Honor Among Thieves is everything Dungeons & Dragons fans hoped for

This preliminary spoiler-free tackle Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves comes from the film’s debut on the 2023 SXSW Conference. We’ll have extra in-depth protection because the film’s launch date approaches.

We’re residing in a brand new golden age for fantasy films and reveals. Gone is the time when epic fantasy adventures got low budgets that crippled manufacturing, or scripts that confirmed open disdain for the style. Now, elves, dragons, and magic are as large part of the popular culture zeitgeist as sitcoms have been within the ’90s. And but, because of the large success of Game of Thrones, fantasy reveals and flicks are often darkish and bleak, each in tone and in visuals. That’s simply one among many explanation why the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is such a shock to the system: It’s an try and show that we’re lastly able to embrace the enjoyable, chaos, and full-on weirdness of the fantasy style.

What makes Dungeons & Dragons distinctive as a sport is the way in which the system works as an enormous sandbox. No two video games are the identical, despite the fact that gamers are utilizing so most of the identical instruments. The new film, from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, based mostly on a script written by Daley, Goldstein, and Michael Gilio, looks like an invite to sit down on the most recent session in a marketing campaign they’ve been operating for years.

It’s like watching an episode of Critical Role and realizing the group hasn’t simply crafted an excellent story out of the blue, they have been enjoying collectively for a very long time even earlier than the cameras rolled. Even earlier than Honor Among Thieves’ bard Edgin (Chris Pine) tells a narrative about his background so the viewers can perceive his motivation (his precise phrases), and we see his previous adventures with many of the different characters, the film looks like the most recent chapter in a really lengthy and complicated story.

Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

This is what one of the best tales do: They invite you into an expansive, intricate world that feels prefer it existed lengthy earlier than these characters entered the story, and much past this explicit journey. Honor Among Thieves aces that worldbuilding. It name-drops a number of key D&D places, like Baldur’s Gate and Waterdeep. But the actual sense of connection for fans of the sport is available in the way in which the movie makes use of actual units and places to convey the grandeur and measurement of the world, and populates them with a ton of characters and background sights, from ruins to historical monuments. In a approach, the strategy feels just like James Cameron’s authentic Avatar, which tells a reasonably easy, uncomplicated, usually predictable story, so Cameron can deal with constructing a large world with out overwhelming the viewers.

In Honor Among Thieves, that strategy pays off. The story of a bunch of misfits happening a quest to discover a magical artifact so as to pull off a heist isn’t very advanced, and it’s usually predictable. But it’s efficient and to the purpose, designed to let the characters and the world converse for themselves.

For viewers who’ve by no means performed Dungeons & Dragons, the film’s world gained’t be more durable to wrap your head round than Westeros or Middle-earth, other than all of the creatures and cultures, from dragon individuals to lizard individuals to cat individuals. (The Tabaxi on this movie rule.) There’s a equally giant number of creatures, like owlbears and mimics. The movie employs loads of sensible creature results that look unbelievable, although at instances, the CGI touch-ups don’t mix in addition to they might. It’s a testomony to the writers’ belief within the viewers that they don’t overexplain how issues work on this world, whether or not it’s the magic, the characters’ skills, factions just like the Harpers or the Emerald Enclave, or the anachronistic expertise that places this film nearer to Willow or The Princess Bride than Lord of the Rings.

But the variations between Dungeons & Dragons and different fantasy franchises is the candy spot the place Honor Among Thieves actually shines. That begins with the movie’s portrayal of magic, which is in contrast to anything on TV or movie. There are not any wizards waving their wands, taking pictures CGI rays of sunshine round. Instead, they want bodily substances, gestures, phrases, and even focus to solid all types of spells, easy and sophisticated. The film makes it very clear that there are limitations to magic — simply masking a sorcerer’s mouth stops them from casting spells, for occasion.

Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

As cool because the magic is, nonetheless, Daley and Goldstein be certain each member of the primary get together will get a second to indicate off their class expertise, from the barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) raging and kicking everybody’s ass in stunningly choreographed motion sequences to Pine’s bard motivating his teammates to perform their objectives. The standout, nonetheless, is Sophia Lillis’ tiefling druid Doric, who steals the stage along with her use of Wild Shape within the film’s greatest sequence, a single-shot escape via a citadel that showcases completely different creatures and proves that druids are one of the best class. (Fight me.)

Arguably no character looks like they arrive straight from a gaming session as a lot because the paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page). He is this film’s tackle Jesse Plemons’ character from Game Night, an extremely severe character surrounded by foolish doofuses. He additionally looks like that one older participant who joins a desk of newbies with an OP character they’ve been enjoying for years and who takes the sport super-seriously, refusing to interrupt character and consistently reminding you they “do not tolerate colloquialisms.”

For fans of the sport, or any of its lots of of spinoff merchandise, it’s a real pleasure to see these dynamics play out recognizably on the display screen with out disgrace, to see recognized places realized in such lavish element, and to see this world populated by the creatures that make D&D such a singular franchise. (The mind devourer is a scene-stealer.) The film additionally does an excellent job of capturing the completely different tones gamers would possibly expertise in their very own campaigns, from horror to campy enjoyable, and from epic excessive fantasy to an exciting heist.

That final level is essential to the success of the film, which juggles a number of tones and genres whereas all the time remaining playfully earnest. The characters are consistently failing in fights and puzzles. It’s a hoot and a riot to see them be whole goofs, but additionally a triumph once they lastly succeed. There’s no embarrassment in regards to the fantasy parts or their origins right here, and no try to cover or undercut the nerd stuff with sarcastic, dismissive feedback. No one mocks one another’s names or expertise. The look of a displacer beast or a gelatinous dice doesn’t elicit quips about them being ridiculous creatures: They’re simply handled as harmful.

The movie is playful and earnest all through, specializing in the truth that for the characters, these are severe conditions. Rodriguez’s barbarian is nonetheless reeling from a damaged relationship, and when her storyline pays off, it’s hilarious — however the viewers is nonetheless invited to really feel and empathize along with her ache. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves doesn’t re-create sport mechanics or a way of improvisation in addition to, say, The Legend of Vox Machina, however it is one of the best Dungeons & Dragons film we might have hoped for. Not solely is it a enjoyable fantasy film, it’s an excellent adaptation of a gaming session. And it’s an invite into a brand new and extra visible model of a world devoted gamers already love — and that the filmmakers appear to like, too.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will premiere in theaters on March 31.