Warcraft - movie review

June 15, 2016

Warcraft - movie review

Warcraft

Plot: The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilisation faces a fearsome race of invaders: orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonise another. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people, and their home.
Cast: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster
Director: Duncan Jones
Rating: 12A
Runtime: 2hrs 3 mins
Release Date: Monday 30th May 2016

In the immortal words of Coldplay, 'When you try your best but you don't succeed'. That's the best way to quickly summarise my experience watching Warcraft. Video game movies come and go but none of them ever seem to stick the landing. I was the fool that actually thought that Warcraft could change the tides. I was absolutely convinced that this was the film that would put to rest the myth. They even hired a talented director who was also a gigantic fan of the game itself. But now, I feel like a kid being told he's going to DisneyWorld in Florida but actually goes to Diggerland. Just to clarify, I didn't despise this film, but understand that my expectations were insanely high and I've never even played the game.

The cast of Warcraft is split into two. We have the humans and the Orcs. Leading the human cast is Travis Fimmel as Lothar, the heroic warrior of Azeroth. My problem with Fimmel's performance was that he had no humanity to him. It came off more like a poor man's attempt at Aragorn rather than his own independent character. I didn't find myself rooting for him that much and whenever he experienced an impactful emotional twist, I didn't care. Fimmel isn't quite leading man material at this point in time, but never say never. I can see some potential but I don't think Warcraft is the film to demonstrate this. As for the best character in the film, this prestigious compliment is awarded to Paula Patton as the half human, half orc, Garona. Apart from looking stunning in this film, her character was by far the most interesting and complex. Her story had me invested in how her character progressed and Patton gave a very good performance. She's already proven her action chops in the Mission: Impossible films but these two films are very different in style. This is a fantasy film and when Garona gets into battle, there's no way I would mess with her. My only slight problem with Garona involves some of the decisions her character makes and is involved in during the final act but I don't put the blame on Patton. That's more to do with the clunky writing. As if a war between humans and orcs wasn't enough for you, wizards are also thrown into the mix. Playing the lead wizard, better known as the Guardian, Medivh, is Ben Foster. I'm sorry Mr. Foster but I did not enjoy your performance in this film which is shame considering all of his other fantastic roles. The wizard characters in Warcraft just pissed me off because they would spew all this randomness about magical groups and societies that weren't actually fully explained to the average viewers. Foster switches between a mumbling and depressed looking version of Merlin, to a hyper drug fuelled version of Draco Malfoy. He never found a balance and it was too jarring to watch. Plus, certain twists involving his character felt too forced to shock viewers rather than making sense and I ended up not bothering about caring anymore. If he were to live, meh. If he died, meh. Either way, meh.

Dominic Cooper appears as well starring as the King of Azeroth who likes a little battle now and again too. His performance really felt indifferent to me. Nothing about him made me scream "DOMINIC, WTF ARE YOU DOING!?!?" but nothing about him made me think Cooper was specifically needed. It was the type of role that anyone could really play. The final human of note is another wizarding character of Khadgar portrayed by Ben Schnetzer. The less said about him the better so I will just say this; he isn't good, I didn't like his character and he screamed most of his lines. With the human characters now having their grilling, the pain now turns to the Orcs. I'll talk about the effects later in the review so I can simply voice my opinions solely on their performances. Our prominent focus on the Orcs is Durotan played by Toby Kebbell. I'll split my feelings about this character in two. As a performance, Kebbell is great. Sure there is voice modulation, but the way he clearly would carry himself like an Orc was very effective. As a character, I really don't understand the hype that Durotan is getting. He is badass, that's no lie. However, he is only a badass in a couple of scenes. The rest of the time, he mopes around complaining about the trouble the orcs are facing but never actually does anything about it until it's too late. And then there is the final act. Avoiding spoilers completely, I deplore a certain thing that happens to Durotan. It's ridiculous. It's shocking for the state of being shocking rather than serving a true purpose and I'll leave it at that before I reveal too much. The only other Orc worth mentioning is the antagonist, Gul'dan (Daniel Wu). As the villain, Gul’dan posed a decent threat that it seemed convincing that an elderly Orc could win. His magic was pretty devastating and Wu did a more than capable job in his performance.

