Masynn Acheson reporter
When it comes to movies portraying a game of any kind, it can get a lot of criticism. The Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) based movie named “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” had both the fanbase and players of the game on edge. I would give it a solid 4.5 out of 5 as the banter was so similar to what has happened at tables I’ve sat at before, and overall portrayed the duality of the game very well. Even if the campaign is meant to be serious, it is nearly impossible for the entire table to maintain that serious attitude the entire time.
While the movie stayed incredibly accurate to both the essence of the game, what character interactions look like, and how convoluted it can get at times, there could have been some minor things to help a general audience without as much knowledge about the game follow along. At times, they go on about magic or the scene where the paladin named Xenk explained the very complicated sequence the party needed to use to cross an important bridge in the Underdark became extremely hard to follow. I think the writers handled it well by having Simon, an anxious sorcerer, end up triggering the bridge to comedically collapse and fall into a chasm after the explanation of the seriousness of the bridge.
The movie showed the reality that happens in games of D&D where there is a very clever trap, obstacle, or puzzle the party needs to solve only for the solution they end up using to get through be an incredibly dumb solution, that technically works, but only makes the Dungeon Master, the person running the game, shake their head at times. I enjoyed that the audience was able to see when a roll to maintain concentration was failed or when a roll to see if an attack hit was absolutely nailed.
The movie was co-directed by long-time D&D players Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley. According to an interview done with Goldstein and Daley, when the cast of actors and actresses arrived in Belfast, Goldstein said, “(they) played a several-hours-long game of D&D with them,” and it “gave those who were not familiar with it a quick taste of what the game is like and how you interact, and they played as their characters.” This also helped the cast to get into character and understand them better before playing them on the big screen. The work put into that truly helped with how convincing it all was to see the emotions and banter play out.
The movie has a 91% Fresh Tomato rating and a 93% on the Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes. While quite a few critics only rated it as a 3/5, most of the audience reviews are 4/5 or higher just for sheer enjoyment of the comedy and fantasy action. The film also used practical effects on top of the special effects to tie in classic fantasy movie feelings from movies like, “Labyrinth,” and “The Never-Ending Story,” among many others from the 80’s and 90’s. This being seen in the motion capture technology they use for the Dragonborn animatronics, the Tabaxis, a cat like race, and many other elements.