I’ve been skimming John Francis Daley’s (director on D&D: Honor Among Thieves) twitter and I continue to be so completely blown away by the movie’s commitment to practical effects and/or minimized CGI where feasible. I mean holy shit look at all this
A man and a woman platonically raising a child together and not falling in love has to be the biggest plotwist in the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie AND my favorite part
the dungeons and dragons movie is good bc some silly gay person WOULD make a bard named EDGING and go “noooo it’s pronounced ED-GIN” and their depressed gay little friend would go “this is my sorcerer. he’s cringefail and his name is simon”, and some fucking dm would go “this is my super mega paladin npc xenk with a sad backstory who fights good that i made to help you guys not die in the next encounter” and everyone at the table goes “ok but can i fuck him though”
I want more DnD movies with the same cast, but they play totally different characters every time, except for Xenk, who is the only recurring character in the entire franchise
The thing about the D&D movie which is absolutely genius is that the game mechanics basically insulate them against any of the most frustratingly fun sucking movie criticisms. “But why were the guards looking the wrong way?” Failed their perception check. “Why did the spell stop RIGHT before they would have died” Dropped concentration. It gets to be dumb and fun anyone that TRIES to be the plot hole police gets ever increasingly obscure D&D rulebooks thrown down in front of them and called a fake nerd. There's NOTHING those type of guys hate more than being a fake nerd. This movie is untouchable.
I love you goofy looking aarakocra, dragonborn and tabaxi. I love you hiring bridgerton guy just to be hot and untouchable and having his first major scene staged so that one tiddy is always artfully exposed. I love you well choreographed fight scenes and a beautifully chaotic representation of six seconds of combat. I love you compelling plot point of attunement requiring a successful role with your spellcasting modifier. I love you solving puzzles by shoving round p(ainting)egs into square holes. I love you forcing Justice Smith to do a British accent for no reason. I love you level 20 NPCs who can’t help the party against the big bad for ambiguous reasons. I love you bigby’s hand slap fights. I love you Nat 20s on potato attacks. I love you owlbears, mimics and gelatinous cubes. I love you dragons, I love you dungeons. I love you dnd movies that love dnd.
My favorite part of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is that if you don't play DnD, it's a solid fantasy movie, but if you DO play DnD, you can feel in your soul the table talk that's almost certainly happening over the events of the movie. Like...
"Are you guys sure you don't want to take a perception check?"
"I said we jump out the window."
or
"And he turns and walks directly northwards away from you guys."
"The map shows a rock-"
"HE WALKS OVER THE ROCK."
or
"Fuck it, I throw a potato."
"Okay... roll for potato, I guess."
"That was a 20."
or
"I know we won, but I have bonus actions and I'm going to use them, damn it."