I saw Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves with low expectations. As someone who saw the original D&D film in theaters ("Snails!"), this wasn't my first rodeo--I can still see Justin Whalin's ridiculous Jimmy Olsen haircut contrasting with literally everything else around him in that film. The 2000 movie is hilariously bad and I knew Honor would be at least competently made. So how was it? It's an entertaining film with plenty of flaws--ones that would normally ruin the experience for me-- but this is a rare case where the pacing and humour were enough to keep me going despite the problems. I'd compare it to Guardians of the Galaxy 2 if you cut most of the bloat. There's a strong Guardians templating in Honor and I'll mention it when it comes up. Let's dive into some specifics (possible spoilers ahead, but I'll do my best to be vague):
The Plot
An iteration of 'save the princess' and on paper this is fine--I approve of it not being a save-the-world scenario--personal stakes is a good choice. Unfortunately, I could not care less about the actual goal because Chloe Coleman (Kira) and the actress who plays Edgin's love interest (I can't remember the character's name) can't act. Coleman gets more screen time and it's painful watching her (the only emotion I felt was irritation). Normally when the goal of the story isn't engaging, a film becomes unwatchable, but I was able to get passed it here.
Performances
We'll go in order of best to worst:
Edgin (Chris Pine) - holds the film together and owns all the scenes he's in; while I didn't care about his wife or daughter, I did want to see Edgin succeed and whenever things shifted to, say, Holga, I wanted to get it over with and return to Edgin; I think the similarities to Peter Quill are minimal--in part because of the different ages--although there is an emotional similarity to Quill's mother's death and the death of Edgin's wife
Edgin (Chris Pine) - holds the film together and owns all the scenes he's in; while I didn't care about his wife or daughter, I did want to see Edgin succeed and whenever things shifted to, say, Holga, I wanted to get it over with and return to Edgin; I think the similarities to Peter Quill are minimal--in part because of the different ages--although there is an emotional similarity to Quill's mother's death and the death of Edgin's wife
Forge (Hugh Grant) - delightful and the film would have benefitted from more of him--his attachment to Kira makes little sense (a problem based on her bad acting and the writing), but I couldn't help but cheer for him throughout; he's definitely a riff on Yondu, but funnier with less depth
Doric (Sophia Lillis) - there's so much missed opportunity here, as Lillis is an excellent actress and she's given almost nothing to do; her backstory is as poorly executed as everyone else's, but fortunately the film spends almost no time on it; there's a muted Nebula-vibe to her (her anger and mistrust of humans while being seen as an 'other', but with the sister angle axed); until this film I had no idea how tiny Lillis is (she's 5'0)
Sofina (Daisy Head) - given almost nothing to work with, she exudes the emotions required from the role--more depth would have been nice, but that applies to all the characters; the similarities to Ronan are present (but with less depth--she has all the rage he does, but the motivation is paper thin, 'I'm eeeeeevil!')
Xenk (Rege-Jean Page) - a small role where, other than having the right attitude for a paladin, his combat/abilities don't separate him from any other fighter; were it not for interactions with Edgin, he wouldn't work (his battle against his long-time enemy has no emotional impact and is overly long); he's clearly a riff on Drax (but not nearly as effective)
Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) - she's adequate throughout, but Rodriguez has no acting range and its a strange choice to give her a number of emotional scenes (the one with her ex might be the worst in the film--the FX for halflings is quite bad)--fortunately, none of these moments last long; I believe this is meant to be a Gamora-riff (as she and Edgin have a platonic parental relationship), but Zoe Saldana is a much better actress than Rodriguez, so it doesn't work nearly as well; she also has too much time spent on her fight scenes--in a film like this there's just no reason to show her in multiple sequences (it's just bloat--we know from the initial scene how capable she is). I also could not care less if she lived or died in the film (just as I didn't care about Edgin getting his wife back), muting the emotional beat being sought at the end.
