"Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" - the legendary game was filmed. Turned out Marvel

On March 30, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves made its world premiere. It is based on the board game Dungeons & Dragons (aka D&D, DnD; "Dungeons and Dragons"). But you can watch the picture without getting to know the original.

This is not the first attempt to bring the setting of the game to the big screen - Dungeon of Dragons, Dungeon of Dragons - 2: Source of Power and Dungeon of Dragons - 3: Book of Spells were released. They were not filmed by the most sought-after directors (Jerry Lively, Courtney Solomon), and low fees forced producers to cut the budget from part to part. As a result, I had to forget about the film adaptation of D&D for a while.

The film was directed and written by John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein. Together they directed Games Night and Vacation, and also wrote the script for Spider-Man: Homecoming.

It stars Chris Pine (Star Trek), Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious), Rege-Jean Page (The Bridgertons), and Hugh Grant (The Gentlemen).

Honor Among Thieves is the beginning of the franchise. A series based on the game is already being prepared, and the box office success of the film will lead to work on the following parts.

The protagonist, Ejin, goes to jail after failing to steal a relic capable of resurrecting his wife. While he is serving his sentence, his daughter falls into the hands of Forge, the local ruler. Ejin gathers a team of people ready to overthrow the ruler. To do this, they will have to go through a lot of tests and discover new abilities in themselves. The problem is, Ejin's assistants are just as bad as he is.

Fantasy parody

As mentioned above, familiarity with the D&D game is not required to watch the movie. If you generally understand who goblins and elves are, then you are quite prepared for going to the cinema. Magical artifacts that affect the plot appear on the screen only after a long explanation of their significance. Therefore, it is impossible to get confused in something.

At the beginning of the movie, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves might seem like a boring reproduction of a cliché from fantasy. Gradually it turns out that this is a rather lazy ridicule of them - this is what the picture is built on. The protagonist navigates the fictional world rather badly, but everything around him is so simple and clear that the viewer receives all the necessary information at the same time as the characters.

Creatures of different races differ only in appearance, functionally they are the same. Surely in the second part (or the series, if it is limited to them), the world will be revealed in more detail, but the first tape looks a bit empty. In general, the picture is not even going to surprise with the plot and the variety of characters.

Allusions to Marvel

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves looks like Marvel bought the rights to the game and added the film to their MCU. The closest analogue is Guardians of the Galaxy. A team of not the most serious heroes, led by a klutz, is the same here. There are too many similarities between the characters of Chris Pine and Chris Pratt, however, Pine loses a lot in charisma.

Probably the worst thing about the movie is the skills of the characters. All the magic that belongs to the fantasy world is compressed into a few superpowers by a couple of characters. As the Hulk wanders among gray people, so the heroes of Dungeons and Dragons only stumble upon something unusual.

Drop Heroes

Most of the actors look quite appropriate in their roles. But some stand out too much - for example, Michelle Rodriguez. Star "fast and furious”plays a stern warrior who feels vivid emotions only for Ejin’s daughter. The rest are strangers to the woman, as if in her place there was another hero who was accidentally replaced. It is difficult to understand who the problem is - in the character or the actress.

Hugh Grant looks weird too. It feels like he was dragged from the set of The Gentlemen, dressed in clothes from the Fantasy Party store, and then forced to shoot without a script. Another lazy and uninteresting role of Grant. It seems that his character should inspire fear in the viewer, but the character is too poorly thought out, and the actor is simply grimacing. Considering that he is holding a girl hostage, the scenes with him are puzzling.

Good comedy

If there are problems with the development of a fantasy world, then Dungeons and Dragons is doing well with humor. There are a lot of jokes - a lot of boring and banal ones, but there are also funny ones. The main characters are losers, which serves as the basis for most comedic episodes. Some screenwriters like it so much that they get repeated over and over again. For example, it is often reminded that Ejin constantly comes up with plans that don't work.

If you want to watch an adventure comedy movie with some fantasy in the background, then Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will entertain you. If you're a fan of the original game, you can be sure that this means absolutely nothing in the context of the movie. You will see a couple of famous characters, hear familiar words, otherwise the picture was not shot for you.

Perhaps this is the beginning of a new big franchise. Not Marvel, but like Marvel - and that's hardly a good thing.