The week’s major cinematic disappointment is the fact that the talent of director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) has been chewed up by the studio franchise system and spewed out as this derivative, relentlessly dull-witted computer game spin-off. Although fans of the game will recognise and appreciate the densely realised world, the effect of the overstuffed plotting and cacophonous score is like being bludgeoned by the war hammers of a thousand orcs.
More off-putting is the glaring artificiality: the carelessly constructed mythology, a hotch-potch of devices from other films and stories, is as fake as the CGI-enhanced emotions of orc domesticity.
