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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Lorne Balfe/Various)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if Celtic lyricism has a place for you in any genre,
Lorne Balfe and his team supplying lovely melodic highlights in this
otherwise pedestrian action score.
Avoid it... if you don't need proof that nine ghostwriters and arrangers, five orchestrators, and six music editors might struggle to maintain a satisfying personality and narrative in a film's music.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: (Lorne
Balfe/Various) Since its invention in the 1970's, the "Dungeons &
Dragons" role play game has helped craft definitions of modern geekdom
and influenced countless other concepts on screens big and small. After
a series of films inspired by the game failed to take hold in the
2000's, the property languished in courtrooms as entities fought over
its rights. Eventually, the suitors came together to solve these legal
woes, and development of a new reboot yielded the 2023 movie,
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Critically acclaimed,
the film struggled to gain a foothold with audiences beyond young males,
the hordes of geeks in the world failing to generate the expected
response in theatres. The humor and careful loyalty to the source
material were widely praised, the story's generally campy tone seeing a
variety of characters teaming together to use wit, bravery, and magic to
steal artifacts necessary to defeat the villains of the imaginary land.
The Middle Earth vibes from The Lord of the Rings are
unmistakable, but along with hearty character profiles comes funny plot
devices that keep Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves far
lighter on its feet. Many members of the crew on the film were professed
lovers of the original concept, and one such loyal player was composer
Lorne Balfe. The immensely busy Balfe professed that he was thrilled
about the chance to work on this film. That didn't stop him, however,
from sharing the experience with an absolute army of collaborators to
carry much of the load. Between nine ghostwriters and arrangers, five
orchestrators, and six music editors, Balfe's adherence to his standard
methods of producing scores more than truly composing them doesn't
indicate that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was a
particular labor of love for him personally. Not surprisingly, the
resulting score sounds like the usual combination of a barely coherent
thematic narrative and unique moments that are clearly evidence of too
many cooks in the kitchen. Luckily, the work is saved by its strangely
applied Celtic flavor and a handful of lovely cues for character
development.
At its core, the music for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a typical Remote Control Productions entry of Hans Zimmer influence with Celtic elements like whistles, bagpipes, and light voices on the lyrically ethnic side balanced by heavy percussion, domineering chorus, and synthetic embellishments. At times, the Celtic portions and other related melodic passages are so lovely that they cannot be disregarded. At other times, the Lorne Balfe of Ambulance and Luther: The Fallen Sun decides to lay waste to an action cue and challenge your tolerance for sheer noise. The former grouping is concentrated in the first third of the score but does sprinkle highlights throughout the work. This softly alluring, lyrical material strives to combine Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings trilogy with John Powell's How to train Your Dragon trilogy in its handling of tonally easy fantasy expressions for orchestra and choir. The triumphs of this emulation are numerous, led by "Finding Zia," "Thick as Thieves," "Journey to Neverwinter," "Forge Begins," "Be Gone," the latter halves of "Owl Bear" and "Wizardry," "Swim to the Beach," "Remembering You," "A Red Wizard's Blade," and "The Reawakening." The sensitivity and beauty of moments in these cues rival the prettiest character moments of a Balfe score like Home. Countering these attractions, however, are times when the composer's team infuse the worst of Balfe's suspense and action techniques into the work. The stereotypical sinking bass effect makes eyes roll in the middle of "Korrin's Keep." Electronic textures and pitch manipulation emerge abrasively in "The Underdark," though these techniques are orchestrated better and sound more natural in "Unlock the Helmet." The worst Balfe thriller effects ruin the narrative in the awful "The Ruckus," and yelled and whispered vocals over terrible electronics in "Into the Castle" make this cue completely unlistenable. Most of "The Maze" and parts of "Beneath the Maze" are contain totally generic action muck, and grating Terminator-appropriate tones at the start of "Final Battle" lead to whining pitch slurs at the cue's end. These modern influences become increasingly prevalent as the score progresses, only yielding for the final seven minutes of mostly orchestral resolution. Thematically, Balfe and his team establish many of the right pieces for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, but their execution is exactly what you'd expect when a team this large loses focus on spotting and coordination. A main adventure theme doubling for the lead character, Edgin Darvis is handled adequately, but every other theme coined by Balfe, including a villain's identity with much unrealized potential, is applied haphazardly and without much satisfying arc. A bevy of secondary character themes is poorly developed despite some really fantastic structures and instrumentation behind them. A lack of distinguishing enunciation and similarity in progressions between the various Celtic-oriented melodies leaves associations vague. Still, for many listeners, the existence of a dedicated main theme is what matters most, and for his standard heroic fanfare, Balfe has earned acclaim for his work here. There's nothing really rousing about this main theme, its swashbuckling and fantasy nature adequate but not particularly unique. Structurally, it's fine; the nagging issue with the theme is the difficulty with which Balfe's team integrates it into narrative beyond the most basic expected placements. The theme debuts in the latter half of the action in "Escape the Tower" but makes its prominent entrance at 0:25 into "Dungeons and Dragons" on brass, followed by bagpipes and percussion. A contemplative version exists in "Swear to It" while it does battle with the villain's theme in the latter half of "Themberchaud." The theme is translated