Ah Dungeons & Dragons (D&D for short), the tabletop RPG all other tabletop RPGs strive to be. D&D has been around since the mid 70s and has enjoyed mainstream successes after due to shows like Stranger Things and Critical Role.

D&D is a fun game when you have the right people who can embrace the inherent silliness of the setting, fully embody the characters, and revel in the chaos of a good or bad dice roll. And then there are those of us stuck as the eternal Dungeon Master (DM for short).

As the Forever DM of my own personal group of friends during college. Being a DM has all the challenges of playing a character, but you’re also making the world, the non-player characters (NPCs), the boss monsters, the encounters, traps, etc. You’re essentially the director of movie, and your players the actors (although there is a little more freedom than that, what with there being no script for them to work from). And not all that work is as appreciated as you’d like, especially if the plot is derailed.

Why do I mention my DM experience in this movie review? Well I noticed a few things that reminded me of my own games I ran and solutions to dealing with my own group.

Now I won’t lie, when I saw the trailer for this movie, I thought it looked terrible, but planned to review it anyway since it seemed there was anticipation for its release. Then I noticed the trickle of positive reviews coming in from other critics and felt a little better knowing I wasn’t walking into another Morbius (a movie that is both about, and is, a life-sucking vampire).

So what did I think about the movie as someone with D&D experience. Well, let’s roll the review.

The plot of the movie sees a recap of the how two of our main characters: bard Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) and barbarian Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez) came to be locked in a stronghold. Darvis spent years with a group called the Harpers until his wife was tragically killed by a Red Wizard. He met Holga who helped him raise his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) and the group turned to theft and form a team with sorcerer Simon Aumar (Justice Smith) and rogue Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant. Yes, that Hugh Grant).

While on a mission to retrieve a Tablet of Resurrection, a magical artifact that can resurrect the dead but only has one use, a trap is triggered and both Edgin and Holga are captured, but not Edgin give the tablet to Forge and makes him promise to watch over his daughter.

After two years in confinement, the pair escape and find that Forge has become the Lord of Neverwinter and has lied to Kira about the reasons for Edgin’s capture.

Driven out of Neverwind, Edgin and Holga reunite with Simon and recruit teifling druid, Doric, to pull off a heist for the tablet and Edgin’s daughter.

Very basic D&D stuff here. We have a party of characters brought together for a quest with a lot of diversions and side quests along the way.

One of the movie’s strength is definitely capturing the chaotic feel of a session of the game, I could imagine a group of players doing these exact scenarios and rolling 1s (the worst thing you can roll aka a critical failure) and having to improvise to get out of a situation.

As a DM, I also noticed a lot of narrative choices for things I probably would’ve made as well, such as the inclusion of paladin Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page) a character who is extremely more competent then the rest of the party combined, who comes in to assist with one important mission and leaves.

Another thing I’ve experienced as a DM that this movie addresses was players not caring about the backstory you made, usually interrupting in the middle of said stories.

The film’s performances were really strong with special mention going to Regé-Jean Page, whose straight, super serious all the time performance is hilarious.

The humor is also a good thing, I didn’t recall a lot of groan worthy one-liners that killed the drama of a scene. In fact, unlike a lot of recent Marvel-fare that doesn’t seem to be able to let a scene be serious.

The movie had a lot of good special effects as well, with a surprising number of practical effects for some creatures (a dragonborn at the beginning of the film caught be by surprise).

And for long time D&D fans, there are a lot of easter eggs sprinkled throughout the film for those that can spot them (including a various obvious reference to the D&D cartoon of the 80s).

On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised by what Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves had to offer. It was a fun and exciting romp that captured the game’s essence in a way other adaptations have not.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves gets an 8/10.