Taverns, Lute Players, Dragon Eggs, and one almighty D&D Adventure!
The Roll Britannia crew was lucky enough to be invited to a special preview screening of the upcoming DnD Movie, Honor Among Thieves! We wanted to share our thoughts of the film, but don't worry, this review contains NO SPOILERS!
Let's start with our arrival, when we got to the cinema, the scene was set with a literal treasure trove of D&D drinks tokens for use in the tavern, with an accompanying lute player (an absolute legend) who was kind enough to agree to a selfie or two! As we traveled deeper it seems into the suddenly real world of Dungeons and Dragons, we made a quick stop at the Gelatinous Cube in order to put Jeff in his place before we all spotted the tavern!
Like a sunrise after a dark night, we saw this shining beacon of D&D Tankards and many quaffable
drinks, the tavern set the mood nicely allowing the Roll Britannia boys to begin hoarding treasure and also supping a cheeky beer or two at the same time. I was delighted to grab a selfie with a slightly confused Todd Kenreck (who I can assume wasn't expecting to be recognised) but he was gracious enough to pause for a moment to say hello and pause for my slightly blurry photo - so thanks very much Todd!
Then came time to head into the screen, our seats had been prepopulated with popcorn and "dragon eggs" the perfect accompaniment to a few cheeky beers, and then after we all briefly had to get over the fact that comedy legend Rufus Hound actually came and sat next to us and gave us a shout out on his TikTok the lights went down and a special thank you message from Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Rege-Jean Page got all 4 of us (sorry Paul) were on the edge of our seats (in Chip's case literally) to see what Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves had in store for us.
The D&D Movie itself, what can I say? I daren't say too much for risk of spoiling anything, BUT here are my thoughts: The film was a riot from start to finish! More? OK, if you insist. The truth is that there was possibly a little too much yada yada at the beginning which could very easily have been a full movie in its own right (although maybe a prequel could be in our future). That being said the film makes a good job of breaking up the storytelling with well-deserved laughs. The action sequences throughout have a real D&D quality about them, the characters seem to act in turn for the most part and there is almost a suggestion that sometimes the "DM" is allowing actions to go ahead on bad rolls but offering consequences instead (something I've done to the Roll Britannia boys in the past).
There are some NPCs that bare all the hallmarks of min-maxed stat sheets and a fantastic cameo appearance from a familiar face (that we all agreed should absolutely be in any sequels too). If I'm honest the plot was reasonably simple (although that only serves to make the story easier to dive into) the only thing that I personally felt lacked finesse was the emotional moments - although let's face it, the emotional moments in most D&D games feel a little weird too, so maybe it was deliberate...
Do you have to know how to play D&D to enjoy the movie? There's a simple answer to this... NO. Sure you'll miss some of the nods to D&D lore, and the creatures that we've fought against or even played will not carry the sentimental weight that they would to a D&D fan. But even without the background of Dungeons & Dragons, Honour Among Thieves has the feel of a fantasy version of Guardians of the Galaxy. By that, I don't mean that it's a direct copy, but the perfect balance of comedy with precision timing and dynamic action scenes makes this something that anyone could enjoy, and who knows, maybe Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will encourage a few more people will give D&D a go, and even try listening to Roll Britannia.