it would be for them to bring back this franchise back on track and make the action scenes more fun. And honestly i have to say that i had a good time in several scenes, no matter if we are talking about battle scenes between different characters or against monsters. I would not say that the CGI effects are really good, but compare to the previous films and you will see a huge difference. Just look at the dragon attack scenes in this latest film and compare that to the film from 2000, it´s almost embarrassing. Let´s get into the character and i have to say actor Chris Pine ( who i really enjoyed in Wonder Woman ) is far more funny in this film than i expected. Not only does he have good comedy timing but he´s also charming in his role as Edgin Darvis. The coolest character and performance comes from actress Michelle Rodriguez ( who remember her form her awsome debut film Girlfight? ) as the bad ass character Holga Kilgore. Not only does Michelle deliver a lot of battle scenes but i love her sharp dialogue where she takes shit from no one. British actor Hugh Grant is surprisingly funny as the character Forge Fitzwilliam. I have never been a big Hugh Grant fan but i have to say he actually did a great performance in this film. Actress Sophia Lillis ( who i loved in her role as Beverly Marsh in the 2017 horror film IT ) delivers another charming performance in this film as the character Doric. So what else do i think works in this film? The world itself surrounding Dungeons & Dragons looks good in this latest film adaptation. I think the medieval time period works well combined with fantasy, and they are able to throw in supernatural ingredients without destroying the plot. Directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley have finally made a worthy Dungeons & Dragons film adaptation that i am pretty sure that especially fans of the board game will enjoy. If you are a fan of medievel films and fantasy, you should definetely go to the cinema and have fun with this film.

Rating: DDD