Do you have to be a gamer to 'get' the first trailer for Duncan Jones' Warcraft?
The first proper look at the long-awaited big screen adaptation of popular video game World of Warcraft has hit the web, leaving our blogger wondering if he missed why we're supposed to care about this formulaic fantasy universe
The race is on to be the first team to successfully adapt a hit video game for the big screen. Michael Fassbender and Justin Kurzel are currently in pre-production on Assassin's Creed, which certainly has the potential to outgun its many disappointing forebears. And now comes Warcraft: the Beginning, with a highly-rated young director, Moon and Source Code's Duncan Jones, who clearly cares enough about the outlandish fantasy world imagined in the game to risk his career on trying to convince non-believers.
For let no one fool themselves, even with a whopping 5.5 million subscribers, Warcraft is not going to succeed at the box office unless it can convince those of us (myself included) who have never played the game that this is a universe worth delving into. That also means persuading mainstream film critics, most of whom don't strike one as the type to spend their evenings battling through swords and sorcery-style adventures, to suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in this world of giant, muscular orcs and beardy warrior humans.
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