Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 American fantasy heist comedy film directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio from a story by Chris McKay and Gilio. Based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, it is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and has no connections to the previous film trilogy released between 2000 and 2012. The film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant. (Wikipedia)
S P O I L E R S
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves bucks the trend of recent fantasy-based media content that have lost the plot in favour of virtue-signalling. Unlike The Rings of Power, The Witcher and The Wheel of Time, this movie actually respects the genre and is not intent to sacrifice effective storytelling for the sake of social justice pandering. Meaning, the narrative is centred around a main character who has a quest, takes action to achieve said quest, faces obstacles and challenges to said quest before ultimately overcoming said obstacles to achieve said quest!
Sure, in the course of telling an effective story, there are several instances where the female characters are strong and powerful (e.g. the warrior Holga and the shapeshifting druid Doric) and the male characters are initially weak (e.g. our protagonist Edgin, the Bard and the failed sorcerer Simon) – a.k.a. the ‘Woke agenda’. But as the story pans out, both Edgin and Simon rise to the occasion and are turn out to be just as heroic as the female characters. Definitely, a more balanced presentation in this respect has resulted in a more relatable and engaging movie.
Hugh Grant’s villainous turn as the con artist Forge, is truly the icing on the proverbial cake. A more interesting antagonist that the one-dimensional red witch Sofina but the latter does fulfil her function as a formidable adversary for our heroes. With typical fantasy tropes to satisfy both diehard and casual genre fans, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a delightful entertaining romp that never disappoints. Highly recommended!
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