Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review: This is a good outing and comes as a breather

The plot is simple, it is to save someone, few people must go to a place to talk to a person, who sends them to another place to secure a magical item that will allow them to access to another place

Hyderabad: Of late, Hollywood has been relying heavily on sequences. A few have been released and many more are in the pipeline. It is refreshing to see a fantasy movie which is not part of a series. This movie, a spinoff on a popular role-play video game has Jon Favreau to thank a lot for its survival. It was Favreau who credited Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) for his creativity. This rebootfor D&D was long due. To the uninitiated, D&D is a 50-year-old role playing game.

The plot is simple. To save someone, few people must go to a place to talk to a person, who sends them to another place to secure a magical item that will allow them to access to another place.

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Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) has spent years working as a member of the Harpers, until his wife was killed by a Red Wizard whom he had confronted on a mission. Accompanied by barbarian Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), Edgin attempts to make a new life for himself and his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) through looting (remember this is a movie based on a videogame).

Edgin and Holga form a team with amateur sorcerer Simon Aumar (Justice Smith) and a rogue and con artist Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant). One such mission requires them infiltrating a former Harper stronghold to acquire a resurrection tablet that would allow Edgin to resurrect his wife. Murphy’s Law strikes. Forge’s new acquaintance Sofina (Daisy Head) is none other than Red Wizard of Thay who uses the break-in to steal something else from the stronghold. Simon and Forge escape, but Edgin and Holga are captured. They escape after a few years and realise that Forge is now the Lord of Neverwinter and has adopted Kira. Forge has been lying to Kira about the reason why Edgin was captured. The rest of the story is about rescuing Kira.

Directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley ensure it does not get too complicated to sit through the 135-minute outing. There are a lot of one-liners throughout the movie that tickle your funny bone. Reminiscent of the videogame, something or the other keeps happening in the movie. One of the best scenes in the movie is when the gang fights off an overgrown dragon. Everything serious ends up with a coat of humour and this includes even the way the minor characters are written.

It is refreshing to see Rodriguez in a non Fast and Furious movie. Her action sequences are natural. She gets the most complex parts and does it with ease. Chris Pine is at his best. His timing is impeccable. He definitely has put Star Trek behind him. It is his role to balance emotion and humour and does it with aplomb. Hugh Grant does not have much to do in the film. However, you are not disappointed whenever he is on screen. The chemistry is not between Pine and Rodriguez but between Daisy Head and Justice Smith.

This is a good outing and comes as a breather. Go on the quest.