Warcraft

Considering this is a movie based on a video game, this could have turned out waaay worse than what’s presented here.

Based on the video game franchise of similar name, the movie version of Warcraft follows two sides of a budding war: one side taking a look behind the curtain of the orc invasion and their reasons for attacking the human world, while the other sneaks a peek at humanity as they try to keep the realm and people of Azeroth safe. Caught between the crossfire are the half-orc Garona (Paula Patton), a wary and battle worn chieftain orc named Durotan (Toby Kebbell), King Llane Wrynn (Dominic Cooper) of the Stormwind Kingdom, a knight named Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), and a whole roster of mages, monsters and men who will stop at nothing to see their agendas played out. Switching perspectives between these characters along with a handful of others, Warcraft delves into the gray areas of the coming war and what it will take from both sides to find peace from the constant bloodshed and violence before more death and destruction tear Azeroth apart.

Being one of the better fantasy movies to come along in recent memory, Warcraft actually has a lot going for it. Stitched together by some truly great special effects that help bring the computer generated orcs to life, epic, sweeping battles that dabble in sword and shield fights with an added touch of magic and sorcery, and a sort of world building that shows us the various different races of fantastical beasts and people that populate the land, and you have a pretty inspired, if not a slightly familiar take on a formula that has been the backbone of the fantasy genre for years.

When it does things right, Warcraft is a pretty enjoyable ride that really only suffers from (mostly) terrible acting and a script that is attempting to be better than it actually is. Clearly this film is trying its hardest to channel its inner Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, but unfortunately it does little to help itself stand tall and compete with other like minded films and television shows of the genre. Focusing on the lore of the multi-million dollar video game franchise that it’s based on, you would think that something worthwhile would spring out of this attempt at adapting said game, but more often than not, the strengths this movie possesses fall prey to the overly cliché and odd execution of it all, and it’s here that the film disappoints the most.

The overall attempt at a story ends up being a mostly muddled mess that tries to show so many sides of the orc/human conflict that it loses itself along the way, and while I surprisingly enjoyed almost everything that had to deal with the orcs, either due to the afore mentioned special effects or subtleness that the human plotline doesn’t have, everything else is just a pile of clichés that seems more preoccupied with imitating the great films of the genre rather than blaze its own path, which, if you’re rooting for video game films to finally make their mark in Hollywood like me, is a bit disheartening. It’s almost like the script was written by a fanboy of like-minded films that would rather show off the coolness inherent in their characters rather than tell us a gripping and worthwhile fantasy story with all the trimmings. Usually this isn’t the biggest of deals, they still make Transformer movies after all, but since this film is essentially trying to win us over through its world building and the creatures and people that inhabit it, it seems like a no brainer that first and foremost story should come first. Now I don’t know if direction, relatively bad casting, a weak script or all three are to blame, but every line comes across as forced or cheesy or epic for epic sake, or even being so familiar to a point that I swear I’ve heard most of what’s happening here in another film before, just in a much better and more effective way.

And therein lies the problem with this movie as a whole: somewhere at some point in the past another film has done all of this better. Like I said, there isn’t anything outright horrible about the film (acting comes close), there’s just nothing I haven’t seen before, and when the film finally does right by the uniqueness inherent to its content, like when a battle switches from the back of a griffin-like monster, to the front lines where orcs violently stab and crush their enemies, to a mage blasting spells like gunfire, the movie soars in directions I would never have expected or hoped for, only for it to come crashing down a few minutes later with some truly amateurish filmmaking. There’s so much to like in this film that it’s a shame that the rest of it can’t keep up. One of my buddies who felt the same about the film summed it up the best: “It’s a $100 million dollar Syfy channel movie,” and he’s not wrong.

In the end, Warcraft tries its best to be a better movie than the filmmakers seem capable of, and while it’s not the worst video game adaptation in the world, there’s no reason that a stronger sense of direction and more time spent on the story itself rather than the special effects and action couldn’t have made this trip into Azeroth one worth remembering. Even with a rushed ending and subtle promise of a sequel, I highly doubt we’ll be returning to this fantasy world anytime soon.

***Shout out to the uber douche sitting behind me the entire time who single handedly reminded me why I don’t go to movies on opening nights anymore. You sir, are a wiener and I feel bad for the girl you dragged along.***