There’s a terrific movie hidden within Warcraft that would have made me want to go see it more than once in theaters, but that’s not the movie that I got when I sat there for almost two hours. Instead, I just got a pretty okay film.
I was never a hardcore fan of Warcraft. I played WoW in a pretty hardcore manner for almost a decade, but I never fell deeply into the lore of the original games. As I said earlier, Warcraft is just okay, but it’s a damn shame because you can see a good film hidden somewhere within the foundation.
Immediately we’re introduced to the most likable orcs to ever exist, Durotan and his wife”¦Draka, I think her name is. Anyways, right off the bat, these characters are going to be the ones you’re rooting for throughout the entire movie. A good bit of cute couple dialogue is exchanged between the two and it’s a great moment of characterization, and it’s probably the only bit of decent characterization you’ll get in this film.
Everyone else is introduced like Travis Fimmel’s character, Lothar, but none are able to give off that charm that Durotan and Draka give off. It’s a shame that television series still have this air of antipathy. A show really could have dived into the politics of the Alliance being forged and the reasoning behind the Horde.
Instead, we’re giving a rushed two-hour story that’s more interested in just getting to the cool actions bits rather than providing any nuance to them. It’s what makes Game of Thrones so damn good. That antipathy is the only reason I can think of when it comes to Blizzard wanting to make a movie instead of a series.
One of the most off-putting things, to me, about this film, was the wardrobe and makeup design of the film. I realize that it’s accurate to the game, but Blizzard could have allowed for the director or studio to have some form of adaptation in regards to the makeup and costume instead of the eyesore that we got in the film.
The CGI seems a bit cartoonish from the trailers, but when you get in it’s actually not half bad. It’s just a personification of YouTube comments that say, “they should just make a movie out of this,” underneath the WoW cinematic videos. Well, you got what you wanted internet. Now shut the hell up about it. I would have rather have had great practical effects merged with a talented CGI team, see Star Wars VII, but this is what we got.
Hopefully the second film””and there will be a second film””comes out with a better movie. This is still better than some fantasy movies that have come out in the last few years (*cough* The Hobbit *cough* *cough*). The movie is doing well overseas, and, from how packed my theater was last night, it’s probably going to do well domestically, also.
It’s not the Battlefield Earth of fantasy movies, as some critics would make you think, but it’s definitely a movie for fans of the game. You like WoW, you’ll like Warcraft. I recommend you go check it out.