I like Guy Ritchie movies. He makes interesting films and has already proven that he can adapt things from a slightly different angle (see Sherlock Holmes). In this, he takes King Arthur and has him banished to the poor district as a baby. He lives in a whorehouse and scraps and fights to survive. This a little different from the usual boy king story we get in movies like The Sword in the Stone. It also has some pretty cool battle scenes including bare-knuckle fighting which Guy Ritchie is kind of known for at this point. Charlie Hunnam plays Arthur in his path to the throne and gives him a bit of a harder edge. We get a more diverse group of knights with Djimon Hounsou standing out above all the others. Instead of Merlin, we get a female magic user who is a little more enigmatic. We also got Jude Law as the usurper of the throne and he was sufficiently slimy. Parts of the movie did move a little slow for me but when the movie got going it almost never stopped being interesting and exciting. This is why I like watching a lot of adaptations of stories I love because I will see a little something different each time. I definitely recommend this as it was visually appealing and an interesting angle on an old story.
Warcraft
Back in the day I owned and beat Warcraft and Warcraft II and then I subscribed to and played World of Warcraft for nearly a year. The first two games were endless fun as real-time strategy games where you unleash an army on your enemies. WoW is a game I still feel conflicted about but not because of the game itself. The Warcraft franchise allows you to play as either of two armies (or part of either of two armies in WoW’s case). You can play as the Horde which is a coalition of invaders from another realm and assorted races that feel disenfranchised. You can also play as the Alliance which is a collection of races native to the realm being invaded. The movie similarly covers both sides neither of which are all good or all bad. Instead, both sides have an enemy in the dark forces of Necromancy. They went to great pains to fill both sides with sympathetic characters as they knew that there are still players loyal to either side. A lot of the work of world building and art direction had already been done throughout the games so all they had to do was present that faithfully. They did that well. Even more, they gave the orcs more expressive faces which allowed the viewer to sympathize with them more. It starts slowly as they struggle to wade through the exposition but it gets way better as it goes and gets into the meat of its story. I definitely recommend it although non-fantasy, non-Warcraft fans might not be interested.
Mythica: The Dark Spore
I am a huge fan of the Critical Role stream on Geek and Sundry, yet another Dungeons and Dragons show that I listen to religiously. Through it, I have become a big fan of voice actor Matt Mercer and when I found out he was in a live-action movie then I had to check it out. Mercer is great at embodying characters. As the Dungeon Master of Critical Role, he plays over a hundred unique characters throughout. In this, he plays an evil necromancer and he’s really good it. The movie kind of feels like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign distilled into movie form. The heroes have been through a lot together and each has their specific role that they’re good at. They try plans that go wrong until somebody gets a good idea. It was also interesting to see a necromancer as a good guy (not Mercer, a female necromancer). I have seen it in stuff like Anita Blake but not in high fantasy. The beginning is a little muddled as they deal with events from the first movie (which I did not see). The budget is low and besides Mercer, the only actor I recognize is Kevin Sorbo who plays an advisory role like Gandalf. I think the series has a lot of potential and I may check out the other ones. I recommend giving it a shot but I would understand if it is not your thing.
Weekly Update:
– This week’s theme is “High Stakes High Fantasy”
– I finished White Collar
– I watched more Bojack Horseman Season 4
– I watched more Rick and Morty Season 3
– I watched more House of Cards Season 2
– I watched more Little Witch Academia Season 1
– I watched more Glitter Force Season 2
Wolf of Words 