WARNING: CONTAINS SOME MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE DUNGEONS & DRAGONS MOVIE: HONOR AMONG THIEVES.
For the past year, I’ve spent a few hours a week forgoing real life to go on an adventure through a mythical land with my friends. No, we don’t do psychedelic drugs, we play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).
This weekend my party and I decided it was time for a real-world adventure to see the swashbuckling new movie version of the game we love dearly – like a very normal amount. Very normal.
Now join us in the magical land of Lower Hutt, where treasures await the bold in a mighty temple of sound and light, the Event Cinemas Imax Theatre…
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Matt Barnes: Dungeon Master.
“There were a lot of Easter eggs in there,” says Barnes, who has played D&D occasionally since the 1980s and put our party together.
Kylie Klein-Nixon/Stuff
Our D&D party, from left to right: Front, Sophia Dainty, Catherine Holmes, Kylie Klein Nixon; back, Matt Dainty, Matt Barnes, Sylvie Kirkman, in a tavern (Gear Street, in Petone), planning our next heist.
“They put it in the Forgotten Realms, which is a classic D&D setting. And they referenced some classic characters and spells like Mordenkainen and Bigby. But I think mostly they got the tone of playing D&D right. It was epic and serious in a way, but also prudently took the p… out I think that’s the spirit of the game, actually Never take yourself too seriously.
“I felt the characters represented players a little bit. Like you had the players who take it very seriously, like the paladin character. is Chris Pine’s bard character [Edgin Darvis]. So I think players would probably see themselves in many of the different characters as well.
Gives the movie: 4/5
Catherine Holmes: “Badass with a Bow” Wolfhowler Jones, a human ranger.
“I concur with the fact that you don’t take yourself too seriously,” says Holmes, the only one in our party who managed to kick orc butts and also adopt pets during our search – a panther named Richard and a Mastiff named Jeff, who wears a bow tie. .
“I think that kind of sense of fun will make it more accessible to people you don’t know, nerds like us. That, and it had a really fat dragon [classic D&D baddie, Themberchaud]… and Jernathan [a giant birdman called an Aaraokocra]he was great, and i love him.
“The scene where Doric [Sophia Lillis] keep changing into different animals to escape, that felt very much like one of our games. We always make Sophia turn into a mouse because they are small. It felt like it was written by someone who knows.
“There weren’t as many severed genitals as in our games.”
Gives the movie: 4/5
Sophia Dainty: “Gullible, naive… and hot” Arcaena, High Elf Druid.
Sophia, our resident shape-shifting Druid, was “disappointed” to learn that despite being in the movie, it is not possible to transform into an Owl Bear under D&D’s strict rules.
“After seeing the movie I got really excited and immediately said to Barnes, ‘Oh my God, what level do I have to be to be an Owl Bear?’ Apparently you can’t do that! But I think we can do.
“Some elements in the cinematography, like the bird’s eye view, made you feel like you were literally jumping on the map, and I really appreciated that.
“I loved the dynamic between the bard and the paladin [Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page)] so much because that looks very much like something I can imagine and our game.”
REMARK: Barnes says Sophia is right about the Owl Bear, we can do something called “homebrew.”
“Then you have your own rules. So you can say that the film had self-made rules, which makes it even more accurate.”
Matt Dainty: “Big, Bold and Courageous” Badcock, a Dragonborn Fighter.
“There were two Dragonborn in the movie, one was on the council and the other was a beggar on the street…I’m not impressed with that,” says Matt, who hadn’t played D&D before joining our company. came. Badcock’s main move is to spit acid on the bad guys and hit them really hard with an axe. It’s a very effective tactic.
“I would have liked to see someone tougher, not just a judge or a beggar. It would have been good to see one fight.”
Gives the movie: 4/5
Sylvie Kirkman: “Vain Paranoid Princess” Layla, a High Elf Rogue (and part-time bard).
The main character, Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), was “gratifying for Bard’s everywhere”, but there could have been more bard.
“My main class is rogue, so I get the daggers and the spiked bits, but I bring in some little Bardy tendencies like being able to offend someone and have them take actual physical damage [would have been good]. There’s nothing like insulting someone’s mother and leaving them psychologically damaged. I wish that worked in real life.
“A lot of it felt like player improvisation, which happens a lot [in the game].”
Gives the movie: 5/5
Kylie Klein Nixon: “Dear religious zealot” Ea Creed, a Teifling Paladin.
I hope they make a few more movies, maybe focusing on different parties going on different adventures. I only wish the Teifling, Dorian, looked a little more Teifling-like—she looked more like someone from Narnia.
Gives the movie: 4/5
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is now showing in cinemas across the country.