Before I begin on the many negatives I have with this film, there are a number of positives that save this film from disaster. Firstly, Duncan Jones does a very good job with his directorial stance. The film looks great and it never feels jolty meaning that it flows scene to scene. That's not to say that it works from a writing point of view but looking at it from a directing standpoint, it's very fluid and dynamic. I'm also very thankful that Duncan Jones is directing Warcraft because he is an super fan of the games. He may not have made a film that I personally enjoyed but the fact that a fan was able to express his talent by creating a film about it is great news for him. This isn't that uncommon in Hollywood today. I mean, J.J. Abrams is a huge fan of Star Wars and he just directed The Force Awakens. Yes, The Force Awakens is leaps and bounds better than Warcraft but fan directors seem to be the 'in-thing'. To make matters even better, if Duncan Jones were not the director, rumours suggest that Uwe Boll was interested in helming this project and Warcraft fans would surely have rioted. For those of you who don't know, Uwe Boll is a director who makes straight to DVD films that are universally hated. His films are the type that not even a person who is catastrophically drunk would watch. My major problem with this film comes down to the writing. I have already mentioned that I have never played Warcraft or any other games in that series and I probably never will. I was hoping that this film would please the fans of Warcraft by supplying fandom moments but also tell a story that would appeal to the casual movie goer or avid cinema fan that has never played Warcraft before. As it turns out, Duncan Jones really did try to make a Warcraft movie for everyone but the result was just plain fan service. I would reckon that hardcore fans will love the mentions and nods to the Warcraft lore but the lore is so heavy and deep that it takes over the film. I was so confused when characters would nonchalantly mention something that made no sense to me but then would never actually explain what it is. There are moments when secret groups of people or places make an appearance that have never been mentioned but yet fans will get it straight away. There just needed to be a balance. Please the fans but don't exclude the non-fans.

It also moves at a rate of knots which in most cases wouldn't be a problem. However, with fantasy films, I prefer to have quieter moments where I get to know the characters in more depth. A prime example of this, and a series that will be heavily compared to Warcraft, is The Lord Of The Rings. Even before the Fellowship set off on their quest, we had spent over an hour learning every intricate detail of the characters. In Warcraft, everything is thrown at you immediately without any exposition and we're just told to deal with it. The only example that I can remember where true character development was given was a quiet little scene between Durotan and Orgrim discussing their plans to save their people. Other than that I was left to piece things together making for an incoherent story. By the final act, everything got basically chucked in at the final moment and it felt really rushed as if large portions of the film were missing. I thought it cared more about setting up sequels and a franchise rather than finishing the story they're telling.

When the first trailers were released for Warcraft, I was very impressed but the motion capture effects had me worried. The Orcs looked too fake and amidst the green screen, nothing seemed real. To my pleasure, the motion capture effects of the Orcs are brilliant and the movie relishes in the fact that they know the effects are good. They demonstrate this in the first moment where we meet Durotan by just holding the camera still on his face. It was a stunning moment and I have to say, even though the story is in pieces and didn't appeal to me, Duncan Jones has made a technically beautiful film. The way magic looks and is treated in the film is pretty cool as well. Whilst I don't like the magicians in the film, their effects when they cast their spells looks impressive especially from Guldan when he extracts the souls out of his victims. The action set pieces are also good fun with a standout being an early action sequence in a forest. The only issue is that every action scene after that is a little over-the-top with too much going on whilst the forest fight was contained and I could really feel the stakes. There is also a awesome score by Ramin Djawadi who has composed themes for Pacific Rim and Game Of Thrones. The main theme just oozes the idea of battle and war but the other tracks are merely decent.

I am sure that many people are going to love this film but I wouldn't be surprised if those people have a deep passion for the Warcraft series. I am simply voicing my opinion for a film that focused on pleasing the fans too much that ultimately left the others in the dark. Duncan Jones made a film that looks great but never lives up to it's full potential. If you were hoping that this film will begin the success of video game adaptations, I think we've still got to wait.

My Verdict: 4/10