Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Who needs heroes when you have thieves?
I originally watched this forever ago but why not watch it again now? You wouldn’t know that I set it up as a layup from the last movie choice that also happened to have thieves in the title - probably because i didn’t - but if I didn’t tell you that right there you’d probably assume I was some kind of thematical mastermind or something. Although I do enjoy making me a plan, and usually a backup plan when that plan inevitably fails, I can claim nothing but just dumb chance on that, so for tonight’s mouthful of a movie we are going to go and re-watch something I haven’t done on here yet, as well as something that I’ve played and read for some good time. You ready to be all nerdy? Tonight we are watching Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
A couple of folks in a prison have come up to their annual board review, and they use that time to give us a big old backdrop of story. You see, our lead here used to be a Harper - a do-gooder out to selflessly make the world a better place. Eventually that caught up to him though, and his wife is murdered by some evil sorcerers, leaving him and his daughter all alone. Well, alone until he meets a barbarian lady who takes a fondness to his kiddo, and the three grow up a happy-enough little family unit, until they need to pay for stuff like food. At that point, they turn to crime - at a certain point, even getting their kiddo in on the action - and get a bigger crew together. It’s all going well until a new spooky sorceress gets involved, and enticed by a magical tablet that could bring back his dead wife, the barbarian and our lead end up getting busted and in their current predicament. It’s okay though, as they use a bird-guy to break out of the jail (ironically undoing the pardon that they were just given had they waited a few more moments), and run off to try and reunite with his kid.
That’s really just the intro to things, the real movie starts from there - but it’s enough to lock you in on what the movie has to offer - first, a bit of tongue in cheek nature, something that isn’t out to be so serious that it becomes drull or to comedic that it can’t be taken seriously at all - much like a game session, the comedy and serious beats ebb and flow like some lunar tides. Second - characters are here, and they are more than just a classic stereotype for the most part. Each character has some degree of backstory to them, and if you don’t get a chunk of backstory you’ll bet there’s probably going to be some form of development as it goes. It keeps it from just being this surface level, lowest-hanging bar of nerd and gamer puns and makes it a little bit more. Most the characters will be likeable or unlikable depending on the individual person because of their traits - maybe you find the low-self esteem sorcerer to be annoying instead of endearing, of maybe you find the turncoat to be somewhat agreeable for a while. Still, there is a level of fun underlying each character to go with the other more serious or human elements.
Actors help push these along. Yeah, there’s times when maybe you’ll wonder if the delivery could have been a bit better or an expression is a bit off or something, and certainly there’s some moments of over-hamming that I enjoy but get others dont - but it’s mostly well done. They nail the beats when it calls for it, land the marks on their punchlines, and overall feel rather well put together when it comes to chemistry. I think again it’ll fall back on a wide range of individual preference when it comes down to it though - what I find charming another might feel like is just weak acting - it’s always hard to tell, especially since even when it comes off as bad as you are watching in a movie you never know how much of it is someone somewhere told them that’s what they needed to act like (or as I like to refer to it - the Stewart effect). If I had to pick a weakest link, and it wasn’t just some short-time one off side character, I guess I’d have to say there are times the kid character is a little less than convincing, or perhaps some of the side-villains feeling pretty mundane (although again, I don’t necessarily feel like it’s just “bad acting” really as much that’s what was intended).
One sneaky family unit.
Costumes are great and varied here, because it’s a fantasy movie. Probably one of my favorite things about fantasy is you get some crazy diverse spreads of visual ideals - full plate, barely-there leathers, spikes and crazy glowing tattoos, fancy rich guy attire and lowly ren faire peasant Colorful when it wants to be, mundane when it doesn’t feel like impressing - it’s always a fun trip for me. Sure, the fact I love things like knights and armor always helps make things a bit easier for me in that regard - but even beyond that, we get some prop suits in there as well, letting us see things like cat folk and bird people, and not just as a CG creation. That said, I also admit that it’s quite noticeable for some of those that it’s a prop person compared to the CG, and the CG honestly flows better at times. Still, I would argue that none of it is badly done - outside of the one glitchy part that’s intended to be that way for laughs - even if it is noticeable that it’s just a dude in a suit.
The rest of the effects are great. You get across the board here, from simple infinity mirrors spruced up a bit with portal effects, sword blazing with green fire, lightning bolts and fireballs, and a bunch of not-practical creatures as well. Visually, it’s certainly a fun time for your eyes - it might not all look photo real, but it doesn’t really need to be when it’s fantasy and it still fits in nicely. It also introduces you to the most round dragon you’ll ever see, which is hysterical. As mentioned, it’s also a bunch of practical stuff in here - including what I think might be some forced perspective shots as well (although I guess in this day and age some of those might just be some digital aided size changes despite feeling like forced perspective). It’s a nice mix that I can appreciate, and honestly I feel like just about the only thing they didn’t manage to squeeze in here is some stop animation, which would have been wonderful but also not necessary and probably totally noticeable if it all of a sudden went Jason and the Argonauts.
Music is a mix of enjoyable and doing it’s background job. It helps add to scenes, doesn’t really detract, and also completely vanishes from my mind after the movie is over. Nothing that quite burns itself into your brain like some fantasy themes - but perhaps that’s just because I’ve only heard it twice instead of a dozen times aye? Line deliveries are good enough to great - and I don’t think it’s ever because of balance or intention that they fall to the good enough spectrum. Jokes are both slapstick, pun-ish, and spread out nicely. Of course, your mileage will vary, but if you can’t laugh at the lines when the dragon shows up you just aren’t trying to have a good time. Thinking stuff is here - if you want it. Yeah, the whole twisted web of lies thing is pretty surface level obvious with it’s presentation, but there’s plenty of stuff in there and it doesn’t feel like it’s beating you over the head. Family, friends, relationships, doing the right thing, standing by your word, greed, believing in yourself, all those sorts of things are present at some point during the run time. Honestly, it feels like the movie should be longer than it feels and is, it’s a pretty content-packed flick for how it moves right along.
Just the pudgiest darn dragon you’ve ever seen.
I enjoy this movie. I actually like it a lot - far better than the other two Dungeons and Dragons movies we got. I think part of it - despite both really kind of focusing on thieves - is that this one played it more like a fun little adventure that a family can enjoy, but also like what you might get from a group playing the game - a good mix of serious moments and situations, but a levity and awareness of it’s characters while also keeping itself from being just another “save the world” sort of thing. The fact that nobody is chewing the entire set probably helps there too. Either way, I’d say most would enjoy this movie, as it’s got the visuals and the fun to entertain across the runtime, but also some pretty tasty meat in there if you want the more emotional or thoughtful bits as well.