Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Trailer is here.

It seems to have the right tone, the quasi-parody rollicking adventure vibe. Guardians of the Galaxy-esque (down to the classic rock in the trailer and the 80's-looking font).

Looks good and I've enjoyed Chris Pine in almost everything he's done. Personally, if I were going with a D&D branded story, I'd try focusing on something smaller scale, but it looks like they have the budget to pull off some nice effects and big battle scenes.

Seeing a lot of curious/positive reactions so far. It's nice when that happens for a franchise entry people have low expectations for.

Michelle Rodriguez as a tough axey barbarian is nice spin on her typecasting.

So far the weirdest thing is that the party is largely human or near-human. It might be but in my experience parties tend to be a chaotic coalition of a multitude of races.

My current main party consists of a Goliath, A Drow, an Elf and a Triton.

This party doesn't even have a goblin. This is an outrage.

Edited by Gaon on Jul 21st 2022 at 3:04:12 AM

I am outraged at the absence of a tiefling or Kobold party member!

To copy my thoughts from Twitter:

That looks... surprisingly good.

It helps that it seems to have some remarkably accurate depictions of some unexpectedly classic creatures—I caught a Displacer Beast, an Owlbear (of course), one or more dragons, and even a Mimic!

(And possibly a Gelatinous Cube.)

I took the horns on the shapechanger-character's head to suggest that she might be a tiefling.

So the plot is that some thieves with hearts of gold, while thieving, accidentally help a villain get hold of a magic item that lets them summon and control dragons and in order to put it right the thieves go on an adventure that involves,at least, traversing a maze full of dangers run in front of an audience by a foppish British man?

That's not that far off from the 2000 movie.

Yeah, Sophia Lillis (who should be headlining a Netflix series well into its 3rd series by now, but I digress) is playing some sort of nonhuman druid. Justice Smith's character looks like he could be an elf, too. And I wouldn't be surprised if they made Rodriguez's character half human

Overall it looks exactly what a D&D movie should look like, lore accurate monsters (a dragon that doesn't breathe fire is a nice touch), wise-cracking with characters that are fairly archetypical.

I'm expressing Hugh Grant or Page's character to be the bad guy, just based off what little we know and name recognizition.

Edited by ArthurEld on Jul 21st 2022 at 5:00:56 AM

Holy crap Some Sort of Troper!I've not seen you in years!

So what was with that fat dragon? Is that some kind of obscure monster from the game or do you think it's a regular dragon that let itself go?

And, while I understand the desire for more of the out there DND races like Dragonborn or Kobolds or Tabaxi, that could be kinda difficult for a movie that wants to ride on star-power and actor chemistry.

Because it would be a lot harder to have the actor on set riffing and interacting with the other actors if they need to be cgi'd in.

I'm not saying you can't do it; there are other projects that have with explicitly Guardians of the Galaxy having Rockett, but I don't think it's a wrong choice to value having your actors physically there.

The plot setup can also be used as an actual DND campaign; the players fuck something up and have to make it right.

For all we know this is an actual in-universe campaign and it will occasionally cut to the actors conversing around a table.

I feel like, if it were that, it would have been mentioned by no. No real reason to hide that element.

The LEGO Movie made that a whole plot twist. Anything is possible with just one trailer.

Edited by Synchronicity on Jul 21st 2022 at 12:40:30 PM

I would actively hate that.

Yeah. That... doesn't feel like a plot twist here. I don't know what that could add to the narrative.

Like, in Lego movie, it changes the nature of the themes and message and is genuinely unexpected to suddenly focus not on the toys in of themselves but the kids who play with theme for a message about imagination and creativity and etc. Also, the lego pieces act independently of the real people; Emmett discovers what the conflict is actually about, returns to the Lego world, and solves the problem because he saw the kid and the dad. It drives the conflict forward to it's resolution. It serves something other than "What a twist!"

In Dn D... well, yeah, it's not unexpected that there are players around a table narrating the plot. That's actually how Dn D runs. If it suddenly gets revealed in the 3rd act that there's a table with Players and a DM... what does it actually change or reveal? It... can't? Not unless the P Cs act independently of their players which I don't particularly like and feels convoluted.

It would also make me feel like we missed out on the best scenes and jokes; like players rolling Nat 20s or Crit Fails at hilarious opportunities. Or the awkwardness of a DM having to adlib and improv something they clearly didn't prepare. The hilarity of players coming up with their characters at the table or contrasting the P Cs vs their actual players. You could even create convincingly create some cool character arcs of the Lone Wolf who comes to understand teamwork and how he's not "The HERO TM" or the socially awkward nerd who becomes more socially confident over the course of the story and even becomes face of the party or something.

Like, you have no idea how badly I'd love to see a huge Hollywood fight sequence play out with a character being badass as fuck only for them to flub at the WORST moment. Like, that is THE dnd experience of being badass and having to roll with the misses occasionally.

Heck, even that could be a small character arc; one character keeps trying to be a badass only to be upstaged by other's actions, roll 1s, or possibly make situations even worse only to be the player who gets the HDYWTDT on the Big Bad at the end and they finally get their moment. And that's not a character arc that needs a ton of focus and attention.

I’m not saying they have to do it Lego Movie style? I’m just countering the assertion that it’s impossible because we havent seen it after one (1) trailer. There are trailer 2s that look and feel totally different from trailer 1s.

Princess Bride style (occasional cut to IRL “wtf”) is an option too. Or it we see the real people over the credits. Lots of ways to do include that aspect.

Apparently people have identified the scene with the chunky dragon as being the Underdark city Gracklstugh. The dragon is Themberchaud.

They very much could have a tabletop game behind the events of the movie, I do daresay.

That said, personally, I would dislike it I think. I'd prefer that the events of the movie have in-universe reality.

That was good to see! ^_^

... Although, funnily enough, that dragon also looked somewhat overweight to me. Do we expect an entire movie of tubby dragons?! XD;

Regarding kobolds, I will say that I wouldn't mind seeing some of them outside of the main cast: They're fun little fellows, and somewhat iconic (I have the impression)—and not unfitting if dragons are to be a significant element.

Out of curiosity, why? Not out of criticism, more I am curious. I see the opinion on occasion but I don't often see why people would rather it be a straight up fantasy movie.

It would be kind of interesting to have a move take a D Mof The Rings or Darths & Droids approach with us seeing the fantasy reality but having the players and DM in voice over.

I don't know how well it would work for a full movie and of course when not parodying an existing narrative.

I'm personally not interested in a meta narrative, either. I don't want a movie about Dungeons & Dragons the game. I want a movie set in the Forgotten Realms/Eberron/Dragonlance/etc thats allowed to be its own thing and have as much respect as any other fictional universe. If I want to see people playing the game, I can do that. I don't need to see actors sitting on a set pretending to roll dice.

I'll admit, I'm biased. I read the books. I'm actively invested in the world in which these stories are set and the stories they tell. I don't need the camera to zoom back and remind me that the fantasy isn't real even within its own context.

Maybe they'll adopt one. Everyone loves to adopt goblins.