Crawling from the Wreckage

Did Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) save movies again? Or is it a silly action comedy just like all the rest? Yes.

It starts with our protagonists in an arctic prison. Bard Chris Pine and barbarian Michelle Rodriguez are going up before the parole board after serving two years. Pine is hoping that judge Jarnathan will be sympathetic, but he's late to the hearing. So he tells the story of how he became a thief - nice way to get some exposition in. Basically, he was a member of the harpers' guild, with a wife and daughter. When the wife is killed by a Red Wizard, he goes a little nuts. He meets Rodriguez in a bar, and she takes to the daughter, Chloe Coleman. So they hang out, do some stealing - including stealing an invisibility amulet for Coleman. There's a big heist for the Tablet of Reawakening - a one shot spell that Pine can use to get his wife back.

So they gather a team that includes a minor wizard, Justice Smith, and conman Hugh Grant. Grant brings in powerful wizard Sofina, Daisy Head. Long story short, they get caught, although everyone else gets out. And here they are at their parole hearing. When Jarnathan finally shows up, they use him to escape (not noticing that their paroles had been granted).

They quickly find out that Grant has conned his way into being steward of a large kingdom, and that he is acting as Coleman's guardian. Sinister Head is the power behind the throne. He is pleased to see his old friends, but he isn't giving up the Tablet. And he's been telling Coleman that her dad left her for money, so he's not giving her up either.

Now Pine is going to rob Grant to get the Tablet. He gets the old gang back together, and adds Sofia Lillis, a druid. Smith recommended her, not because she is very powerful, but because she's cute, and she has shot him down at least once. 

The heist is on. This movie is full of ridiculous fights, magic, clever ruses, double crosses, and the odd dragon (in a dungeon). To give you some idea of the tone, the dungeon crawl is very Peter Jackson mines of Moria, but the dragon is very fat - can't really fit through the tunnels. There's a lot of quippage, and Pine being untrustworthy and sincere at the same time. I kept forgetting he was a Chris, and not a Ryan, with all the quips and stuff.

All in all, both funny, silly, and exciting. The amount of meta-material which would have required some knowledge of D&D was limited. Or at least, I didn't catch it - I was too much of a nerd for D&D. I had a great time. But I should warn you that I watched some more of this kind of fantasy-action-comedy, and it got real silly.