Movie Review: Dungeons and Dragons

:et me start by getting rid of a common misconception about the movie, which is that this movie is only for people who play Dungeons and Dragons, which could not be more wrong. I have never played the game, and I found the movie very enjoyable to watch and very funny at some points.

Humor me for a second as I go through previous movie attempts to adapt Dungeons and Dragons, which surprisingly has only happened once with a film trilogy from 2000 to 2012. All three movies had largely negative reviews and very bad box office returns, which were so bad that it caused the second movie to only have general releases in Europe and parts of North America and Latin America. So, the final movie was only released as direct to DVD in Great Britain and as a SYFY original movie in the US.

After that, the franchise was stuck in legal limbo as they tried to get a reboot done, which lasted until 2015. And now we get to the eventual reboot, which has already grossed 157.1 million dollars at the box office and is just getting started.

The way I judge a movie on how good it is has a couple of different criteria that all add up to a hundred: first, acting and the script; second, special effects and how they are used in the movie. Third is how good the action scenes are and if they add suspense, and lastly, how they balance both the action scenes and the slow scenes, plus bonus points if they made me cry at any point.

First up, the acting and the very good script. The scriptwriters knew how to get a laugh out of us with some amazing lines that made the entire theater laugh. Honestly, the best line is “What’s wrong with my lips?” and let’s not forget the amazing cast with people like Chris Pine and Hugh Grant, both of whom I love to watch the act. For the script and the acting, I give it 25/25.

Now on to the special effects, and they went all out with effects that were not all CGI but instead all practical, with only a couple of monsters and creatures done in CGI, which I am thankful for because way too many movies nowadays have been CGI-heavy (looking at you, Jurassic World trilogy). Some of my favorite effects were the gelatinous cube, which was practical, and the list just goes on and on. Even the things that were CGI looked amazing, so for special effects, I give it a 25/25.

Next up is what we love in a lot of movies: action scenes. Let me just tell you, they are awesome, but there is a problem I have with them, which is that there are way too many of them, and so when watching the movie, it feels like you can’t catch a break. I know a film with a 134-minute run time can have a good balance with movies like Black Panther and Black Widow, so it is doable. For how good the action scenes are, they are 25/25, but for the balance between action scenes and slow scenes, it is 19/25.

But I will add 5 bonus points because of how amazing some of the scenes were and how some of them made me cry or laugh. So in total, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among Thieves gets a total of 99 points. So, in conclusion, I highly recommend this movie. If you love action scenes and fantasy movies or just love playing Dungeons and Dragons, this movie is a must-see.