Tolkien’s Middle-earth, with which it shares a similarly diverse population of humans, elves, dwarfs and Orcs. The world in this case is Azeroth, a realm whose green forests and towering citadels are not too far removed, visually or conceptually, from J.R.R. Working from a screenplay by Charles Leavitt (the writer of last year’s forgettable fantasy “Seventh Son”), Jones has extended one of his recurring dramatic themes by plunging us once more into a world of uncertain allegiances and dubious systems of power. Missteps and all, the movie pulses with a true believer’s conviction. The line between hack work and labor of love may be perilously thin, but you can sense the difference in the way Jones earnestly, wholeheartedly embraces the magic that powers this realm: Not since the last “Harry Potter” movie have you seen this many wizards with dazzling CGI lightning bolts crackling at their fingertips. But there are also immersive IMAX 3-D backdrops, striking ambiguities and irresistible moments of straight-faced lunacy. There are stretches of tedium in this lumpy and derivative mythology, to be sure.

Having never read the novels or played the games in Blizzard Entertainment’s massively popular “Warcraft” franchise (unless the sound of my college dorm mates pounding their computers next door counts by way of osmosis), I can attest that it’s possible to spend much of this movie’s two-hour running time in a state of blissful incomprehension - carried along less by the cluttered exposition of the script than by Jones’ fervent commitment to his own world building.

That promise is kept, up to a point, even if the end result is not enlightenment so much as weary, battered resignation. Is it a metaphor for the intimate coupling of good and evil on this epic canvas? An assurance that the end is coming and, with it, the lights that will guide your relieved exit from the theater? A promise that - even without the cheat sheet supplied by the thoughtful folks at Universal Pictures - the story’s impenetrable tangle of names and lineages, far-flung realms and otherworldly species will eventually be made clear to the uninitiated? There are a few different ways to read this prophecy. A hooded oracle with an uncanny (and unbilled) resemblance to Glenn Close emerges from the shadows to deliver some cryptic words of wisdom: “From light comes darkness, and from darkness, light.” Near the end of “Warcraft” - an elaborate, exhausting cinematic collision of humans and Orcs, live actors and digital extras, geek enthusiasms and multiplex dollars - the director Duncan Jones grants us a breather from all the thundering mayhem.

Guardians of the light wow