When an amoral conman teams up with an ancient evil, it takes a particular group of heroes to face the threat. But, unfortunately, those heroes weren’t available. So instead, an unlikely group of thieves gets pulled kicking, screaming, slashing, and bashing into the fray and must defeat their inner demons before facing the evil that steals souls for all eternity. Luckily, there is honor among thieves in this entertaining movie adaptation of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise.
Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez headline a star-studded cast as two people way, way down on their luck: The former Harper Bard, Edgin, and the outcast barbarian, Holga. They are joined by Justics Smith, Sophia Lillis, Chloe Coleman, Regé-Jean Page, Daisy Head, and Hugh Grant to make up a talented ensemble cast for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The movie was written and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. Daley and Goldstein bring their love of the franchise to their efforts, and it shows with what is, hands down, the most faithful adaptation of the Dungeons & Dragons thematic universe to date.
The score is composed by the prolific Lorne Balfe, and he brings a beautiful mix of styles that pairs with the action and story like a fine wine and cheese combination.
First Impressions
Aside from a love of fantasy films, Eve had few expectations coming into the movie. However, I have been a Dungeons & Dragons player for more than 40 years, so I came in prepared for a disappointing amount of creative license. We’ve seen Chris Pine in plenty of other movies and have come to appreciate his acting and comedy chops. Hugh Grant is a fantastic actor with decades of outstanding performances, so we had reason to expect a passably enjoyable movie. Both of us were satisfied. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has a well-written story that walks a fine line between complexity and simplicity. In many ways, the plot was very predictable, but in such a way as to make the movie better, not worse. We knew the journey and the destination—the fun was watching it all play out.
Each character was well fleshed out and acted, with motivations and actions that made sense. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves did ensemble well, using Pine and Rodriguez as anchors but still allowing the others to shine. As expected, many viewers came out with a favorite. For Eve, it was the straight-laced and humor-challenged Paladin with smoldering eyes, Xenk Yendar, played by Regé-Jean Page. His tendency to take idioms literally really spoke to the English major in her. For my part, I had a tough time choosing a favorite. Even now, I can’t settle on any single one.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves also had an advantage because it was essentially a heist film with an undercurrent of redemption—both elements we love.
As a gamer, I appreciated how faithful the movie was to the source material. Sure, the directors fudged some elements for the story, but they were much fewer and further between than I thought they would be. Because of this faithfulness, the movie rewards familiarity with the franchise—all elements of it—with easter eggs and lesser-known lore that enriches the story if you know about it but doesn’t detract from the experience if you do not.
While I loved being in the “inner ring” of viewers for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the movie does highlight the proliferation of fan service and reboots coming out of Hollywood over the last decade or so. Such things still make money, though, so we can’t really fault the studios for following the money.
The D&D “Satanic” Stigma of the 80s and 90s
Eve and I are of an age where we lived through the Satanic Panic in the 1980s. It all started with a news article that linked the relatively new concept of fantasy role-playing games in general and Dungeons & Dragons, specifically to Satanism and the occult. Then stories started coming out about kids who played the game who would go rogue (no pun intended), either disappear, commit heinous acts, or embrace evil. It mattered little that none of these accusations had a lick of truth. Nevertheless, it was sensational enough to sell papers and magazines, so it persisted.
The “Satanic Panic” gained steam, and many otherwise well-meaning organizations joined in to decry the evils of Dungeons & Dragons. Spurred on possibly by the idea of graphic tracts as became popular during the Jesus Revolution, religious tract producer, Chic began creating tiny graphic novels as Christian tracts. They produced a rather intense tract on the topic of Dungeons & Dragons that Eve remembers seeing and reading.
Dungeons & Dragons is just like any other tool. By its very nature, it is neutral. How people use it is what makes it good or evil. Because pre-teens and teens were the target audience for D&D, it fell under particular but understandable scrutiny. For Christian parents trying to raise their children “in they way they should go,” vigilance against the misuse of these kinds of things is always warranted.
A thing may be morally neutral, and yet the desire for that thing may be dangerous. (C. S. Lewis, The Inner Ring)
Dungeons & Dragons, and other role-playing games, are collaborative storytelling devices. But, like anything else in our lives, we need to ensure we use it for the glory of God:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
This is the mission of Are You Just Watching. We encourage our listeners to think critically about the media we consume and always consider it through the Christian Worldview.
Recurring Themes: Ad Nauseum but Important
Five of every seven movies we do have many of the same themes, so Eve and I end up referencing many Bible verses to address those themes. They come up so often because they are essential—not only to us as Christians but to secular movie producers as well. They are fertile ground for conflict, resolution, and motivation. Here is a brief mention of some of those themes in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Family/Adoption
Not only is Edgin’s family a HUGE part of his backstory and motivation, but the party of characters becomes a family of their own, particularly Edgin, Holga, and Kira.
Sacrifice
Throughout Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, there are multiple instances of one character sacrificing themselves for another. It ties into other things like love and teamwork frequently.
Living With the Consequences of Your Actions
Honor Among Thieves starts with Edgin relating his backstory to a parole board. Like in an in-person role-playing game, the story has a hook that links it to the “player character” so that the player (or, in this case, the audience) becomes invested in the story. In the back story, we see that he and Holga are in this position because of Edgin’s bad decisions in the last ten or fifteen years. In that backstory and series of poor choices, we see one of the most dangerous lies of sin beautifully illustrated: once we have started down a path of sin, there is no escaping it. For Edgin, the further he fell from the Harper ideal, the further in over his head he got, the more impossible the return to the surface seemed.
But that return is never impossible, and we are all responsible for every single one of our choices and actions:
Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. (Galatians 6:7-8)
The Harpers swear an oath to be the “Lord Protectors of the Realm” and defend those who cannot protect themselves. They do so without expectation of payment. They seek to do good for the sake of good.
Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith. (Galatians 6:9-10)
This is the type of life that Edgin swore to follow. Yet, in a moment of weakness, when he was struggling, he made the wrong choice. With that choice, nearly all he loved came crashing down around him. As he fell, he cast aside his oath. But, as Xenk reminded Edgin, “You may have forsworn your oath, but your oath has not forsworn you.” Interestingly, this echoes Christ’s words:
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:28-29)
Forge’s Fatherhood Realizations
Although Forge is clearly an evil man in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, he has some regard for what is good in how he treats his ill-gotten ward, Kira. Even though his raising and caring for her fed into this selfishness and desire for personal power, he recognizes what is good in her and admits that he wishes it was also in him. At one point, as he continues trying to poison Kira against her father, Forge turns to Kira and says, “You know, the fact that you see good in me makes me wish that it was true.”
This idea reminds me of how scripture tells us that even those who have never heard the gospel understand the essentials of the law:
So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:14-16)
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