Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves review – passable, playful adventure – The Guardian

Even with a shock resurgence within the recognition of the immersive, exhausting role-playing fantasy sport Dungeons & Dragons (2017 noticed extra gamers of the sport than another 12 months in its whole existence), betting a reported $150m on a brand new franchise-starting movie is a dangerous, borderline reckless, transfer, like betting on a daily goblin towards a hobgoblin in a magic sorcery battle (notice: I’ve by no means performed Dungeons & Dragons earlier than). As acceptably participating as Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves is likely to be, it’s laborious to completely perceive the considering behind such a wild gambit, particularly given {that a} splashy Paramount+ TV sequence can be within the works, the success of 1 movie instantly dictating the existence of a complete prolonged universe.

Whereas different extra mainstreamed franchises have touched upon loosely related fantasy territory, from Recreation of Thrones to Lord of the Rings, there’s extra of a distinct segment, loaded high quality to D&D that would stop the same trajectory, an affiliation with hardcore geek tradition that is likely to be laborious to shake for the common multiplex-frequenter. It’s not as if these behind the movie aren’t additionally conscious about this as effectively, hiring the duo behind Recreation Night time, Horrible Bosses and Spider-man: Homecoming to convey some pop and levity, aiming to present the movie a Guardians of the Galaxy-esque irreverence, one thing the cool youngsters may get pleasure from simply as a lot. It’s a satisfactory try at such and one which is made all of the extra satisfactory by context, evaluating it with latest Marvel and DC movies making it appear that significantly better however is that sufficient to warrant such lofty universe-starting funding?

In addition to nabbing writer-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who helped reinvent Spider-man, they’ve additionally solid within the lead Chris Pine, who helped steer the Star Trek reboot to widespread prosperity. He transplants a few of that very same cocky attraction to his function right here, enjoying a thief who turned his again on a extra respectable life as soon as his spouse was murdered. Along with partner-in-crime Holga (Michelle Rodriguez doing precisely what you count on Michelle Rodriguez to do in a franchise film akin to this, which isn’t a nasty factor), they’re compelled into an elaborate plan to get well his youngster after a heist goes improper. It’s then superhero assemblage components with them travelling to choose up Justice Smith’s wannabe sorcerer and Sophia Lillis’s druid whereas getting additional help from Regé-Jean Web page’s paladin. Collectively they need to defeat Hugh Grant’s power-hungry con artist and Daisy Head’s pink wizard.

If the movie hewing so intently to Marvel beats is irritating it’s additionally completely inevitable, the superhero manufacturing facility having an indelible impression on how the business treats the vast majority of colon-heavy tentpole properties. However the upside is that by aping a style that has been going by a big downturn in high quality, doing the naked minimal is then one way or the other doing rather a lot. A coherent plot, well-choreographed motion, actual places, some sensible results and a self-contained story not set in a multiverse make it easy-to-digest, the extent for entry not requiring fairly as a lot information of post-credit scenes and a myriad of Disney+ TV reveals. The script does a strong job of creating it an accessible world to these not already steeped in it though Goldstein and Daley, writing alongside Michael Gilio, are much less efficient with the movie’s many makes an attempt at comedy.

It’s a disgrace because the solid are sport and Pine and Rodriguez have a fizzy platonic chemistry nevertheless it’s simply by no means as humorous appropriately regardless of ample set-ups, like a striker lacking a number of hard-to-miss alternatives to attain, resulting in related head-in-hands moments. There are momentary flashes of one thing sharper, as if a storied sitcom author was allowed a day’s price of touch-ups, akin to a charmingly foolish sequence involving reanimated corpses, however the movie wanted extra real laughs to work because the high-spirited romp it so clearly needs to be. Openly stealing Dave Bautista’s lack of ability to know humour from Guardians and lazily giving it to Web page, an motion scene involving a fats dragon and a weird cameo from an A-lister that’s only one dumb overextended sight gag distract from what’s in any other case largely well-paced and energetic.

It’s the lacking little bit of magic in a serviceable franchise-starter that advantages from the very low bar we presently have. Whether or not that enjoyed-on-a-plane stage of disposability is sort of sufficient to warrant the start of a brand new multi-platform universe is to be confirmed very quickly (the movie is monitoring to open low this weekend) but when future instalments are to occur, we may do with slightly extra humorous to go together with that enjoyable.

• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves is out in cinemas on 31 March

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