Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review | A rewarding roll of the dice

Dungeons & Dragons is a rich IP rife with film adaptation possibilities. Honor Among Thieves is the first film to realize the fantasy world’s potential by focusing on a small crew of charming characters.

Directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein shine at meshing the tone between comedy, drama and action sequences. Daley and Goldstein are aided by a terrific ensemble cast led by charismatic performances from Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez. Pine is terrific as the hapless leader and petty thief, Edgin. He has an incredible ability to switch from comedy to drama in the same scene and back to comedy. Rodriguez has always been a compelling presence in the Fast and Furious franchise. She delivers maybe the best performance of her career in Honor Among Thieves. Rodriguez plays Edgin’s best friend Holga, who also serves as the group’s muscle.

Justice Smith’s skills are used wonderfully. Hugh Grant is at his sniveling best. Regé-Jean Page nearly still the films as a nobleman with his utter disregard for colloquialisms.

Similar to Netflix’s Arcane and even John Wick, the screenplay by Daley, Goldstein and Michael Gillio Edgin does a great job of maintaining a tight focus on the story. In a fantasy setting, it’s easy to become enamored by dragons and mystical lands. While Honor Among Thieves features all of these elements, it channels everything in this story through Edgin’s quest.

The only real blemish in Daley and Goldstein’s story is the villain’s motivation is pretty barebones. Sofina is an evil wizard who wants to bring her master back to life. She’s positioned as the villain. However, Edgin’s animosity is geared toward Forge (Grant) over the con man stealing his daughter and setting Edgin and Holga to take the fall during a heist. Out of all of the characters in Edgin’s crew, Doric, a shapeshifter, is probably the least fleshed out of the supporting characters.

Overall, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves succeeds in setting up a new fantasy world and characters worth investing in.

With the overview out of the way, let’s dive into the elements that stand out in Honor Among Thieves. Daley and Goldstein’s previous film Game Night is available to stream on Hulu.

Friendship in Honor Among Thieves

Edgin and Holga are one of the best friendship duos I’ve seen onscreen in some time. Edgin can come across as a bit dismissive of Simon and other characters at times

At first glance, it’s easy to believe Edgin considers Holga as muscle to protect his more cowardly leanings. However, with Holga, he shows the utmost respect, which Holga richly deserves. Holga’s not simply Edgin’s muscle, she’s Honor Among Thieves beating heart as well. Her affection for Kira, Edgin’s daughter, is evident.

One of the best scenes in the film revolves around fleshing Holga’s backstory. Edgin is aware of the story going in and likely the result of Holga revisiting the past. Holga’s struggling after the encounter. Edgin picks up his mandolin-like instrument and cheers her up by singing a song.

While there are plenty of laughs between the two friends, it’s these character-defining moments that enable Honor Among Thieves to build real moments throughout.

Critical Roles

Smith is hysterical as Simon, a sorcerer with performance and confidence issues. Smith’s ability to make Simon’s pathetic nature humorous rather than a sad character trait is magical. Grant steals every scene he’s in as Forge. Rounding out the crew is Doric. She’s a shapeshifter who joins the group but keeps Simon at a distance due to his lack of confidence.

Doric is probably the only character who doesn’t have as much of a role as the other characters. She’s a cool character and has some cool moments. Doric infiltrating a castle using her shapeshifting ability is one of the best sequences in the film.

Page appears as a noble Paladin named Xenk. He aids the group in a critical portion of the story. Colloquialisms are a waste of time for Xenk, but are comedy gold in Honor Among Thieves.

Edgin’s daughter, Kira has an interesting ability to turn invisible. Chloe Coleman is an impressive young actress, but she also gets the shorter end of the stick. After Edgin’s imprisonment, Forge takes Kira in as his daughter. Kira use to help Edgin and Holga steel so her father getting doesn’t throw her off. She accepts Forge’s story of Edgin abandoning her for most of the film.

Kira and Doric play a vital role in the 3rd act. Here’s hoping this duo gets more time opposite the rest of the squad in future installments.

Failures

One of the throughlines in Honor Among Thieves is failures. All of Edgin’s crew have failed in some capacity.

Holga leaving her tribe behind and Simon’s unreliable magic are some of the failures. However, nobody has failed or believes he’s failed more than Edgin.

His role as the leader is to come up with a plan. However, he has so little faith in his plans, that always has another plan waiting in the wings. These aren’t better plans, they’re just different plans based on his lack of faith in the first one.

For instance, part of the plan in taking back Edgin’s daughter involves Simon executing a spell. Simon struggles with the spell. Instead of encouraging Simon to stick it out, he deviates from another plan.

Edgin’s multitude of terrible plans is played for comedic effect. However, they also work in showing how Edgin views himself. He can’t forgive himself for leaving his daughter. Even the goal of resurrecting his wife is a result of Edgin’s feelings of failure.

Pine’s ability to switch from comedy to drama at the drop of a dime helps make Edgin a memorable character.

Honor Among Thieves final thoughts

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has no business being as fun, heartfelt and just plain good as it is. The villain’s not great, but everything else demands more Dungeons & Dragons films from Daley and Goldstein.

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