If ever there was a studio that embodied the difference
between winning and leading it’d be Universal. They basically struck gold with the Fast & Furious movies and have been letting that box office
money pit accumulate while floundering about in search of fellow hit makers and
it’s served them well with equally successful hits like Pitch Perfect, Despicable Me, 50 Shades of Grey, and this year’s
mega box office smash Jurassic World. The thing is that “experimentation”
really is the Universal approach as none of their efforts have been in order to
define trends or lead the pop cultural scene, simply attempts to get money
making films.
That’s why, even though Jurassic
World made unfathomable amounts of cash and Fast & Furious is on its 8th film I’d never call
Universal trend riders or taste makers.
So their latest venture, a collaboration with Blizzard Studios to bring
the massively successful Warcraft
franchise to life on the big screen is throwing me for a bit of a loop as it
actually seems like the most financially successful yet culturally irrelevant
studio in Hollywood has finally decided to step up to the plate and lead the
way for a change.
