Table Talk: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Aren: A rare thing happened in cinema on March 31, 2023: a big-budget comedy arrived in theatres with real jokes, thought-out set-pieces, and compelling character development. It starred charismatic movie stars, including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant, and was shot as a proper movie, with a savvy blend of CGI and practical effects. That same day, we also got a big-budget fantasy movie that was light entertainment, not a dour, Game of Thrones-influenced slog, but rather a frothy adventure with wizards and dragons and zombies and a love of all things fantasy, based off a certain beloved tabletop roleplaying game. The crazy thing is that both of these movies are one and the same: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves! 

I’m in danger of overrating this movie, but I had a blast with Dungeons & Dragons and wish that more movies were as competently made and generally easygoing and fun. Seeing as the film came from Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who made the minor comedy classic Game Night back in 2018, I’m not surprised it ended up good. But when compared to the previous adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons, as well as most fantasy movies over the past decade, the film being a success is almost a minor miracle. Would you agree?

Anders: Yes! As you say, it’s the rare film that engages with the fantasy genre successfully as a piece of light entertainment, both funny and engaging. But it’s not a lark either. The danger you run into is that if a fantasy film isn’t deadly serious or “grimdark” like Game of Thrones, people often make the film a complete goof. Or a complete dud, as in your allusion to the previous Dungeons & Dragons film from 2000. When we emphasize the comedic elements of this new Dungeons & Dragons, we mean that it has real jokes, but the film and filmmaking itself is not a joke.

It’s also a film that I was able to take both my boys to see and they had a good time with it as well. It is mostly pretty age appropriate. Not too scary or violent, nor full of off-colour jokes that would be inappropriate for older elementary or junior high kids. This is a fantasy film for the whole family that also doesn’t require the investment in prior mythology or worldbuilding. I had a great time with it; as you note, I hope I’m not overrating it. But I will likely watch this film again sometime because it’s just plain fun.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves as a comedy

Aren: One of the things I most appreciate about Honor Among Thieves—which was also the case with Game Night—is that it has real jokes in it. There are copious references to the tabletop RPG, for sure, but most of the humour in the film does not rely on references, meta humour, political commentary, or over-the-top violence or cursing. Rather, the jokes are simply that: jokes, with set-up, detail, and punchline. There are sight gags, such as the illusion of Chris Pine’s Edgin playing the lute starting to melt and warp as Justice Smith’s Simon gets his foot stuck while casting the spell. There are copious pratfalls, which are always funny. There are jokes that rely on timing, such as Hugh Grant’s traitorous Forge saying that he can’t bear to see Edgin die…so he’s going to leave the room while the sorcerer kills him. And there’s even an absurd celebrity cameo, with Bradley Cooper as Marlamin, Holga’s (Michelle Rodriguez) halfing ex-husband, which is gloriously stupid and basks in the absurd visual of a tiny Bradley Cooper drinking tea and being emotionally supportive next to hulking warrior women.

Anders: You are correct that the jokes in Honor Among Thieves are not reliant on references that will quickly date the film or characters who are above it all, ironically doing sub-Whedonesque metacommentary on the absurd situations. What’s great about the way the film incorporates comedy into the fantasy is that fantasy opens the door to all kinds of situations that are absurd or impossible in our world, but lend themselves to funny reactions and mix-ups. This is something we can get to more later, but it really captures the sense of play and humour that characterizes the experience of playing Dungeons & Dragons. A good Dungeon Master can roll with the absurdities that players (especially young ones) may try to engage in as they test the boundaries of the world, but the result is often still funny.

Aren: Dungeons & Dragons, and tabletop roleplaying in general, shares a lot with sketch comedy, as it’s about creativity and spontaneity and responding to the prompts of others. So I’m glad the movie has this spontaneous spirit in the humour.

Anders: One of my favourite gags in the film is near the start, as Chris Pine’s Edgin is attempting to delay their parole hearing in the prison tower in Icewind Dale, anticipating the arrival of a character named Chancellor Jarnathan. We are led to expect that Jarnathan is someone who will be favourable to Edgin and Holga’s case and support their release. Edgin fills us in on the backstory, delaying for Jarnathan, and upon his arrival he is revealed to be a birdman who Edgin and Holga grab and smash through the window so they can escape from the tower. That kind of playing with expectations and the world of fantasy is fun, and also pays off with some great gags later in the film. I still like saying the name Jarnathan!

Aren: That opening gag is great because it plays with anticipation and expectation in such tried-and-true comedic ways. So when Jarnathan actually shows up, the fact that he’s a birdman completely flips our expectation on its head. It’s a classical joke done very well. And returning to that set-up at the end with Hugh Grant’s Forge was also funny and works as an appropriate comedic tag.

