SXSW Film Festival 2023: DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES: Make Fantasy Silly Again

It can seem overwhelming to get suddenly thrown into the large endless world of Dungeons & Dragons, the most popular role-playing game of our time. There is so much lore and mythology and magical objects to be invested in, or else nothing in the story makes sense. Writers and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein are thankfully aware of this challenge, as they do their best to simplify the plot down so that the film becomes far more accessible to non-players like myself.

Exposition and Lore and Setup

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves sets out to tell its story in a straightforward manner, that of a band of thieves and adventurers pulling off a heist that goes wrong and must now right their mistakes, but it inevitably has to trudge through a lot of plot and fantasy exposition to get all the pieces put in place, so much so that Chris Pine’s bard Edgin has to explain it to us via cheeky narration.

The film consistently struggles in the first half due to its exposition, which is inevitable for such a lore-heavy film like this based on such dense source material. Joining Edgin on his quest is his barbarian best friend Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), the young inexperienced sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith), the shapeshifting druid Doric (Sophia Lillis), and the paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page). After establishing much of their abilities and what they can and cannot do and what they are each fighting for, the film finally begins to make room for the character banter and clash of personalities, offering up plenty of humor.

Marvel-style Comedy

Depending on your taste for bathos humor, a comedy technique heavily popularized by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you will enjoy most of the jokes present in Dungeons & Dragons. Much of the team chemistry screams Guardians of the Galaxy, so much so that you can start imagining our male thief Edgin being played by… you know… a different Chris. Actually, Pine is absolutely channeling Star-Lord energy in this. Though the sense of humor is indeed laid-back and silly, half of the time they can undercut the dramatic weight of the scene or the stakes of what the characters are going through.

However, the villainous turn from Hugh Grant is lovely, bringing back fond memories of his performance in Paddington 2. Another sequence that was a howling good time involves bringing back the dead and asking them five questions. It is in the silliness and moments of absurdity that the film shines. Once Dungeons & Dragons get to its dragon, the film picks up the pace and finds its footing remarkably well.

A Crowd-Pleasing Finale

The third act is every bit as fun as I hoped it would be. As Daley and Goldstein emphasized in the Q&A after the screening, the film reminds us that fantasy doesn’t always have to be grim and serious like in Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings. So much of Dungeons & Dragons the game is silly and geeky and made up on the spot in the most exciting improvisational way, and that is exactly the spirit that the film captures in its third act. With the cast all giving fun performances and the visual effect creativity dialed up to eleven, you can’t help but cheer and clap, even if you don’t understand the mythology behind such fantasies.

It contains the best kind of tropes in the heist and team-driven movies where pieces align and plans go right (or badly wrong) and you’re rooting for the characters to figure it all out together in the end. It may not be deep in substance, but it’s certainly a fantasy adventure movie that wears its fun on its sleeve, and it asks us all to be 10-year-olds and enjoy ourselves. For me, that certainly worked, and the SXSW crowd absolutely elevated the experience. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind seeing this cast come back for another amusing quest.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 10, 2023. It will be released in theaters in the US on March 31, 2023.

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