Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves is a fantasy epic involving a band of misfit thieves who have to save the sword coast from a powerful red wizard.

Written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, D&D has a ton of tropes that fans of the tabletop game will recognize and -insert ackchyually meme- there are a lot of things that don't transfer over. I heard this movie was going to emasculate men in the writing, I didn't notice it so much. There were little bits but nothing glaring like in Incredibles 2. Daley is a well-known actor from Freaks and Geeks and later in Bones. Goldstein is better known for Spider-man: Homecoming, Game Night, and Horrible Bosses.

Chris Pine suffers the need for character growth as does Justice Smith, where the female characters are pretty much stagnant throughout the film. A small exception for Sophia Lillis's character who has a minor arch.

A real surprise in this film was Regé-Jean Page. I did not like him in The Gray Man, though I was supposed to not like him, and also I disliked him in Mortal Engines. Here though he plays paladin very well almost like he knew what he was doing. I'd love to find out and I'm happy Page gave me a performance I could look forward to when I notice him in another film.

I was lucky to get into a preview showing for this film, and my expectations were both high and low at the same time. High because I'm a dungeon master, and low because I didn't expect much out of the actors. I was pleasantly surprised. Result: B+

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