Think of WoW movies like a tree for a moment. Imagine a tree that blossoms maybe once a month, providing the community around that tree with fruit. Some months might see a decent amount of produce, others may be a little more barren. This month, it seems like the branches nearly fell down under the weight.

I’m quite picky when it comes to gaming movies in general, especially WoW. After watching hundreds over the years my standards have become pretty high. But these last few weeks has seen some of the best that WoW has to offer.

One of the best examples of WoW movie-making I have ever seen kicked the month off in hilarious style. If you haven’t seen Buddhist 3v3 yet, do it right now. Stop reading this column and watch it (and then come back and finish reading, of course!)

The PvP action in there is so-so, but that isn’t the point of it at all. The story and the story-telling take WoW movies to a new level. Any plot-based movie will be compared to this in future, even the serious ones. Ming Must Die, in case you still haven’t watched it, is not a serious movie. The satire of Ming’s ridiculous anime obsession is as hilarious as it is cutting. Anyone who reads gameriot will find it difficult to hold back tears of laughter. Even those unfamiliar with the self-styled “Hokage” will love this flick.

Around the same time, we saw Celex of Gravitas release his American TR video. Being one of the few American RMP teams to be successful made this movie intriguing enough to begin with, but throw in vent recordings and you have a must-watch. The PvP is of a much higher calibre this time around, as GG take on some of America’s finest teams. Editing is minimal, but that just allows the PvP to tell its own story – a good thing in an arena movie.

Fans of American TR videos were given another treat just a couple of days ago, too, as SK’s own Realz released his first ever movie. Again, this is arena PvP at its raw best. No editing, no flash effects, just great 3v3 action against some of the best teams America has to offer. No voice comms this time around, and I personally felt the music left a little to be desired, but the action was great and it was good to see a shadow priest doing well for a change. It comes as little surprise that the majority of the movie is discipline, however, bearing in mind the state of shadow priests right now.

Although there are other great movies around right now, I think the last section this week belongs to Heavy Tension II. Anyone who watches as many WoW movies as myself will not be surprised to see that the author comes from France – the home land of Obilith himself. But this is no machinima, this is world PvP with a dark, wonderfully twisted edge. The music is hard, fast and dirty, matching the play-style of a shadowdance rogue perfectly.

The intro and intermittent black-and-white clips here are about as unsettling as I’ve seen in a WoW flick but really add an ambience that so many movies lack. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PvP movie that wraps around its character so perfectly as this. Indeed, the music is so well chosen that you can barely notice the song changes. If you want to see something a little bit different, without being cheesy, definitely give this one a look.

As I said before, there have been a lot more great movies than this recently, but I don’t want to write a novel here, folks. Obviously I recommend all four of the movies I talked about, but if for some reason you can only watch one, I have to say Buddhist’s Ming Must Die. PvP purists might disagree, but I defy anyone to not be won over by its sheer entertainment value. There have been funny movies in the past – some very good – but none of them can hold a candle to this.