Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
2023 · Directed by John Francis Daley
Woke Score
CriticCritic Score
Audience
Ultra Based
Critics rated this 57 points above its woke score. Among Ultra Based films, this critic score ranks #552 of 1469.
Representation Casting
Score: 65/100
The film features a diverse ensemble cast with Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Regé-Jean Page in prominent roles, representing a deliberate effort to move beyond traditional fantasy whiteness. However, this diversity appears incidental to the narrative rather than thematic.
LGBTQ+ Themes
Score: 15/100
Hugh Grant's character exhibits flamboyant mannerisms that may suggest queer coding, but there is no clear textual evidence of explicit LGBTQ representation or themes within the plot.
Feminist Agenda
Score: 25/100
The film includes female characters in action roles, including Michelle Rodriguez as a ranger and Sophia Lillis in the ensemble. However, there is no apparent feminist critique or thematic engagement with gender dynamics.
Racial Consciousness
Score: 20/100
While the cast is racially diverse, the film appears to treat this diversity as unremarkable within the narrative, with no apparent commentary on race or racial structures within the fantasy world.
Climate Crusade
Score: 0/100
No evidence of environmental or climate-related themes in the film's plot, which focuses on a fantasy heist rather than ecological concerns.
Eat the Rich
Score: 10/100
The heist plot structure inherently involves theft and redistribution, but this appears to be a conventional genre trope rather than a substantive critique of economic systems.
Body Positivity
Score: 0/100
No evidence of body positivity themes or commentary on body diversity in the film.
Neurodivergence
Score: 0/100
No evidence of neurodivergence representation or themes within the narrative.
Revisionist History
Score: 0/100
As a fantasy film with no basis in real history, there is no revisionist historical narrative present.
Lecture Energy
Score: 5/100
The film appears to prioritize entertainment and spectacle over preachy messaging, though the casting choices themselves carry subtle cultural messaging.
Synopsis
A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.
Consciousness Assessment
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves presents itself as a contemporary fantasy adventure that has made deliberate effort to assemble a multicultural ensemble. The film features Michelle Rodriguez as a ranger, Justice Smith as a bard, and Regé-Jean Page in a significant supporting role, alongside the more traditionally cast Chris Pine and Hugh Grant. This distribution of roles across different ethnic backgrounds represents a recalibration of the fantasy genre's historical whiteness, though the film does not appear to make any great narrative point about this diversity. The heist plot proceeds as if the racial makeup of the party is entirely unremarkable, which is either admirably matter-of-fact or conspicuously evasive depending on one's perspective.
The film's engagement with social consciousness remains largely surface-level. While the ensemble includes both male and female characters in action roles, the narrative does not foreground feminist themes or critique patriarchal structures within its fantasy world. Hugh Grant's character appears to be coded as flamboyant, though whether this constitutes genuine LGBTQ representation or merely affects remains unclear without viewing the film itself. The story offers no apparent commentary on economic systems, environmental concerns, neurodivergence, or historical revision. What the film presents is primarily a genre exercise that happens to employ a demographically modern cast instead of a work that interrogates social structures through its storytelling.
This is fundamentally a work concerned with entertainment and spectacle rather than cultural instruction. It occupies the middle ground between pre-2015 casting practices and genuine engagement with contemporary progressive sensibilities. The diverse ensemble suggests institutional awareness of modern audience expectations, yet the film seems content to let that diversity exist without further elaboration. One might describe this as the current industrial standard: progressive casting choices made not from conviction but from market calculation.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Critic Reviews
“If there was anything missing from the lives of swords ‘n’ sorcery-loving nerds, it would be a proper Dungeons & Dragons movie. Now we have one.”
“The action in Honor Among Thieves is well choreographed. Anyone who enjoyed Goldstein and Daley’s last cinematic directorial effort, the comedy thriller Game Night, knows that they approach spatial geography with more care than do many blockbuster filmmakers. But I was really kicking my feet with glee during the film’s flights of storytelling fancy (its 20-sided die rolls for intelligence rather than strength, if you will).”
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves conjures its own type of movie magic that proudly stands apart from other fantasy films. The heartfelt story, enchanting characters, dazzling visual effects, and fun-filled nature will allow the film to be a treasured classic. An adaptation of this caliber could be considered a roll of the dice to some, but Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has already proved itself to be an ironclad winner.”
“Every element other than Mr. Grant is brain-scarringly awful—the flat characters, the dull acting, the rusted-battleax dialogue, and above all the action scenes, which are frenzied, chaotic, meaningless and vapid, overflowing with CGI that is no more awe-inspiring than the average TV commercial about lizards selling auto insurance. ”
Consciousness Markers
The film features a diverse ensemble cast with Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Regé-Jean Page in prominent roles, representing a deliberate effort to move beyond traditional fantasy whiteness. However, this diversity appears incidental to the narrative rather than thematic.
Hugh Grant's character exhibits flamboyant mannerisms that may suggest queer coding, but there is no clear textual evidence of explicit LGBTQ representation or themes within the plot.
The film includes female characters in action roles, including Michelle Rodriguez as a ranger and Sophia Lillis in the ensemble. However, there is no apparent feminist critique or thematic engagement with gender dynamics.
While the cast is racially diverse, the film appears to treat this diversity as unremarkable within the narrative, with no apparent commentary on race or racial structures within the fantasy world.
No evidence of environmental or climate-related themes in the film's plot, which focuses on a fantasy heist rather than ecological concerns.
The heist plot structure inherently involves theft and redistribution, but this appears to be a conventional genre trope rather than a substantive critique of economic systems.
No evidence of body positivity themes or commentary on body diversity in the film.
No evidence of neurodivergence representation or themes within the narrative.
As a fantasy film with no basis in real history, there is no revisionist historical narrative present.
The film appears to prioritize entertainment and spectacle over preachy messaging, though the casting choices themselves carry subtle cultural messaging.