A creative person with a good idea can make a good movie out of anything. Books, comics, TV shows, other movies, real stories and much more source material have been expertly adapted for the big screen. The problem arises when branding something as an adaptation becomes more important than finding the art in the inspiration.
After years of sitting on different boards, a film about Dungeons and Dragons goes to the theatres. Honor among thieves isn’t the first installment of the franchise and the previous entries have been bizarre junk, but the public perception of the beloved Wizards of the Coast game has changed dramatically.
When adapting a fictional work, there are many ways to adapt the source to the new medium. A creator can easily reformat an existing story into the correct runtime and language, like most movies based on hit novels. These examples usually deviate little from their original foundation and try to tell the same story to a new audience. Other creators may choose to take the base frame of a text and completely shift it to fit the medium better. Comic book movies take the characters and iconography from their source material but break the individual stories down into Lego bricks that can then be reassembled in any way for the screen. Some adaptations are in name only, striking a recognizable brand on an otherwise unrelated story in hopes of attracting fans. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves saw those options on the class attribute list, then chose a rare feat that allowed them to exploit two at a time.
Is there an officially recognized story in it? Dungeons and Dragons? Yes, hundreds, if not thousands. There are numerous books in the world of Forgotten Realms, along with the many narrative canonical origin stories of people, places, and things in it. There are numerous characters that exist as pieces that can be used to fulfill the necessary roles in a game. Countless gods to worship, endless demons to kill, a deep backstory for each. There are countless stories of brave adventurers being accepted as canon in the realm of the franchise. But this isn’t a story about Drizzt Do’Urden or Erevis Cale, it’s a story set in some of the same locations.
The real stories of Dungeons and Dragons are the ones that make Dungeon Masters and players together. They take countless genres, storylines, lengths, shapes, and endlessly diverse structures based on the people who build them together. So it goes without saying that the only thing that a D&D movie could be is a group of adventurers who forge their own story in the iconic world. That’s what the upcoming movie aims to do. A bard, a barbarian, a paladin, a wizard, a druid and a villain must get a magic item. They must come together as a party, plan a heist, steal a magical item and defeat a classic “big bad evil guy”. It’s baby’s first table game. Any competent DM could write the character sheets, hand them out to a few friends, put together the adventure and run a party through it in 24 hours with dramatically different results. The problem is that a generic tabletop campaign already uses countless other sources and tells a story that is influenced by every other fantasy story. Take away the gameplay, the rules, the spontaneity, and most importantly, the collaborative effort of storytelling, and the film is left as a basic fantasy story that we’ve all seen before.
The only advantage of mentioning this movie Dungeons and Dragonsinstead of just making a fun new fantasy movie called Honor among thieves, is the ability to use the license. Fans can indulge in a mimic, or a displacer beast, or a gelatinous cube, while an original movie would have to invent new monsters to fill those slots. The only reason to make a movie out of a game that can contain any story is to take advantage of the game’s iconography. It’s like a fantasy equivalent to Rogue Onea competent enough story that hopes to send fans home with many things they remember.
There have been many good stories in the universe of Dungeons and Dragons, the movie could be one of them. Some adaptations of good tabletop campaigns have been incredible works of art that show what’s so great about the game. But there’s no good reason to make a movie about a game that leaves all its best elements in transition. Honor among thieves could be a fine fantasy movie, or it could be a shameless money grab full of references, but the approach to the adaptation doesn’t inspire hope. But if you look on the bright side, maybe it will bring a few more fans to the table to see what D&D really matters.
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