I think I saw this movie before I even saw this movie: Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves
This movie unfortunately helps itself to a lot of creative ideas from other films and stories. The cast gives it a good go but there's a lack of originality.
Film with a lot of antecedents.
I've half-way seen this movie before seeing this movie.
When Guardians of the Galaxy came out in 2014, it rehabilitated the old "Dirty Dozen" style military action films of misfits banding together and trying to carry off an (almost) insurmountable mission. James Gunn's movie injected the genre with contemporary humor and it was at a perfect moment to profit from the flowering Marvel-way of making superhero movies. It was a good marriage and that film benefited from a good cast of actors who could bend the CGI to their will. Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves comes out of this school and while it has its own unique qualities, there's a lot of engineering off of other movies, and depending upon how deep your movie memory goes, that could prove a little distracting.
Prime villainess Sofina (played by Daisy head) is a wizard that seems quite reminiscent of the Scarlet Witch Wanda from the Marvel universe, that is, as long as Sofina is wearing a hood and her heavy goth makeup emphasizing her large eyes and her Wanda-ish hand movements are front and center, but once the hood is off and she is wielding an occultic weapon shaped like a blue horn, she becomes more like Ralph Fiennes' bald Voldemort from the Harry Potter films. For that matter, Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves is littered with Harry Potteresque moments, along with costume design, scenery (and musical bits) that harken to the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies, and there's even a glowing sword fight scene that looks like a light sabre duel right out of Star Wars.
The tale itself is a combination of heist movies, prison-break movies, my wife is dead and I want revenge movies, broken-families leads to bitterness in children movies, and sort of in the middle of all this is Chris Pine as our lute-playing hero, Hugh Grant as a constantly talking con-man who finds a way to rule a kingdom while flashing the biggest cheese-eating smiles possible, and the muscular Michelle Rodriguez as Holga for whom most of the punching and sword and axe play is freelanced out to. A great deal of humor lubricates Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves and these actors are able to make it the most of it.
Screenplay credits go to Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley and Michael Gilio.
Review: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
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Original Page March 21, 2023