2023's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves brought the classic tabletop RPG franchise back to the big screen again, but which D&D movie is best? First published in 1974, the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons launched a tabletop craze and created a franchise that blazed the trail for an entire industry of RPG gaming. With its rich and fascinating lore, it only made sense for the game to make the leap to other forms of media, and a slew of books, comics, video games, and even movies were produced in the five decades since the game first hit shelves.
D&D eventually found its way to the cinemas in the year 2000 with Dungeons & Dragons, and a series of sequels were steadily released over the next decade. While the films never fared as well as other fantasy franchises like The Lord of the Rings, D&D's dedicated fanbase and universal popularity made it a useful source for movies. 2023's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves aimed to return the series to cinematic prominence, and fans finally got to see what a D&D movie could look like with a massive Hollywood budget. Though only four movies have been made thus far, the realms of D&D open the door to endless possibilities.
4 Dungeons & Dragons (2000)
Though the game was already decades old by the year 2000, Dungeons & Dragons was the first cinematic stab at adapting the RPG. In the film, the evil Profion (Jeremy Irons) attempts to overthrow the peaceful kingdom of Empress Savina (Thora Birch). Dungeons & Dragons was an unmitigated disaster upon release, and it was quickly swallowed up by the deluge of tentpole franchise movies that invaded theaters at the turn of the new millennium. Though original plans for the film were ambitious, the RPG elements were eventually reduced to almost nothing.
There were several reasons why 2000's Dungeons & Dragons failed, not the least of which was its intentional distancing from the rich lore of the game. Monsters like the Mind Flayer were included, but the class system and general flow of a D&D adventure were eschewed in favor of trite Hollywood clichés. Despite having an all-star cast, many of the performances were over-the-top and silly, and the film violently rebounded from tone to tone without establishing a definitive feel. Worries about making a film that was too niche eventually led to a bland mess that appealed to no one.
3 Dungeons & Dragons 3: The Book Of Vile Darkness (2012)
If the 2000 film didn't have enough D&D, 2012's Dungeons & Dragons 3: The Book of Vile Darkness might have gotten too bogged down in superfluous details. The straight-to-DVD movie sees a new order of the Knights of the New Sun form to stop the resurrection of the ancient evil of the sorcerer Nhagruul through his diabolical book. Dungeons & Dragons 3 was steeped in actual D&D lore including locations, monsters, and items, but the movie overreached what its budget could accommodate. The film was a noble attempt that ultimately failed to be entertaining to a larger audience outside of D&D super fans.
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The film was a loving homage to the RPG in almost every way, and it had enough complicated dark fantasy elements to satisfy the most experienced Dungeon Master. However, the acting left a lot to be desired and many of the performances fell far short of what even a straight-to-DVD movie should deliver. On top of that, the movie's minuscule budget was unable to the story's lofty ideas, and many of the CGI creatures were downright laughable compared to Hollywood films of the time. Ultimately, Dungeons & Dragons 3 was made for die-hard fans, but it didn't have enough for the casual viewer to latch onto.
2 Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath Of The Dragon God (2005)
Even though the first D&D film was a fiasco, a made-for-TV sequel was produced in 2005 and materialized in the form of Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God. The story follows a group of explorers as they journey across the realm to secure a powerful orb before the villainous Damador can use his power to summon the accursed Black Dragon. Bruce Payne was the only returning actor from the first film, and he reprised his role as the evil Damador which helped give the film a sense of continuity. Though it was derided by critics, it was the first D&D movie to understand what made the game appealing.
The low-budget fantasy sured the blockbuster original because it didn't try to do too much and had a genuine love for the source material. The group of explorers represented the classes of the game, and the adventure party reflected the flow of a real RPG session including special skills and weaknesses. Unlike the film that followed it, Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God worked D&D elements into the film without sacrificing the natural flow of the story or alienating the uninitiated. What the movie needed was a larger budget, and if it had Hollywood backing, it could have been a genuine hit.
1 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
It took over 20 years, but Hollywood finally garnered enough courage to resurrect the big-budget D&D movie franchise with the release of 2023's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. In the film, a bard and a band of other fantasy misfits are dispatched to collect a magical item. The film went through years of production purgatory, and that maelstrom of doubt actually led to a self-assured and original product. Honor Among Thieves was obviously produced to capitalize on the increased popularity of the game and fantasy in general, but it never strayed into the territory of being a cheap cash grab.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves represented a fair mixture of established stars and up-and-comers, and the characters were cleverly designed to reflect the classes found within the game. Unlike the off-kilter tone of the 2000 film, Honor Among Thieves found a tone that mixed irreverent humor with in-universe action that never tilted too far in either direction. What Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves excelled at the most was capturing the fun and frenetic energy of a real D&D session, and the audience was left guessing what was coming next as if the movie was controlled by a brilliant Dungeon Master.