to redemptive choir and bagpipes in "Swim to the Beach," helps build momentum in the pleasing "Never Stop Failing," prevails over a suspenseful moment in the middle of "Simon Does It," and guides the nervous and dark tones in the middle of "Entering the Arena." It offers fleeting heroism early in "The Maze," builds to a victorious choral explosion late in "Sorry Forge," briefly accompanies the percussive momentum and hope at 0:55 into "Turn the Ship Around," and receives a standard heroic brass moment at 3:05 into "Final Battle." For the finale, the main theme is reworked in "Fallen Foe" for a short moment of triumph and offers an affable flute rendition in the middle of "Forge's Tale." The score does not supply the necessary ballsy, tonally magnificent moments of bravado for this theme, though, leaving it without a desirable impact on your memory. Aside from the aforementioned alternation between lovely lyrical cues and atrociously obnoxious responses in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Balfe's team provides a slew of uniquely diverting moments that suggest the pull of specific ghostwriters. Among these singular cues is "Magic Show Melee," exhibiting a dose of maddening harpsichord, strings, percussion, and choral chanting. An unpleasant dissonant vocal crescendo in "Szass Tam's Story" leads shortly thereafter into uniquely rattling percussive effects in "Down at the Cemetary" over annoyingly pounding brass. Organ and voices dance with more palatable mystery in "Helmet Attuning" while fiddle, chanting, and clicking percussion sets the pace in "The Heist," this mode streamlined for strings in the following "Forge's Speech." While some of these moments in the score are interesting and fulfill the purpose of each scene at the very least, they don't always advance the narrative intelligently. In the end, the score for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves serves the film well enough to recommend, with sufficient highlights to combine into a vaguely Celtic adventure suite. But be careful when you approach this score on album. At over 90 minutes in length, the score-only presentation is slowed by incidental cues of little value, not to mention the full slate of really obnoxious action material. On the other hand, all the snippets of the score's alluring lyrical highlights can be assembled apart from the detractions. High resolution options for the score do illuminate the creative percussive elements and Celtic-flavored soloists, but this benefit dwindles once electronic manipulation and other enhancements ruin the soundscape. The album situation for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a potentially frustrating one with some silver linings. The primary album does not contain Tame Impala's end credits song, "Wings of Time," and is also missing the source songs "Juice of the Vine" and "When the Battle is Over" co-written by Balfe and the directors and performed by the two lead characters, not to mention a slew of other songs written by the trio and recorded for the film. The product also contains several misspelled track titles, as you might have noticed in this review. Interestingly, the credits for the film cite two additional Balfe cues, "Armory Fight" and "Treetop Tavern," separately from the score proper, and no tracks with those titles appear on the album, either. Two additional albums of music "inspired by the film" were released during the subsequent months in 2023 for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and both help illuminate the breadth of Balfe's score and songs as heard in the film even if they don't explicitly expand upon the score formally. Some of the aforementioned missing music remains absent even after these two relatively short supplemental products. The first album, "Book of the Bard," concentrates on the tavern songs and associated Celtic music of the soundtrack, often spirited and filling in as an excellent souvenir for enthusiasts of the film. Some of its later entries trend towards the obnoxious, however, and the quality of each song is hit-and-miss. A few purely instrumental tracks are sprinkled amongst the tavern songs, though, and will mix well with the score material on the other two products. The second album, "The Dungeon Master's Jukebox," will likely serve the interests of film score collectors better, as it assembles ten suites of character themes that Balfe wrote prior to the filming. Though inspired simply by storyboards and characters, these themes ultimately informed the score, so it's a pleasure to hear each idea conveyed individually. The redemptive, Celtic-flavored "Holga Kilgore" material is perhaps the highlight, and it bookends the presentation along with heroic variants in "Friendship Forged." Crucially, these are not basic demo recordings like you hear in association with Hans Zimmer's albums; they are full-fledged performances with satisfying instrumental and choral depth. As such, "The Dungeon Master's Jukebox" is an solid companion to the score album and provides a far more consistent listening experience. Don't be surprised if this is the album of the three that you find yourself returning most frequently to for your Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves music fix. It's clear from these additional albums that Balfe was passionate about this project, as the amount of effort that went into the creation of the suites, the songs, and the final score was immense. It wouldn't be surprising if he was the propulsive force behind the additional albums, even if their sum still doesn't supply all the music from the soundtrack. Overall, the score for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves owes much to Shore and Powell when not regurgitating Balfe's basic action fare, its lovely melodic portions for secondary themes compensating for an otherwise decent but uninspiring adventure narrative. Especially with the multiple albums available, prepare your best culling strategy for this one.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Regular Album:
Total Time: 90:17
"Book of the Bard" Album: Total Time: 38:56
* featuring performances by Roisin Seoighe and Kneecap "Dungeon Master's Jukebox" Album: Total Time: 33:02
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of the physical albums include no extra information
about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves are Copyright © 2023, Decca Records/Mercury Classics, Paramount Music ("Book of the Bard"), Mercury Classics ("Dungeon Master's Jukebox") and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/8/23 and last updated 11/28/23. |
