I had no intention of seeing this film. I have made a series of vows of recent regarding big budget populus, specifically Marvel, DC, all that branch. I don’t enjoy these movies and so I should be more effective with my time, that’s a resolution that I have stuck to now for a few months. I similarly had no excitement or intention of watching the new 2023 Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Amongst Thieves movie. Then the film garnered a hype from those I trust and so I watched it, and well aren’t the one who had a lovely little time with this jaunty romp.
The film is in a mould that is familiar to us by now; it’s what the majority of blockbusters have ended up following, a not so serious romp with lots of characters, many different missions and an emotional punch that either lands or does not, led by a villain who also is often a tightrope of working or not working. But what makes Dungeons so very refreshing indeed is to what extent it feels fresh. In the hands of Jonathon Goldstein and John Francis Daley of Game Night fame, the film frequently remains very funny and has solid and inventive action sequence to sequence. The film too boats an awful lot of practical effects and makeup combined with of course a bevy of CGI work (which wasn’t as bad as I feel some have made it out to be). All this makes the world seem real for as fantastical as it is, real and interesting – which is often two words that are deprived of me when reviewing other modern commercial fare. Of course this is a standard romp and lines can be drawn very clearly from these characters and sequences to those that have come before in other films and if this came out in the hey-day of the film’s it is aping than it really wouldn’t stand up very well at all. However standing in the midst of the farces we get most of the time at current, one can’t help but boost this film way above perhaps what it does actually warrant in regards to positive criticism. Ultimately Goldstein and Daley have made a solid and very entertaining film which just like their previous success Game Night never rests on visual laziness or cheap jokes or gags and instead chooses to make interesting work. Interesting and sincere work. Yes! At last a film without as much as a wink or a nudge or a lean in – if nothing else that was certainly the most refreshing part of the film by a long stretch.
The joy and
humour of the film is of course founded mostly in the cast who are all doing
great work without a weak link, making this is as much a joyous ensemble heist
film as it is a fantasy epic. Chris Pine leads our merry band and is as
devastatingly charismatic and wonderful as he always is, with a rugged older
quality here that suits him just as it suited the many stars who have come
before him and succeeded across decades as I hope Pine has the opportunity to
do. Michelle Rodriguez too is not necessarily a surprise standout but is given
her so much more to do and revel in than she has in the past I don’t know how
many car movies she’s done of recent. Again, it’s all very refreshing. Hugh Grant
is his incredible self and is perhaps not used as much as one would wish him to
be. Sophia Lilllis is more reserved than the others in her team, but again in a
believable and likable way unlike so many of the current iterations we have had
of her trope. Rege Jean Page and Justice Smith also offer fun characters, with
Smith’s humour sometimes being the hardest to land and Page’s blatant Drax rip-off
being a little bit too derivative for my taste. But again in both cases, both
actors still have great moments. But the humour is the films greatest triumph
time and time again, good solid jokes and creatively humorous conceits that
make the film funny in different ways over and over again. Even if this humour
is sometimes weighed down run-time wise by exposition and forced drama. But
also the film really does have a heart and final emotional moment that fully
landed for me, with tears even. Yes, I cried alone watching a torrent of Dungeons
and Dragons in the middle of the sea at the age of 23. I think I’m in a
tough place in my life right now.
An incredibly surprising 6/10, very fun and very funny with a genuine surprising heart. Maybe I’m in a sad place right now (I am) and maybe I needed a fun romp (I do), but this movie just worked for me from the very off. I really do wish it held the steam it boasts in it’s first twenty minutes, but when the film does frequently return to the swiftness and creativity of this first prologue of sorts we are once again having a grand old time. This movie is efficient and above all else sincere – which if anybody wants to re-read many of last year’s reviews is the thing I’ve been looking for in these films for a very long time indeed.
P.S. Perhaps I hold this opinion because I don’t know the brand (OBVIOULSY I do know the brand), but beyond the standard “is everything just product and IP” discussion, did this film really have to be Dungeons and Dragons? At the end of the day why not make up new gobbeldy-gook? Because IP in this case actually for me worked against the film and made it a film I avoided until this point, and it does make me wonder how many others held this opinion.
- - Thomas Carruthers
0 Comments