Simon (Justice Smith) - looks like he's twelve years old, which is unendingly distracting; he's adequate in what's meant to be a typical Michael Cera role (awkward); I didn't hate him, but it's easy to imagine another actor doing much more with it; there's no obvious Guardians-parallel that I can see (if anything it echoes Presto from the D&D cartoon); his 'romance' with Doric is paper thin and the two have no chemistry at all--Simon comes across as largely creepy
Character Arcs
Technically the main cast all has them (Edgin, Doric, Holga, and Simon), but none are engaging--I felt no investment whatsoever. The small nods to romance are poorly executed and there's no chemistry in any of them (none are even believable). What saves this from being a complete disaster is so little time is spent on them--they aren't given enough time to become annoying (and, at least with Simon, his journey is punctuated by humour). Of them all Holga's is the least effective, as her side trip to see her ex is overly long and pointless (yes they get the staff by doing so, but that could have been acquired in other ways)--it's simply a jarring pause that fails the emotional beat it's aiming for. Edgin's relationship with his daughter is almost as bad, in part due to the acting and because the daughter is essentially dead weight throughout (her heroic action at the end feels unearned and stapled on).
The Writing
The humour works (without it the film wouldn't), holds up on a second viewing, and the fast pacing holds it together; the pathos completely fails (some of that can be blamed on the acting, but it's largely a writing issue) and the stakes are irrelevant because I didn't care what happened to the characters or the world itself (I just wanted Edgin and Forge to succeed, because I liked both).
The Action
Adequate. The monster fights are fun, but the sword play is simply adequate and tends to drag (it's less about length than about the fights having no real emotional impact). No one is going to see this film again based purely on the action (Xenk and Holga's fight scenes are so similar that there's no distinguishing between the two--something that really hurts Xenk's potential distinctiveness). I'm not sure what was behind ignoring the magical abilities of paladins (Xenk) and bards (Edgin); clerics and healing magic are also largely ignored (presumably to help maintain dramatic tension).
World Building
No effort is made to world build (it's impossible to guess the cultural and social differences between anyone), but the Forgotten Realms is a farrago of nonsense anyway. The problem this creates is that it means what you are watching fails to be distinctive--it could slot into virtually any fantasy milieu, making it far less memorable.
FX
It's a mixed bag--none of it is excellent, but most of it isn't terrible. For me it was fine, especially for a film that leans so heavily into humour. The most jarring effects, oddly enough, were with the halflings.
80s Easter Egg
While I appreciated the nod to the 1980s cartoon, I have no idea why Eric was randomly race-swapped or why they didn't pick an actual redhead to play Shelia instead of a woman with dyed hair. It doesn't matter that much, but given how popular the IP is in Brazil, it's odd not to please that audience with what is only a memberberry. One thing it did do is reaffirm that I'm glad this was an original story rather than an adaptation.
Final thoughts
This is a fun, mindless action/comedy. As such, it fills a niche that's largely unexploited in fantasy (which tends to take itself seriously). The downside is that it also makes the film largely forgettable (no one is going to feel emotionally impacted by it). That lack of distinctiveness seems to be why the film flopped--having cost 150 million to make, it needed to crest 500 million to break even, but barely hit 200. At the end of the day, aiming for a casual audience they missed it entirely.
For those wondering/concerned about the ESG/BlackRock impact on the film: it's suffused with it (that's obvious from the casting), but tame compared to Rings of Power, She-Hulk, etc. It is a little distracting that every single relationship is interracial--you don't need a sledgehammer to pound a nail--but I don't think that impacted the reaction to the film (the irony of BlackRock is its efforts, when they have any impact at all, is the opposite that's intended). I am amused at how different the marketing is for the merchandise, as the focus is so strongly on Chris Pine you'd be forgiven if you didn't know it's an ensemble film.
I will be seeing the film again with one of my gaming group's and when I do I'll note any variation in how I feel after a second helping (now integrated above).
This article was written by Peter Levi
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