Adventure movies are a common staple in cinema, often about a dashing (if slightly mad) pirate or an archeologist, adventure movies can be a lot of fun if done well. Thankfully “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (2023, directed by John Francis Daley and Johnathan Goldstein) is not only fun but actually feels like a campaign a group could have. 

For those who have a successful social life (or haven’t watched “Stranger Things”), Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop/storytelling game in which a group of players play as different characters and classes (whether they be pre-set or ones the players made themselves). One person is the dungeon master, and they’re in charge of basically everything else, like combat encounters and non-player characters for the rest of the cast to interact with. 

The game is ruled by the almighty dice roll, where the closer one gets to max number on the dice the more successful an action is, whether that be an attack or skill check.

This movie takes the type of storytelling found prominent in a game of D&D and successfully translates it to the big screen. 

The story is about a group of nerdowells led by a charming human rogue/bard named Edgin (played by Chris Pine) trying to rob a local lord named Forge (Hugh Grant) in order to get back at him for screwing them over one way or another. 

The group (aside from Edgin) consists of: Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), a human barbarian that’s Edgin’s right-hand woman working as the muscle of the group; Simon (Justice Smith), a half-elf sorcerer with confidence issues; and finally there’s Doric (Sophia Lillis), a tiefling druid who specializes in turning into different creatures who’s sort of the outsider of the group, as she’s neither a criminal or really in it for the money.

The big thing that the movie absolutely nails is the characters. All of them are either likable or funny, the only exception possibly being the main villain’s advisor, Sofina (Daisy Head), who’s just the generic evil wizard/advisor.

Another thing this picture completely crushes are the character dynamics within the group. A good example of this is the relationship between Edgin and Holga, with Edgin being the fast talking funny-man and Holga being the almost always stoic and silent straight-man, leading to many funny lines and moments.

Hugh Grant’s Forge is just a million flavors of fun, being such a pompous jerk that you want to see him taken down a peg but also being so charming and naturally funny that the audience loves seeing him on screen.

The film is also just naturally funny whether it’s how the characters bounce off each other or just the situations they sometimes find themselves in.

However the movie doesn’t just have wit and humor in its corner, but also is well done and has creative action. A good example of this in effect is when the sorcerer accidentally reverses gravity in a small building.

The camera work within the fight scenes are cleverly used to keep the action intense while also clearly showing the audience so as not to confuse the viewer on what exactly is happening within the scene.

There are also some clever references to the game itself in the film whether it’s creatures, cities, races, and spells being mentioned or shown. But aren’t so overbearing as to be distracting or stop the story in its tracks so as to wink at the audience.

Though the film doesn’t exactly roll critical hits on all of its aspects.

As hinted at with the generic evil advisor, the story is very safe, nothing is going to surprise you if you have ever seen an adventure film from the last 20-30 years. One can, and probably will, guess correctly what’s going to happen throughout the entire plot. 

Also, while most of the cast at least has something resembling a character arc, the druid, Doric, doesn’t really change all that much throughout the film, it feels like she’s just kinda through most of the story and sometimes makes one wonder why she’s there. 

This gets doubly weird when characters say they need Simon because he can use magic to open up the vault, but his anxiety is keeping him from using the mcguffin to open the door. However, Doric can also use magic, so why not use her as she doesn’t seem to have any problem with using magic?

Despite a very generic plot, the D&D movie is a fun time for both fans of the tabletop game and for those who’ve never played.