Game-inspired fantasy adventure 'Honor Among Thieves' hides a few treasures amid long running time
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” - ★ ★ ½
The major thief in “Dungeons && Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” turns out to be none other than the charmingly British Hugh Grant.
The unobtrusively oily way his deviously smarmy politician, Forge Fitzwilliam, shoplifts his every scene buoys this generic, overtopped popcorn fantasy adventure featuring an obligatory parade of CGI monster battles in a riotous, out-of-control screenplay that refuses to play by its own broken rules.
(This might be partially explained by co-director/co-writer John Francis Daley growing up as a supersmart, hyperactive Wheeling kid, whose parents once received a prescient note from his second grade teacher saying, “Lacks self-control.”)
“Honor Among Thieves” packs in plenty of character and totem references to the popular D&D games, so fans will be treated to an early Easter egg hunt well before April 9.
As a disclaimer, my nostalgic roots for D&D predates the video game era. I began playing it during the early 1970s when we used a pencil and graph paper, under the guidance of an appointed Dungeon Master, to map out each “room” that we would enter to discover weapons or resources and battle attacking creatures with multifaceted dice. Critical-thinking skills were required to get out of seemingly impossible escape rooms.
That important last element gets short shrift in “Honor Among Thieves,” which is less interested in solving clever puzzles of survival than breathlessly running through mazes rife with visually arresting monsters and magical mayhem frequently employed to bail out characters in tight spots.
The hero in this unspecified Middle Ages locale is Edgin Darvis, a disgraced former member of a secret society of ancient knights called the Harpers. Chris Pine plays Darvis as a scalawag and thieving rogue version of his cocky, never-say-die Captain Kirk persona from the “Star Trek” movie reboot.
His wife has been murdered by the evil Red Wizards, leaving Darvis to raise his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) with support from his tattooed, no-hanky-panky barbarian buddy Holga (played by a rough-and-tumble Michelle Rodriguez).
When Darvis gets tossed in the slammer for a few years, his alleged best pal Forge pledges to raise Kira as if she were his own. He proves good on his word by turning her against Darvis with lies. He mistakenly believes he can be a better dad than Dad.
Once freed, Darvis, a man always with a plan and a backup plan that seems suspiciously like the first plan, realizes that if he can find the legendary Tablet of Reawakening - locked up in a vault somewhere - he can bring his wife back to life. And maybe reclaim daughter Kira. To do that, he needs the Helmet of Disjunction, a dandy little device that can play with time itself.
Darvis also needs a genre-dictated team of heroes: a highly insecure young sorcerer named Simon (Justice Smith); a shape-shifter druid named Doric (Sophia Lillis); and a noble paladin named Xenk (Regé-Jean Page). They eventually will deal with Grant's seemingly Teflon villain Forge and his spectral, hench-Red-Wizard Sofina (Daisy Head) in an expectedly extravagant and overly long action finale.
“Honor Among Thieves” does offer treats in the form of a chunky dragon in a dungeon and reanimated cadavers craving questions. Despite these few fun flourishes, the film emanates an underwhelming “seen-it-before” vibe through its derivative plot, too-familiar characters, video game patina of production designs and well-rehearsed moments of spontaneity.
It's like most popcorn movies that seem very satisfying while you're digesting them but are simply gone the moment you leave the theater.
Starring: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Chloe Coleman
Directed by: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
Other: A Paramount Pictures release in theaters. Rated PG-13 for language and violence. 134 minutes