Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://www.firstshowing.net/2023/review-dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-is-a-delightful-surprise/ "DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES is one of the best fantasy films of the most recent years. Chris Pine is the MVP of an incredibly charming cast with such natural chemistry that the comedic moments become truly hilarious - the graveyard scene will be replayed over and over again. An adventure blockbuster in all its purity, containing action set pieces filled with fantastical elements and accompanied by remarkable visual effects and score. One of the most fun, enjoyable, surprising theater experiences of the year so far. Impossible not to recommend it to any type of viewer." Rating: B+

Now I really did enjoy this, but let's not for a moment pretend that it has much originality to it. We start with a scene borrowed from "Jurassic Park" (1993) before getting introduced to the wise-cracking "Edgin" (Chris Pine) who has been incarcerated in an impregnable prison with his pal "Holga" (Michelle Rodriguez). They're at a sort of parole board hearing awaiting the arrival of "Jarnathan" for whom they have a rather surprising use! What now follows in an exciting and quickly paced series of escapades that sees our escapees try to reconcile with his daughter "Kira" (Chloe Coleman) whom they left in the capable - they thought - hands of their pal "Forge" (Hugh Grant). It turns out that he has his own agenda, and together with the mysterious "Sofina" (Daisy Head) is working on a plan to garner untold riches. That latter creature, though, has her own agenda too - a much more malevolent and dastardly one. "Edgin" and "Holga" have to find a magical helmet in order to spring his daughter and so recruiting the rather hapless sorceror "Simon" (Justice Smith) and the shape-shifting "Doric" (Sophia Lillis) set off in search of the legendary warrior "Xenk" (Regé-Jean Page) and perilous adventures beckon. This actually works well as an entertaining, episodic, collection of short stories that pitch our heroes agains a wonderfully chubby dragon, some dead but undead soldiers and along the way treats us to bits of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by way of "Maze Runner". "Robin Hood" and some stunningly presented magical duels worthy of Edgar Allan Poe. There is plenty of pith in the script - a bit of sarcasm never goes wrong; the cast genuinely seem to be having fun as their quest lurches from the frying pan to the fire each time and there is a suitably conniving effort from Grant to top it all off and keep us interested. I was a little disappointed in Page. He doesn't really have so much to do, and features rather sparingly - but Pine shows something of his versatility as an actor (perhaps not so much with his lute) and the whole thing delivers an amusing ensemble effort that passes 2¼ hours predictably, but nonetheless enjoyably. I could have done with more dragons and sorcery, but the visual effects are still put to good use to support a character-led, light-hearted, drama that is really only worth seeing on a big screen. This is good fun - and they even spelled "honour" properly in the title!