Honor among thieves is a breath of fresh air for D&D adaptations
Wow, what a way to finish off a month!! D&D has been one of my biggest passions since my eleventh birthday, and it led me to discovering a slew of other impecable RPGs like Delta Green, City of Mist and the Primeval RPG. I shared this experiance with my best friend who is an equally insane D&D fanatic like I am. Needless to say, both of us walked away mindblown.
Honestly my expecatations going into this were pretty low, given that all previous adaptations (with the exception of the 80s animated series, whose main characters do make a brief cameo here) were flops who failed to capture the magic of the game, barely had anything to do with it, and, usually, missed the entire point. Not to mention, that they're pretty poorly made films regardless.
One of the main reasons I disliked them so much is that you simply can't adapt the ever-expansive and purposefully plotless narrative of D&D into a feature film, unless you try adapting one of the many canon novels set in it (for example Laura and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance series, whose adaptation was also a major dissapointment). Needless to say, when this was announced I wasn't too thrilled.
Then the trailer dropped, and I thought it looked beyond cheesy. I pushed it firmly into the back of my mind, until, one day, I saw the poster nearby a movie theatre. I decided to actually give it a shot and asked my friend if she'd like to join me. Overall this movie far exceeded all of my expectations and it remains one of the most memorable and overall fun experiances I ever had.
Let's see why it worked...
The Writing
I believe that the soul of any product lies within it's writing. However, a lot of modern blockbusters tend to be overtly comedic for my taste, which I believe ruins a lot of the tension. Now, thre's nothing wrong with bathos (comedic lines or situations interspurced into the plot in order to relieve the tension), however, thanks mostly to the success of the MCU, it's what takes up most f the dialoge in big budget blockbusters, killing a lot of narrative tension (one of the most obvious examples of this being the 2021 scifi action flick The Tommorow War).
However, this movie's humor never feels forced. In fact, it comes off as completely natural in the situations it's based in. The entirety of the dialoge of this movie really does come off as a real world D&D campaign between a group of friends, combining within itself humor, exposition (usually a tactic I find impecably boring, however, it geniuenly works in the film's favour this time) as well as a plethora of emotional moments that tugged on my heartstrings a bit. I honestly don't remember laughing to something intentionally comedic in a while. Overall, this is one of the best written blockbusters I've ever seen.
The Performances
This cast was phenomenal in every sence of that word. From the heroes to the villains and even side characters everyone did a bangup job in it. Would I single anyone out as the defintive role that stole the show? Not really. Every actor is really bringing their A game, showing huge amounts of charm, charisma and intimidation. It was great seeing Sophia Lillis in something again, as I do believe she's a phenomenal actress, who should be getting more attention (her best known works are probably the excelent dark fantasy period piece Gretel and Hansel, the (atleast in my opinion) overrated re-adaptation of Stephen King's It and Netflix's short lived supernatural comedy drama I am not ok with this).
Some of the performances might feel a little over the top for the average viewer, but the actors didn't break character or act like actual campaign memebers never do, so this didn't bother me as much.
The Usage of Practical Effects
I'm a sucker for good practical effects. It's just so much more powerful to see an actor geniuenly interact with a creature if you know it's really there and not just added in post. But, with the evergrowing popularity of CGI, practical effects in movies and TV have slowly been dying out.
Fortunatley, many directors still see value in them (particular praise goes to Guillermo Del Toro who only relies on CGI if he absolutely has to) and this is the case this time as well.
I don't remember seeing a modern blockbuster incorporate geniune prosthetics, suits and animatronics into itself, however that is not the case with Honor among thieves. Yes, there certainly is a lot of CGI (which looks too obviously fake in my opinion), however, they do balance it out with a solid number of practical effects. My cinephilic heart started to burn with intense passion when they decided to go back to the roots, especially during the kitten rescue scene.
This gives the movie an old school vibe and a distinct style which sets it apart from other current fantasy properties.
Another impecable scene was the corpse interrogation scene which brought the film some much needed wonderful black humor and is certainly my favorite sequence in the entire flick.
Do I reccomend it?
Hundreds upon hundereds upon thousands times yes!!! This is hands down my favorite film of the year thus far. It was an excelently paced, tightly written and gorgeously shot quest which harkens back to classic era of fantasy films, as well as bringing back the same feeling of excitment, adventure and wonder that the actual RPG posseses, as well as truly being wothy it's title. It's a must for all fans of the original game, as well as fantasy geeks in general. Overall I cannot express my enjoyment of it enough. It's a perfect film on so many levels.
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