Saturday, April 1, 2023

Movie Review: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

The good news about the new film "Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" is that all of the expected shortcomings from a movie like this - are overcome by some of the most ingenious and imaginative special effects ideas I have ever seen. The story is nothing new, about a gang of friends on a quest in the time of medieval sword fighting, massive castles, and horses with a corrupt kingdom led by a corrupt king, this time around played by actor Hugh Grant.

The story is about 4 people trying to get back the kidnapped daughter of the main character Edgin, played by Chris Pine, and his close friend Holga, played by Michelle Rodriguez. Along the way Holga and Edgin connect with two other characters, a mutant named Doric played by Sophia Lillis, and a young inexperienced wizard named Simon, played by Justice Smith. Later in the story, the group is helped by Xenk who is another wizard, played by Regé-Jean Page. The fight scenes, and there are many, are for the most part pretty standard we have seen before, but the amazing imagination of the special effects is what takes this movie from only average to good into groundbreaking.

Some of the best scenes are a moving maze where creatures come out of nowhere attacking people who are running for their lives. There is a wizard staff device where it can point to any spot and create a starting portal and then when pointed to any other visible spot it creates a transport tunnel connecting any two points. I thought this was the most impressive idea of the movie. There is also an evil wizard who is owned by the King who creates many other scenes with great imaginative special effects.

This film is good enough with enough critical support to create a new movie franchise and as a result, many millions of dollars with new sequels in the next few years. However, it will be hard to think of new ideas better than some of the ideas in this movie.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this film is a very high 91%, with my rating at 85%, entirely because of the hard work and imagination involved - not for the overall story.

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