WoW Shadowlands Trailer Review

1. I can fully sympathize with the criticism that Bolvar comes off too weak in this cinematic, that Sylvanas is portrayed as this strong, or that the action feels half-hearted. But I think if you compare it with previous cinematics, you can get a rough sense of what's disappointing about this one. Naturally, since there have been so many cinematics by now, comparison becomes inevitable.

2. Excluding the most recent cinematic, the BfA intro cinematic, when you compare the cinematics of past expansions, WoW cinematics have largely followed two directions.
1) Cinematics in the format of introducing a new region
2) Cinematics that immerse you in a character's thoughts or emotions

For example, with case 1), the representative examples were Pandaria and Cataclysm. In Cataclysm's case, the scene maximizing the depiction of Deathwing destroying Azeroth was well executed, and I think this succeeded. (Separate from the expansion's content or completeness.) Pandaria focused on showing the world of the mysterious Pandarian continent, but it lacked the kind of grandeur Cataclysm had. The original, which was somewhat lacking in grandeur, focused on describing the world that is WoW. It appropriately expressed the origins of the Horde and Alliance and their conflict.
For case 2), the representative examples are Wrath of the Lich King, Draenor, and Legion. Among these, Wrath of the Lich King is characterized by the fact that the user viewed the figure of the Lich King from the perspective of 'Terenas,' who raised the Lich King. The reason emotional immersion comes most easily in the Wrath of the Lich King trailer is that the users themselves made Arthas into the 'Lich King,' and the complex emotions toward that Arthas were smoothly and skillfully unraveled through Terenas's narration. Meanwhile, the narration of 'Varian' from Legion also has many points that are easy to relate to. When the responsibility as a king who must leave his son behind, his awareness of his position, and so on appear, even though these were things I had never experienced myself, I found myself sympathizing. The Lord of Draenor might be a slightly different context, but having played as Grommash Hellscream back in Warcraft 3 and compared it to that past of becoming a 'slave,' this too creates points of empathy in its own way. (The flashbacks are a bonus.)
An example mixing 1) and 2) would be The Burning Crusade. The origins of the Blood Elves and Draenei and the introduction of the continent, plus the appearance of Illidan, can be seen as an example mixing 1) and 2).

So if we think about what 'BfA' was, BfA can be pieced together as a trailer that aimed for both 1) and 2). The point that BfA's big content, the conflict between the Horde and Alliance, takes place in front of Undercity is close to 1). At the same time, the part where Sylvanas's and Anduin's thoughts are revealed is close to 2). However, these two flows didn't harmonize well. 1) was implemented well enough in the cinematic, but it was barely implemented in the actual field. The only spaces where you can experience the Alliance-Horde/Horde-Alliance conflict are, at most, the warfront and the Battle of Dazar'alor / the siege of Zuldazar. In other words, they locked the characters from the cinematic inside 'instances.' The reason 2) failed is that there was no narrative foundation laid for them at all. People say they tried to do that to some extent in the novels, but that's the domain of the novels, and players couldn't experience it within the game. So the BfA cinematic became a well-made but failed cinematic.

3. What about the Shadowlands cinematic?

We can think about it roughly like this. There was the emotional immersion into Sylvanas, which is 2), and there could have been the introduction of the Shadowlands, which is 1). But of these, 1) only shows up as breaking through a glass ceiling. So while it amplified curiosity, it's hard to feel overwhelmed or have enormous expectations. It would have been better if the description of the Shadowlands had come out in a bit more detail. On the other hand, if you ask whether we can emotionally immerse ourselves in Sylvanas, that too isn't easy. After she said 'Horde is nothing' and made it like a corpse, having her act like this is just exasperating. Setting aside whether Sylvanas is stronger or the Bolvar Lich King is stronger, their power struggle is unconvincing — for example, the weakness of Bolvar, who doesn't even properly show the level of the Arthas Lich King, and the power of Sylvanas, where I have no idea why those utterly nonsensical chains even appear, are shown in such stark contrast that it just doesn't add up.

4. I had expectations for the Shadowlands cinematic.

If they were going to do a Shadowlands cinematic, I think it would have been better to either make a cinematic that builds a more plausible explanation for why Sylvanas is trying to draw in death, or to cinematize the Shadowlands fields (like how the Orgrimmar cinematic was implemented so well) to arouse curiosity. It has none of the majesty of Legion, Cataclysm, or WotLK, and its depiction of the new world like Pandaria or Burning Crusade is far too thin.

What a shame.

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