Editing Dungeons and Dragons in Film (section)

== Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) ==
[[File:Dungeons and Dragons honor among theives.jpg|thumb|left|300px| The black dragon appears for only like one scene, but it's super cool so who cares?]]
A new big budget DnD movie had been in Development Hell since 2013 due to licensing issues. Eventually these got sorted out and production was put under way, releasing in theatres on March 31st and starring Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez.

In general it's gotten decent reviews by critics and audiences, with 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and 76% on IMDB. Despite these rather good scores the movie looks to be on course to barely break even in the box office, possibly killing any extended franchise in the cradle. Seems like releasing the movie between the Mario Movie and John Wick Chapter 4 is a ''fucking stupid idea''.

Taking place on the Sword Coast, the Bard, Edgin, and the Barbarian, Holga, are arrested and imprisoned by the Lords Alliance during a botched heist on behalf of a mysterious wizard called Sofina. Two years later the duo escape prison and discover that another former party member, a smooth talking con artist called Forge, has become Lord of Neverwinter and is in possession of both Edgin's daughter and a magical tablet that can be used to bring Edgin's dead wife back from the dead. Now the two must assemble a team and plan a heist to retake what is rightfully theirs... and discover a plot that threatens the entire city.

Uncharacteristically of a Dungeons and Dragons movie, the film is actually pretty good. It's well-plotted and competently directed, hits the story beats fine, has a good bunch of comedic moments, and tons of background references and monsters and spells and other D&D shit - even the kids of the [[D&D Cartoon|cartoon]] showing up in a cameo. There's almost no cringe of the other movies involved, save maybe deliberately with a couple jokes.

But the most important thing? It actually behaves like an actual D&D campaign, one you can easily imagine being played out by a bunch of [[Neckbeard|geeks]] around a tabletop. You can tell exactly where someone rolled a natural 1, where the party fucks up so badly they can't move forward and the DM has to introduce a hasty workaround, where the DMPC shows up to hand out loredrops and upstage everyone before (thankfully) bailing out halfway through, maybe even where the druid's player couldn't make it so she had to be sidelined for a bit. You can groan as some idiot picks up the treasure before checking it for traps. And speaking of traps... of course, in a campaign centered around pulling a dangerous heist, ''[[FAIL|not one player rolled up an actual rogue.]]''

It's also pretty straightforward and predictable and doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. But let's not set our standards too high, nobody goes to a D&D film expecting Hitchcock or some shit. It's a fun romp that pretty accurately reflects the whole hobby, that's all you're here for, and that's what you'll get.

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[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]