You know one thing that I almost never dread? The idea of a spinoff. The problem with sequels or remakes is the expectations for whatever it’s about are always too high. But a spinoff? The stakes are considerably less high. I mean, sure, they can be great, like Frasier came from Cheers, or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead from Hamlet. At worse? They’re “meh” and you just forget about their existence and sleep soundly at night knowing you still love their original source material. Nothing really ruined because they were about a side character(s) anyway. The main characters and main plot are off in their own realm, and should only be mildly affected by whatever happens (while still distantly being referenced in the spinoff from time to time.) Also, you know how I said in my Army of the Dead review that I wished for a movie just about the character Dieter? Well, as they say, be careful what you wish for…as I unexpectedly have been gifted with Army of Thieves.

This spinoff prequel of sorts begins with our favorite safecracker from Army of the Dead, Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer), who currently goes by his real name Sebastian, speaking about the history of a set of 4 legendary and impossible to find safes with his adoring YouTube subscribers of zero. As he lives his mundane boring life, both his view count and comment section climbs to one with a mysterious person inviting him to a safe cracking contest in a warehouse in Berlin. Enter Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel), a bank robber, pickpocket and jewel thief with a high respect for safes. She explains to Sebastian that she has found 3 of the 4 legendary safes and she needs his help to crack them. With the help of the hacker Korina (Ruby O. Fee), the getaway driver extraordinaire Rolph (Guz Khan) and the brute Brad Cage (Stuart Martin), the team sets out on their adventure to unlock the worlds hardest safes while being followed by Interpol’s highest strung detective Delacroix (Jonathan Cohen) and his more subdued partner Beatrix (Noémie Nakai),

Zack Snyder hands over the directorial reins to our leading man Matthias Schweighöfer, who blends action with comedy extremely well. Matthias brings in his own cinematographer Bernhard Jasper, who ties in together visual styling from Army of the Dead while being unique and separate. Han Zimmer composed a very Han Zimmer-y score for this film.

One of my only complaints for this film is that it felt like it had to keep reminding the audience that it’s unmistakably a prequel to Army of the Dead. To be honest, I know it isn’t technically wrong to do so. If it didn’t have any news of zombie outbreaks or something like that, I might have forgotten 15 minutes in. While as I said, the film draws a few visual cues from Army of the Dead, truly one of its main charms is how very different it was.

I don’t like to throw around the word “quirky” too often and mean it to be a positive thing rather than just implying it’s hipster bait, but Army of Thieves can be described as a quirky, almost cute heist film in the best way possible. 90% of this can be attributed to our leading man. One fatal flaw of many spinoffs is that the characters who are chosen to go off and have their own adventures just can’t carry their own story. They were best left as side characters. One would think a German, socially awkward, genius safe cracker would definitely not be a great fit for the main character of his own film. But for me, he not only absolutely works, but feels like a breath of fresh air. Matthias is just so adorkable as Sebastian, I can’t help but to cheer for him while wanting at the same time to give him a hug. Also of note, I’m so glad to see Nathalie Emmanuel in another role since Game of Thrones. Say what you will about the last few seasons of that show, but she was always one of my favorites as Missandei, and it’s great to see her play an even stronger woman in this film.

Army of Thieves perhaps doesn’t achieve what annoying level of spinoff greatness in which it’s actually better than the original source material. It is, however an absolutely worthy addition to the universe and completely enjoyable on it’s own, proving that certain quirky side characters can actually do well as mains with the right writing. Now excuse me while I wish in print for more of my favorite side characters to get their own spinoff, because apparently I have that power now.