Dungeons and Dragons makes a comeback in theaters

I have a confession, or perhaps a boast. I have never played the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons, and now, at the grand old age of forty-one, I doubt I ever shall. But there’s no doubt it’s a cultural phenomenon that has long since transcended any suggestion of being the preserve of adolescents, literal and overgrown alike. Since it was created in 1974, sales of the game have grossed billions, and it has been played by tens if not hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

To be an aficionado is to find yourself in broad company — but how does that translate at the movies? 

The first answer to this question came in 2000, when a film that starred Jeremy Irons as the villainous Mage Profion was released in cinemas. Although it offered what it said — there were dungeons, and there were dragons — it was critically reviled and commercially unsuccessful. Although a couple of straight-to-DVD (as it was back then) sequels appeared, the last of which was appealingly subtitled The Book of Vile Darkness, it seemed as if the franchise no longer had any future away from the table: audiences, Hollywood seemed to say, were not interested. 

Tastes change rapidly, however, and the success of such fantasy epics as Game of Thrones and the recent Lord of the Rings streaming series has meant that Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley — the filmmakers behind the excellent Game Night — were given the figurative dice to shake once more. With them comes a $150 million dollar budget and a cast that includes the eclectic combination of Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and, as the film’s comic baddie, none other than Hugh Grant, reveling in an opportunity to chew scenery and deliver suitably cutting dialogue in a cut-glass English accent. But does it stand any chance of appealing to an audience that couldn’t care less about the source material? 

In an era when endless fantasy epics practically require a degree in lore simply to walk through the theater door, it is a blessed relief to find that Goldstein and Daley’s film is unpretentious fun without any overarching purpose other than to entertain. As Marvel films long ago abandoned any pretense of offering much to the casual fan, it is a great relief to immerse oneself in a purely diverting picture that may, or may not, spawn sequels — the opening weekend gross of $37 million means that its future as a franchise could go either way — but is nonetheless thoroughly entertaining in its own right. 

The storyline might not exactly be Citizen Kane — a ragtag band of thieves, outlaws and magicians are pitted against an ancient evil and must unite to save humanity, etc. — but it’s all done with aplomb and wit. There’s also a particularly entertaining cameo by an unbilled major star whose presence, like much of the picture, can only recall some of the fun and dynamism of William Goldman and Rob Reiner’s seminal The Princess Bride. My only criticism of any note is that the two-hour-twenty-minute running time occasionally feels on the indulgent side, but how can you dislike a film in which Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page plays a heroic warrior with absolutely no sense of humor or self-awareness? 

I would not have expected to praise a film called Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves. And it is unlikely to win any awards or to be remembered in years to come. But for unpretentious fun and much-needed escapism, this is just the ticket.