Warcraft (2016)

Movie Info

MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!

The world of Draencor is dying. The orcs of the planet are searching for a means to survive which means using magic to open a portal to the world Azeroth.  Under the sorcerer Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), the orcs plan to take the planet by force and use fel magic to open a gate to the rest of their warriors.  The human forces of Azeroth find their lands invaded and set out to stop the warriors with the help of a mage named Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer), the king of Stormwind Llane Wrynn (Dominic Cooper), Sir Lothar (Travis Fimmel), and the Guardian of Tirisfal Medivh (Ben Foster).  The only hope for Azeroth could be in an orc prisoner named Garona (Paula Patton) and an orc leader named Durotan (Toby Kebbell) who try to seek peace before the fighting begins.

Directed by Duncan Jones (who helped pen the script), Warcraft is a fantasy action-adventure.  Also known as Warcraft: The Beginning, the film is based on the Warcraft video game which was first was released in 1994.  The movie was met with negative reviews and considered a failure despite being a massive moneymaker overseas.

Let my people go!

I was pretty hesitant about Warcraft. I liked Duncan Jones’ Moon.  Video game movies almost never work, but I had a bit of hope with Duncan’s involvement…I was sadly let down.

The movie is a mess. It feels like bad fantasy exploded all over the movie.  The names, the plot devices, and an overly dramatic acting combine for a pretty bad experience.  The movie starts with little explanation of the events going on and the dialogue comes off as gibberish.  Once the movie starts going, you find that the characters you didn’t care about you even care less about…which is fortunate because the movie seems to randomly kill characters (since it was intended to be the start of a series).

The actors are so bogged down by the effects of the movie that you find a hard time connecting with them. The most developed character is Durotan (the orc) but even Durotan feels like a cliché character.  The movie really hurts the actors in it including Ben Foster who I feel usually does good work…his character like the other characters are weak.

I can feel your heartbeat

For a movie based on visuals, I also find Warcraft’s visuals very uninspiring.  The movie ditched realism for very cartoonish characters.  The whole movie looks like an animated movie…but it is a bad animated movie since it tries to live action.  It should have been amazing, but it wasn’t.

Warcraft was a big hit on a world level which leaves the makers with a problem. A sequel probably would be successful, but a sequel in America could very well fail again.  I can say that I won’t be that interested in seeing it…but then there’s always the lure that it could actually be better.  It remains to be seen in Warcraft 2 happens and if Warcraft:  The Beginning is actually a misnomer.