Anders: I will note that they did a great job with casting actors like Pine, Justice Smith, and Hugh Grant who are good with the jokes and timing, as well as stalwart actors like Rodriguez, who effortlessly inhabits a world like this. Chris Pine has a gift for comedic timing in particular that I really enjoyed in this film.

Aren: Chris Pine is one of our true charismatic movie stars!

Anders: Now, the other thing that Honor Among Thieves reminds me of, while not quite as silly as the films I’m going to mention, is the long tradition of fantasy comedy films which have always done pretty well with audiences. I’m thinking particularly of The Princess Bride and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Both of those films mine their material for humour, but also demonstrate an affectionate and knowing familiarity with the genre. So, to compare the film to those other classics is pretty high praise indeed.

Aren: Yeah, the connection to The Princess Bride is especially there in the film’s rescue mission plotting. We can almost think of Edgin’s daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) as the film’s stand-in for the Princess Buttercup.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves as a fantasy film

Aren: I mentioned in the outset that I found the focus on adventure and humour and a lighter tone refreshing for a fantasy film. Game of Thrones seemed to poison the well with regards to fantasy storytelling over the past decade. I love Game of Thrones, but not every fantasy story needs to be dour and miserable. But its influence has seeped into every major fantasy project of the past decade, from the bleak and fascist past of the Fantastic Beasts prequel series to medieval series like Vikings that flirt with fantasy tropes to even key films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe.

But Honor Among Thieves, for all the seriousness of elements of its plotting, is not dour, nor is it dark. It’s colourful, absurd, and adventurous.

Anders: There’s a colourfulness to the film and an exploration of the possibilities that fantasy offers. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say its visual effects are better than the other shows and films you’ve mentioned, I would say I appreciated that they didn’t think they needed to only shoot in Iceland or some other barren rock to express the darkness of the world. You get a variety of locales that serve the fantasy element. Cities and woods, cottages and underground dungeons: Honor Among Thieves treats us to a good cross-section of the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

Aren: Yeah. The Lord of the Rings films do a great job of leveraging New Zealand as Middle-earth, but too many films that followed learned the wrong lessons from those films. They thought that all you had to do was shoot in New Zealand or Iceland or Northern Ireland and that the gorgeous setting would be enough to seem magical and fantastic. But it’s not, and that approach often leaves the fantasy worlds on-screen seeming one-note. Fantasy worlds shouldn’t be monolithic! So it’s nice to have a variety of colours and environments and seasons and lighting patterns in this film.

Anders: Not only is Honor Among Thieves more colourful, it is, as you note, an adventure film in that it wants to take us on a journey. Some of that is facilitated by the roleplaying source material that leads to the film’s fairly standard fantasy quest structure. But it is possible that people become so afraid of avoiding such seemingly rote genre mainstays that we haven’t seen a good one in quite some time! I enjoyed the quest for “The Helm of Disjunction” and the way the characters explore their world.

The referential storytelling of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Aren: Of course, we can’t discount the fact that Honor Among Thieves is based on the roleplaying game and has a lot of references for adherents to the game. There is a certain extra pleasure to watching the movie and recognizing the worldbuilding and the references to key characters, races, spells, and monsters. I’m not the biggest D&D gamer—I play Call of Cthulhu instead—but I know enough about the universe to enjoy the references to Mordenkainen and the appearance of the gelatinous cube during the gladiator games of the climax.

Anders: So, my oldest son is a fairly big fan of Dungeons & Dragons. He had a regular weekly campaign for a couple years and he has all the books. So, I relied on his identification of many of the references and D&D specific locales and creatures that appear in the film, from the mention of Baldur’s Gate (a future film should take us to this central city of the Forgotten Realms, as this one begins in Icewind Dale) to the owlbear that Sophia Lillis’s Doric, the tiefling druid, can transform into (though apparently I’m hearing that they twist the rules a bit, since ordinarily a druid cannot take an owlbear form). From what I’ve read, the filmmakers are both big players of the game and they tried to stay as true to the game as they could in terms of character building and magic rules.

Aren: That makes sense. The film conveys an affection for the Dungeons & Dragons world, as well as an affection for the fantasy genre in general. I believe that fans of the game will appreciate how the movie translates the campaign-style roleplaying to narrative filmmaking, but I also think that the film works just fine for viewers who aren’t fans. If you like comedy and/or fantasy, you’ll have a good time with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023, USA)

Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley; written by Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, and Michael Gilio, based on a story by Chris McKay and Michael Gilio, based on Dungeons & Dragons by Hasbro; starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Hugh Grant.

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