‘Warchief’ is a fantasy adventure film that follows a group of guardians, Griff (Rosanna Miles), Orion (Stuart Brennan) and Arlo (Michael Kinsey) tasked with protecting the mysterious Messenger (Michael Lambournev). En route to delivering an important message to the king, the group must face many challenges, as they wade through ancient land encountering plague victims, mysterious forces and formidable foes.
Comprised almost entirely of the guardian's journey through the treacherous and forsaken lands, the group discuss the plight of the people that inhabit the land. The film opens on a woman hiding as her village is being invaded by orcs, with the guards lamenting the powerlessness the humans exhibit against the mighty orc warriors.
Soon after, the group is attacked by the plagued drones, infecting Arlo, eventually leading to him being murdered by the Messenger. The film flirts with interesting concepts, such as Arlo being able to hear other people’s thoughts once infected by the plague victim, yet fails to further explore the relatively novel concept.
As the story wears on, the guardians uncover that the Messenger is a spirit user, capable of wielding magical powers. In discussing spirit magic, Griff also reveals herself to being able to sense spirits, becoming the Messenger’s apprentice. Orion parts ways with the two and sets out to journey back.
In the meantime, the invading orc forces sense the warcry of their warchief, denoting that they are on a warpath, seeking war. If not too convoluted in and of itself, their motivation is explained as being part of their creed, as once they have embarked upon this path, they must seek honor through battle.
Largely expositional, the characters each function to deliver a further explanation to what and how their world is. Taking it in turns to move the story along, the viewers have to pay attention to the detailed descriptions of the world’s history, as little else is done in terms of showing us the magical and mystical ways of that world.
With a limited budget, the movie manages to deliver outstanding initial impressions, presenting exceptional makeup and costume design on the orcs as they terrorize and invade the small village during the opening of the film. Little else lives up to that initial impression, as the fight sequences are poorly edited and shot, with a myriad of CGI blood-spurts that detract from the fantasy.
Having to deliver most of the story through dialogue and exchanges, the film drains the viewer of interest and subsequently pushes further away as uncoordinated fight sequences leave little to nothing in terms of joy or excitement in the film.
Doing their best, Miles and Brennan have the meatiest roles to play in the feature, yet their characters feel muddled and unexplored. Seeking to learn about her supernatural abilities, Miles’ Griff joins forces with the Messenger, finding herself conflicted when forced to face the darker side of her powers. She seems conflicted at the prospect of necromancy, even though she had previously been shown killing plague victims indiscriminately and without remorse.
Much the same, Brennan’s Orion is given a backstory of being a disappointment to his parents, but a good soldier. Seemingly living through enormous inner turmoil and conflict, Orion eventually sacrifices himself for the grater good, even if his intentions were never really at issue.
Magic is hard to put to the screen, even with a big budget. ‘Warchief’ delivers a lot of story with little visual guidance, potentially leaving viewers frustrated at the second hand nature of delivery of the tale. Even though there are many intriguing concepts, the film does not manage to pull everything together and falls flat as it scrambles to make sense of all the loose threads left by the end of the feature. Featuring too many familiar tropes and not focusing on its original concepts ‘Warchief’ demonstrates little by way of positive memorable impressions and disappoints through a poorly delivered story.
Score: 1/4
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