I’m also not a big fan of fantasy, especially when it involves magic, dragons, witchcraft, sword fighting, mystical creatures and lute playing.  All of those elements are present here, and, because of the beguiling efforts of the cast, it almost pays off in a quality film.  It is undeniably entertaining, but it also seeks to reflect its origins as a game, and that aspect, at least for me, became tiresome pretty quickly.

The film, co-written and co-directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (with writing by Michael Gilio as well), relates the quest of a small gang of thieves to rectify a mistake and, by doing so, save a kingdom from imminent demise.  It is an odd collection: leader and lute player Edgin (Chris Pine), mighty Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), bumbling magician Simon (Justice Smith), mystical Doric (Sophia Lillis) and, for a time, stalwart and humorless Xenk (René-Jean Page), setting out to rescue Edgin’s daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) from the greedy clutches of Forge Fitzgerald (Hugh Grant) and his ally Sofina the Red Witch (Daisy Head).  Got that?  It really isn’t too important.  Between the sword fights, the constant fleeing of dragons and witches and such and all of the one-liners there is some semblance of adventure.

I openly admit that I laughed a bit and enjoyed some of the medieval nonsense, especially the pudgy dragon who never tires, and the identity of Holga’s former husband, but I was never truly involved in this story.  I rarely become so when fantasy is involved, even more so when time can be frozen, people can disappear, portals can open from one place to another and dozens, if not hundreds, of villainous people or creatures (whose only crime is the side on which they were born) are slaughtered in the name of right.  Since they never did exist, and never could, I can’t really bring myself to care about them.

That being said, the film tries really hard to entertain, and succeeds more often than it misses.  It actually works pretty well as an escapist tale, if one is looking for that.  Also, this is yet another nice plum role for Hugh Grant, who over the last decade or so has put together a very nice second act as a character actor, often with a villainous slant.  Not only is Forge a funny jerk of a dictator, he also makes a pretty good surrogate dad to Kira, whether anyone wants to admit it or not.  General cleverness, good feeling and even some goofiness (what’s with all the potatoes?) results in a decent fantasy adventure, even if it isn’t made for me.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  13 August 2023.