Warcraft: The Movie

Released: June 10, 2016

Director: Duncan Jones

Rated PG-13

Run Time: 123 Minutes

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Cast:
Travis Fimmel: Anduin Lothar
Paula Patton: Garona
Ben Foster: Medivh
Dominic Cooper: Llane Wrynn
Toby Kebbel: Durotan
Ben Schnetzer: Khadgar
Clancy Brown: Blackhand
Daniel Wu: Gul’Dan

Movies based on video games have a dreadful reputation, and rightly so.  I would say about 98 percent of movies based on video games flat out suck.  It started out with Super Mario Bros., which was truly horrendous in every aspect.  Double Dragon was a complete waste of time.  Street Fighter with Jean-Claude Van Damme was not good, but it was in a kind “so bad it’s good” situation.  It had it’s awesome moments, namely Raul Julia as M. Bison.  Now, the one movie that almost got it right was 1995’s Mortal Kombat, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.  It had interesting characters, some pretty decent writing with fantastic fight choreography and music that was appropriate.  Was it the greatest?  No, but at least the film-makers had the decency to try and remain true to the original game.  They didn’t stray far from the material.  Unfortunately, most movies based on games since then have been disastrous.  Uwe Boll was/is notorious for making some of the worst video game movies on the planet.  This year, we are seeing two more movies based on video games:  Assassin’s Creed in December and Warcraft which was just released.  How does Warcraft stack up to the rest?

Warcraft opens in the land of Azeroth, where peace reigned for decades thanks to the efforts of King Llane and his second in command, Lothar.  However, in a different world that has been ravaged by war, the Orc Horde, led by Gul’Dan, prepares to invade Azeroth to claim it as their own.  After opening the portal, legions of Orcs hurry through a portal to Azeroth.  Taking prisoners to be used as fuel for the portal, the Orcs are on their way to conquering Azeroth.  I haven’t seen a movie with a story this convoluted in a long time.  As someone who is remotely familiar with the Warcraft games, I understood some of what was going on, but most people won’t.  A lot of people aren’t gamers, and that’s a huge detriment to the film.  For a movie like this, you need to make it accessible to EVERYONE, and the story they chose for the movie was perhaps the wrong one to tell at this point.  You got so many characters and so much lore just thrown at you in the span of 2 hours, that there is NO hope of the average moviegoer to comprehend it all.  The problem with telling the story is the run-time.  There’s only so much you can cram into two hours.  This is a movie that needed to be at least 3 in order for the story to be properly told.

Because the run time is so short, we aren’t given enough time to really learn about and connect with the characters, of which there are many.  Most people are not likely to remember the names of these characters outside of maybe one or two.  As far as character and narrative development goes, Warcraft is a disaster.  This is a movie that seems to require its audience to have some kind of prior knowledge about the Warcraft universe, and that’s just not the case, and the film-makers don’t seem to get it.  This was made for the fans of the franchise, plain and simple.  Some of the characters are really cool, like Durotan, the Orc.  He was awesome and easily the best part of the film.  Toby Kebbel’s performance was phenomenal.  Ben Foster was pretty good as the sorcerer Medivh, but his character arc was terribly, terribly predictable.  Everyone else was just kind of….meh.

From a visual standpoint, Warcraft is absolutely stunning.  I haven’t seen environments this beautiful since Lord of the Rings.  The land of Azeroth looks and feels absolutely authentic.  The mountain ranges are truly majestic as well as the forests and castles.  It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in a long, long time.  The effects are equally fantastic.  The CGI on the orcs is perhaps among the best that I’ve ever seen.  The details, especially on Durotan, are just mind-numbingly great.  Tobby Kebbel’s performance and the motion capture really gives these Orcs a life of their own and…wow.  The magic effects, especially when Medivh calls down a bunch of lightening, is breathtaking.  The sets themselves are absolutely incredibly to look at, as they actually built a bunch of them.  I also really like the armor and outfits that the characters wore, as they are straight out of the games.  Visually, the Warcraft film is extremely faithful to the games, no doubt about it.

The action sequences are absolutely wild and the battles are truly epic in scale.  During the final battle, when you see the Alliance and the Orcs go at it, it’s really, really crazy.  The forest battle with the Orcs is crazy and you have some magic going on there which is something to behold.  Overall, the action is great and extremely well-done.  However, sometimes the CGI seems not as good as everything else.  Another issue I have is with the editing of the film.  There are times during the movie when the film cuts abruptly to something else, interrupting what was happening in the previous scene, especially if it was an important scene.  It happened a lot, and I feel that this movie isn’t exactly what the film-makers had intended.  I really don’t think so.  I think there’s a lot of stuff that was cut out to get the film to a “reasonable” run time, and that also hurt the movie severely.  I’m assuming that there was a lot of character moments that needed to happen, but the studio opted for a more action-oriented picture.  It wouldn’t be the first time.

The problems with this movie are the same kind that have plagued nearly every other video game movie for the past 20 years.  The film makers still haven’t figured out that for gamers, we would rather play the game than have it played for us.  Duncan Jones did a better job understanding the source material, which is why the movie doesn’t outright suck.  However, the movie studio doesn’t seem to care about that and just want a quick and easy movie to try and draw audiences in.  Here’s the problem with that:  Movie audiences aren’t stupid.  Gamers aren’t stupid.  We see through that bullshit, because we have a particular passion about properties like Warcraft.  For a franchise as large as Warcraft, gamers are right to want more from the movie industry than what they’ve actually been getting.  Warcraft is also setting up for a potential trilogy.  Whether or not that it gets that is going to depend on how forgiving the audiences are.  The critics were not forgiving.  This movie got railed by professional critics, most of whom have probably never played the games.  I can definitely see why some wouldn’t like it.  Is it as bad as all that?  No.  Not at all.  As far as video game movies go, Warcraft is one of the best, but that’s not saying a whole lot.

Given how short the movie is and the problems therein, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an extended version of the film hit home video at the end of September or early October.  For all the lore and characters that the movie throws at you, it’s still missing a whole lot, and it’s a shame.  There’s a lot of potential here.  Over the past 6 or 7 years, I’ve been of the opinion that Blizzard Entertainment should make a completely CGI movie of their own.  They’re capable of it as their video-game intros and CG cutscenes have proven.  The CG cutscenes and intros are beyond amazing.  I think Warcraft would’ve worked better as a CGI movie.  Overall, I can’t give Warcraft a full-fledged recommendation as the problems with the film are too severe.  Honestly, wait until this one hits home video and rent it then to see if it’s up your alley.  My final conclusion is a 6.5/10.  It isn’t a bad movie, but it didn’t blow my socks off, either.

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