‘This isn’t some bedtime story; this is the real world!‘
After suffering from blockbuster fatigue in recent years I’ve come to believe that I just don’t have the stomach for CGI anymore. Marvel, DC, Transformers, Star Wars all of these intellectual properties seem to have melded into one big CGI gloop. Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is the antidote…
Edgin (Chris Pine) is a simple man. He loves his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman). He steals what he can’t afford to buy. And he longs to bring his wife back to life following her untimely death. Standard stuff. After being betrayed by ambitious rogue Forge (Hugh Grant), Edgin teams up with a potato-wielding maniac (Michelle Rodriguez), a self-doubting magician (Justice Smith) and a human-hating magical being (Sophia Lillis) in an attempt to… do something. The plan keeps changing as Edgin realises that most of his plotting is for nought.
What I loved about Dungeons and Dragons was that it felt closer to an Indiana Jones movie than it did a Marvel flick. Ultimately, this comes down to an incredibly assured and charismatic turn from Pine who has now surely taken the unlikely crown of the greatest Hollywood Chris (Evans, Hemsworth and Pratt be damned). The supporting cast is great also with Rodriguez, an actor I’m traditionally not that keen on, providing a career-best performance and both Lillis and Smith ably providing comic relief. And this film is funny. Properly funny. Not the brand of ‘so THIS just happened’ humour that Marvel likes to employ. The script, co-written by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (who also directs) along with Michael Gilio is tight, suspenseful and packed full of witty one-liners.
Now, I should caveat this review that I know absolutely nothing about Dungeons and Dragons lore. I’ve no idea how it has been received by fans of the long-running fantasy role-playing game but after its central role in Stranger Things, there is no denying that D&D is currently having a moment. Sadly, despite positive reviews, this film stalled at the box office. If this is to be Daley and Goldstein’s only crack at this universe they can sleep soundly in their beds with the knowledge that they have created one of the most watchable blockbusters of the last five years. An unexpected treat.