DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOUR AMONG THIEVES

'Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves' is a nice, fresh franchise in the current cinematic landscape. It has a very funny adventure with a great cast of characters. It's not groundbreaking, but compared to its competition it's a really fun blockbuster sure to stratify the popcorn film crowd.

The film does suffer a little due to both trying to go for mass appeal while not losing the 'D&D' fanbase. It tries not to showcase too much classic 'D&D' lore but also struggles to invite non-players in. It also overstays its welcome and could do with some trimming to really make it soar, but there is no denying that it's a fun flick and both fans and those not in the know will get enjoyment out of this. As someone who knows little of the 'D&D' lore, most coming from friends who play and listen to 'Critical Role' (yes there are cameos from the famous team), the film came across as fine and I could understand the more lore-heavy moments while getting wrapped up in the fun adventure.

The film also has that awful trend of adding in voice actors for specific international releases. Here in Australia a set of corpses are voiced by Aunty Donna who I adore, but it just feels off here more than in other cases. The comedy trio are trying to do voices, but because they are real physical corpses it doesn't work as well as when done in animation, since it's very noticeable.

'Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves' is a successful franchise starter - it has fun action, a ridiculously charismatic cast, and is an engaging adventure. In the current cinematic landscape, it's nice to have a new franchise standout and while it would be nice to get something that's not based on an existing property to become a tentpole film, brand name recognition is all that's getting greenlit right now. If you're in the need for a fun night out, then look no further.