By: Andrew Wing

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 American fantasy heist comedy film directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (directing duo responsible for Vacation and Game Night), who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio from a story by Chris McKay (director of The Lego Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War, and Renfield) and Gilio.

Based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, it is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and has no connections to the previous film trilogy released between 2000 and 2012. The film stars Chris Pine (Star Trek, Wonder Woman), Michelle Rodriguez (Fast & Furious franchise, Avatar), Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton, The Gray Man), Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Pokémon Detective Pikachu), Sophia Lillis (It, It Chapter Two), and Hugh Grant (Love Actually, The Gentlemen).

Production went through various phases in development since 2013, beginning with Warner Bros. Pictures after beating Hasbro and Universal Pictures in a lawsuit over the film rights to the tabletop role-playing game, before moving to Paramount Pictures, each with various writers and directors. Goldstein and Daley were the final writers/directors, using elements from the previous attempt by director Chris McKay and screenwriter Michael Gilio. Filming began in April 2021 in Iceland and later Northern Ireland.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 10, 2023, and was released in the United States on March 31, 2023, by Paramount Pictures. Despite receiving positive reviews from critics and audiences, the film underperformed at the box office, grossing over $208 million worldwide against its $150 million budget.

THE GOOD

I’ll be honest, once I saw the first trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, I was not excited about it. The tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons was I believe the generation before mine, so my only experience with the game is thanks to the huge Netflix series, Stranger Things, because the game plays a big role in that series. All of that said, the initial reviews out of South by Southwest where the film premiered were way better than I expected, so I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to check it out, and she said yes. But was it a good movie date? Or was it like the time I made her watch Blonde (see my full review here) with me and she didn’t talk to me for a week after because of how bad of a movie that was? Keep reading to find out!

Thankfully it was a good movie date! I know I’m not alone in this, but this is without a doubt one of the biggest surprises when it comes to film in 2023! There is no other way of saying this, but the trailers for this movie just were not good. More than that though, I just thought this movie was going to be a box office bomb because it felt like a movie meant for 2003 rather than 2023. It just felt like nobody was asking for this, and while it still underperformed at the box office, it did well enough with critics and audiences that I think we will be getting a sequel! You best believe I’ll be seeing the sequel to this if we get it, and hopefully, both Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley come back to direct because these guys just know how to make fun movies.

As mentioned in the intro, these are the directors who gave us Game Night (read Ted’s full review), which is easily one of the best comedies of the 2010s. It was just so funny and awesome, and it also includes one of the funniest scenes involving Jesse Plemons. As for what they did with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves though, I was really impressed! This movie is definitely made for fans of the game, but thanks to the directing duo, it was also really digestible for people like my girlfriend and I who know nothing about Dungeons & Dragons, and that was great because it didn’t take away from our viewing experience. Continuing with their impressive direction, this movie has a lot of solid action as they do some really unique stuff with the camera work (shoutout to cinematographer Barry Peterson) that made for one hell of a heist scene! And lastly, the film was really funny. The punch-up dialogue is very tongue-in-cheek but that leads to some solid humor and just some really funny and clever scenes.

Aside from Goldstein and Daley, another reason this movie was significantly better than I expected was the tone it set and the amount of charm it had, which was in large part thanks to the cast led by Chris Pine! I’ll touch on some of the other cast members, but Pine was just great in this! He is so likable and charismatic in this as the main character Edgin Darvis, and he is about as good of a pick you can make if you’re looking for someone to be an anchor in a franchise movie. Other than Pine though, Michelle Rodriguez was her typical badass self that she is in everything else, but I never get tired of her, and I know Ted, a huge Fast & Furious fan himself, agrees with me there! Hugh Grant was incredible in this too as Forge Fitzwilliam, an ambitious rogue and con artist. Grant is just perfectly cast as the film’s primary antagonist if you ask me, and I love watching him ham it up as an actor! Oh, and one more thing I liked about Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was the score from Lorne Balfe, who is composing the highly anticipated, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (check out our preview here)!

THE BAD

As I’m sure you can already tell, I really enjoyed this movie! I don’t see anyone even disliking it, but that said, it is far from perfect, and don’t expect it to be getting any Academy Awards. My biggest complaint with this movie is the runtime, which is rare coming from me, someone who regularly watches three-hour films on the Criterion Channel. Maybe it was less about the runtime and more about the film’s pacing, but nevertheless, the film could’ve lost a good fifteen to thirty minutes if you ask me.

Another thing that bothered me when it came to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was the final third of the film. Now I love action sequences, I mean John Wick: Chapter 4 (check out Ted’s full review) is my second favorite movie of 2023 and that entire movie basically is an action sequence, but literally the final forty minutes of this movie is just one loud action sequence full of bad CGI. This was my main complaint a couple of years back with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (read my full review), but I just don’t understand why the people in charge of these movies think we want this. I mean at least make it look good if you are going to give it to us. It was just frustrating with this movie in particular because the practical effects we get in the first half of the film are really good, but the second half is full of some really bad special effects, specifically on Sofina, the Red Wizard.

THE VERDICT

While it might not reinvent the wheel when it comes to big franchise fantasy films of the past, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a fun family movie built for parents and their kids to enjoy that is so much better than it has any right to be!

I don’t know if I’ll ever watch it again, but I’d have a hard time finding someone who won’t enjoy this as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing what is next for this franchise!

P.S. This movie does contain what will undoubtedly be the best and funniest cameo of any film coming out in 2023, so for that reason and that reason alone, do yourself a favor and check this out! You won’t regret it!