Rollicking 'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' scores a critical hit

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/31/ [login to see] /dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves
Even if you don't know a halberd from a hezrou, you'll probably go into Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves thinking you know what to expect.

Because even if you've never experienced the beloved tabletop role-playing game on which the film is based yourself, you do know what a putative blockbuster franchise film looks and feels like in 2023.

You know, in particular, that it can be counted upon to adopt a specific, unvarying and very familiar tone, which by now we can all agree to call Marvel Funny.

Marvel Funny occurs along a spectrum adjacent to, but meaningfully separate from, Actually Funny because it's colder and more calculated. It is calibrated to wink at the audience conspicuously and unceasingly, to encase the spectacular and fantastic action of a given film — super powers, or space battles, or in the present example, spells and monsters — in a protective coating of ironic detachment.