{"id":57700,"date":"2023-04-03T15:23:16","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T19:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=57700"},"modified":"2023-04-03T15:23:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T19:23:21","slug":"movie-review-dungeons-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/04\/movie-review-dungeons-dragons\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review – Dungeons & Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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                Let me begin by saying that I did not go into \u201cDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves\u201d familiar with the source material. I certainly knew \u201cof\u201d the famous tabletop game and that it takes place in a world of wizards and magic, but I only knew the broadest of strokes. If more education on the game would have helped me enjoy the movie more, then I\u2019m sorry I didn\u2019t do my homework. Then again, I see and enjoy movies based on unfamiliar source material all the time. I\u2019ve never once bought a Marvel comic, and even with the MCU\u2019s more subpar efforts, I usually feel that they do a good job establishing the characters and their worlds. But I spent almost all of \u201cHonor Among Thieves\u201d feeling left in the dust by all the fantasy creatures, spells, and rules. That feeling, combined with derivative characters and unfunny humor, made the movie a slog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                We first meet Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) in prison, which explains the \u201cDungeons\u201d portion of the title. They go to a parole hearing, where Edgin fills us in on backstory as he nervously awaits a specific board member. He used to be a professional peacekeeper until he started turning to light thievery to support his wife and daughter. His wife was killed, so he turned to heavy thievery along with Holga, aspiring sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith), and con artist Forge (Hugh Grant). The team did a risky job for witch Sofina (Daisy Head), that led to Edgin and Holga\u2019s capture, though Forge was able to escape, promising to take care of Edgin\u2019s daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman). The conclusion of the hearing does admittedly make for a funny gag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Edgin and Holga reunite with Forge, now a powerful lord that basically rules the kingdom. He kept his word about protecting Kira, but has otherwise turned on his old friends, joining forces with Sofina for an upcoming scheme to create an army of the undead. Sofina tries to have Edgin and Holga eliminated, but they escape and start working on a counter-scheme to get Kira back, along with a relic that can bring back Edgin\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgin and Holga\u2019s scheme requires more members on the team. Simon can do a scant little magic, which barely rises above the level of parlor tricks. Doric (Sophia Lillis) can transform into any animal, and single-handedly carries the best action sequence of the movie. Xenk (Reg\u00e8-Jean Page) is a mighty, benevolent warrior that Edgin doesn\u2019t trust. The movie doesn\u2019t want to admit it, but with these three on the team, the movie barely needs Edgin and Holga. Actually, the movie doesn\u2019t need anyone besides Doric. This movie could have been called \u201cDoric & Dragons\u201d and things probably would have been wrapped up much more efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team goes through adventures where they encounter various creatures and deal with a series of obstacles and enchantments. The film falls into the trap that many fantasies do, where everything is magic, so the rules and stakes aren\u2019t clearly defined. There are several points where the team is faced with a challenge and Edgin will ask, \u201cIs there a spell for that?\u201d We don\u2019t know magic, so the answer is strictly at the mercy of the movie\u2019s writers (or the game\u2019s creators).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves\u201d is a perfectly average fantasy movie, dragged below average by bland characters (the ones with useful skills have no personality, and vice versa) and painful humor (especially with Simon, Justice Smith is a specialist at the sort of forced awkwardness that plagues many a movie of this era). It doesn\u2019t make me want to take up the game or see any more movies in this series. We\u2019re getting a new \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy\u201d movie in a few weeks, hopefully that will be a better movie about supposedly-loveable thieves where the self-appointed leader is an unremarkable smooth-talker played by a guy named Chris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves\u201d is rated PG-13 for fantasy action\/violence and some language. Its running time is 134 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver                 Let me begin by saying that I did not go into \u201cDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves\u201d familiar with the source material. I certainly knew \u201cof\u201d… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":57701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[2259],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57702,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57700\/revisions\/57702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}