Full disclosure: I am well versed in the Warcraft lore. That didn’t affect my viewing of this movie; the trailers convinced me I was going to hate this movie, lore be damned, so that affected my mood going in more than my knowledge.
According to the degenerates that judge me on Digital Crack, I am a Warcraft fanboy. They base this on my 8-year history with World of Warcraft and nothing else. Truthfully, my history with Warcraft predates the MMORPG. My first real experience with the series began with Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and that game spurred my interest in the lore, which convinced me to play the preceding games and, eventually, the MMORPG. That doesn’t help my case against their claims of fanboyism, but I like to be thorough with my disclosure.
I’m not any more a fanboy of Warraft than Grumpy Joe is a fanboy of Overwatch…wait; he is a total fanboy of Overwatch. Never mind, bad example. Point is, I’m not a fanboy.
They were convinced I would love the movie because it’s Warcraft. I was convinced it was going to be horrible because of my feelings after seeing the trailers. After two viewings of the movie, I have to admit that the movie was entertaining despite the trailers. The second viewing was to convince myself that I didn’t imagine the enjoyment I felt after the first viewing.
Before I go on, I will acknowledge the things I felt were wrong with the movie. In my opinion, this was a very formulaic film, almost by the numbers. Even those unfamiliar with the lore behind the movie can guess what’s going to happen in the movie before it happens. In addition, the pacing was far too rapid for so complex a movie. In trying to cram the entirety of the First War’s epilogue into one feature-length film, director Duncan Jones glossed over too many things.
There are many human characters in this story, and very few of them received any attention past the tropes they were supposed to fill. The ones that received any actual attention were too pasteurized. Garona (Paula Patton) seemed very weak for a supposedly strong character, Medivh (Ben Foster) seemed confused throughout the film’s running time even though he was a Guardian and expected to have command of any situation, Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) seemed too bumbling for a mage once aligned with a faction as strong as the Kirin Tor, and Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) was too much of a badass for his own good, almost reaching Snake Plisskin levels of badassery. Overall, the roles didn’t seem fitting for the story as I knew it.
Those things – as well as the continuity errors I spotted- should have killed any interest I had in the movie. But I was still entertained. In my opinion, while the movie was flawed, the story was well handled. I credit Duncan Jones for my enjoyment of the movie. He did gloss over many things, but he managed to convey the scale of everything well, from the locations to the weight of the combat.
And the orcs…MAN those orcs felt imposing!
The CGI was spotty in a couple of places, and the effects used when Medivh cast spells was comically bad, but seeing the orcs in action, especially during combat, was awesome. I will admit to having a couple of nerdgasms seeing the frostwolves and gryphons brought to life, and the view of Stormwind from Goldshire gave me a nostalgic kick. But the orcs made the movie for me.
By the way, the nastiest orc chieftain, Blackhand, was played by Clancy Brown. Who better to embody the most fearsome orc warrior of them all than THE KURGEN???
Despite the hiccups in the story and the overall blandness of the human characters – and barely no dwarves or night elves!!! – I enjoyed Warcraft. I was pleasantly surprised by it. Guess you can’t always judge a movie by its trailers.
I was curious, however. As a fan, I could appreciate many of the things they were trying to do with the movie. How would someone unfamiliar with the lore handle this movie? I asked one of the aforementioned degenerates to chime in with his thoughts.
Cousin Jose: Writer, DC Comics Specialist
I went into this movie without knowing much about Warcraft. I know the basics and some memes. I know that the Orcs battle cry is “For the Horde!” which I’m glad they said within the movie. I also know that there is some guy named Leeroy Jenkins or something like that.
Ok now to the review: this movie is Awesome! Oh man, I love this movie. It felt at points that I was watching cinematics cuts from Blizzard games like Diablo. Other times it felt like I was watching a Tolkien/George R.R. Martin fantasy movie mixed together. I was awestruck with the orcs and how the CGI of them made the orcs look lifelike. The facial expressions were amazing. There are moments within the movie that I was asking, “what this is or what is that,” since I do not know the lore of the Warcraft game, but in no point did I feel lost. The mages within this movie? Wow! That’s what I can say. Holy crap their power is beyond what I expected!
One character that I thought felt weak for me was Garona Halforcen, I did not feel anything for the character. She felt that she was just there to fill space, but that’s just my opinion. The scenery is amazing within this fantasy world that is created and I would like to see more of it within future sequels of the movie. I as a non-WoW player, recommend this movie for everyone.
