Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Wishmaster’

Written by Scott Edwards

​Even through there might be a legend about something that seems out of this world, there is usually something behind it. As with our favorite Genie legends where they grant you wishes, they were actually derived from the Djinn who was far more sinister. Not knowing if these creatures actually existed or were made up to strike fear in the hearts of people wanting something that they could never get, we may never know. There is usually a reason why these stories are told and even though there may not be an evidence behind them, it does not mean that they are not true.

After having a massive fire opal brought into his auction house, Nick wants the best of the best to appraise it for him. Once Alexandra comes back to work to take a look at this beautiful gem, Nick hovers over his worker until she can give him a definite answer to how much it is worth. But Alex notices something strange in the opal and needs her friend Josh to give it a look with all of his advanced hardware.  Little does she know however that when she tried to clean the stone that she awakened an ancient evil that is looking to take over the world once again.

While Josh is testing the stone, the opal breaks into four pieces and a creature is released from it into the world. Being able to grant anyone a single wish, the Djinn is free to walk the new world and has found that people are not against asking for something that they cannot do on their own. But the Djinn must find Alex and have her use her three wishes so he can summon his minions back to the earth. As the Djinn works his way through town, he is able to find himself a lead to where Alex may be hiding from him and talks to the owner of the auction house. With promises of more riches than he could ever imagine, with the Djinn’s help of course, Nick lets the information loose and the Djinn is able to locate Alex at the gym coaching her girls.

Alex knows that there is something strange happening around her since her friend Josh was found dead in his lab and needs help. Turning to Raymond Beaumont who was having a statue delivered that killed his assistant and shattered all over the place, she is given the name of a professor that may be able to help her. Wendy Derleth knows all there is to know about the Djinn and passes on some of the information to Alex, but she needs more. With frightening images flashing in her head whenever the Djinn does something, Alex knows that it will find her and instead of trying to hide from it, she will have to face it head on. But little does Alex know that the Djinn is a trickster and if she wants to get away without using her wishes, she will have to phrase her wishes correctly to make sure that the world does not end on her account.

This is a pretty dark look at how the Djinn should be received by the public, not a Genie that is there to grant wishes to make all of your dreams come true, but one that wants all of the power for itself. With an ace up its sleeve at all times, the Djinn is able to grant a single wish for anyone that wants it and the only tradeoff is that persons soul. I liked how even the Djinn says it himself, he has all the power in the world, but cannot use it unless a person makes a wish. I must admit that how the Djinn interprets the wishes is fantastic and it goes to show you that you need to think your wishes through very carefully before making them. This is a great start to the Wishmaster series, and I am pretty sure that in the second installment, we will be back to square one since there is no stopping the Djinn, only the hope of keeping him locked away in a stone for all of eternity. Stay Scared.

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