‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is that kind of light-hearted adventure that you always want

‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is not the first time that an attempt has been made to transfer the famous role-playing game to the big screen. In the year 2000 a film was released with Jeremy Irons in the cast and a budget of 45 million dollars. It ended up grossing $34 million worldwide. To delve further into the wound, a year before fantasy colonized pop culture with the first film installments of ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

‘Dungeons and Dragons’ is a true mainstay of fantasy. The board game has been teleporting millions of fans since the 70s, although it is still a fairly demanding hobby (if you want to play well). Others of us had contact with this universe by watching cartoons from the 80s on TV. A lot has happened until they dared to try again. But with titles like ‘The House of the Dragon’ or ‘The rings of power’, the question is if there is room for more fantasyif one of the most influential works of the genre can shine in times of ‘Stranger Things’, Witchers and Targaryens.

John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, directors of the great ‘Game Night’, decided to bet on move away from the more serious and solemn tone that current fantasy has and give the adventure led by Chris Pine an air of family comedy that bets on jokes and physical humor. In the cynical times that run, more than a bet was a leap into the void. But precisely because these are the times, just a carefree adventure is the best thing that could come to us.

Pine leads a procession of the typical characters that we can create in a game of ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ (wizards, warriors…) like the bard and thief Edgin. He and Barbara Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) plan the theft of a relic in the hands of his former companion Forge Hugh Grant) and the powerful sorceress Sofina Daisy Head). To carry out the plan, they recruit a very insecure wizard (Daisy Head) and a druid eager to change the world (Sophia Lillis).

The film’s script, signed by the directors together with Michael Gilio, wastes no time in creating the atmosphere. Pine quickly brings us up to speed by exuding a wry narcissism as the first jokes drop. Surprisingly…they work. Not only do they work, but they become one of the best assets of a film that hid much more than it might seem at first. ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ knows how to be agile, knows how to be silly without actually taking us for the same, and knows how to prioritize an entertaining spirit, a desire to have a good time and not to end up being experts in role-playing or in the universe of board game.

The good thing about having been so influential is that they know that half of the things we see on the screen don’t need to be explained to us.. And even a total inexperienced in ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ like me comes to sense that this world is full of nods to the original material, like the jelly cube. Filled with the beautiful natural locations of Northern Ireland and Iceland, anyone who ventures into the Forgotten Realms will encounter the typical settings of an adventure like this, from imposing castles to gloomy subterranean dungeons, from trap-filled mazes to graveyards where find talking skeletons (which should have been dubbed by professional actors). Again, all accessible, evocative and lovingly designed.

This ‘Honor among thieves’ also quickly lays the foundations of the leading group, which does nothing more than take advantage of the talents of each of its actors and actresses. Chris Pine is charisma, Michelle Rodriguez is strength (although let us see a soft side this time at times), Justice Smith is innocence, and Hugh Grant…everything that has made Hugh Grant famous. They highlight Daisy Head as a wonderful antagonist (and the character with the best looks), and Regé-Jean Page as a humorless hero who is used in a restrained but highly intelligent way in the film.

Focusing on the four main characters, they form a motley crew with enough chemistry to sustain this adventure. Everyone has their own motivation and personal growth, and together they are fun. The look of him doesn’t look like a costume (although there’s a cool nod to that group of players who take their RPGs very seriously), and his abilities are so different that even when they have a blatantly Avengers moment they manage to make him look good. .

Both the production design and the visual effects work very well overall. It shows that there is money behind (about 150 million dollars, it is said). It still has an air of the little sister of Middle-earth, and the directors sometimes sin by repeating camera tricks (certain turns, for example), which they clearly liked a lot the first time they did them.

The relic robobo

The ‘Honor among thieves’ that subtitles the film pretty much sums up the true heart of the story, a treasure hunt/heist movie that manages to be very reminiscent of those ‘Princess Bride’-style eighties adventures, in which the character was more important. charm of the characters that give us gigantic battles with many extras and different creatures. It is not a script with super surprising twists, but it is a very entertaining one, which would be even more so if the film did not exceed two hours.duration that ends up weighing on him inevitably.

But the positive ends up far outweighing the negative. ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is that kind of movie that you stay watching until the end if you catch it on television, even if you’ve seen it twenty times and know it by heart. But it is a film that is worth seeing on the big screen for its ability to transport us to a very interesting world, embellished by the soundtrack by Lorne Balfe. He knows how to transmit adventure and epic. He also knows that adventure and humor can go together very well. And among so much high fantasy, coming across almost by surprise with a story for all ages full of magic, action and laughter is, honestly, a great plan..

‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is released in theaters March 31.