Warcraft

Year: 2016

Genre: Fantasy Adventure

Directed: Duncan Jones

Stars: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, Clancy Brown, Daniel Wu, Ruth Negga, Anna Galvin, Callum Keith Rennie

Production: Blizzard Entertainment

Let me just put this out there right now: I have never played Warcraft. My experience with Warcraft is limited to one of my friends from school being hospitalized because he survived solely on Dr. Pepper for a week while playing the darn thing. I say this because many within a certain community will see any criticism towards this film suspect; even more so coming from someone from the outside looking in. All that said, Warcraft the movie is not that bad.

The story begins with a horde of Orcs invading the realm of Azeroth with chieftain Durotan (Kebbell) and his mate Draka (Galvin) among the first wave. Their leader Gul'dan (Wu) uses a ethereal form of black magic known as the Fel that requires mortal sacrifice, which many of the Orc clans look on with suspicion. Meanwhile Lothar (Fimmel), military commander of the human kingdom, and a mage named Khadgar (Schnetzer) find out about the fel and bring news to King Wrynn and Medivh (Foster) the Guardian of the realm. They investigate further and capture scrappy half-Orc survivor Garona (Patton) who agrees to help the humans and try to incite a rebellion along with Durotan from within.

Psshh, I bet this loser has never even read Dragonlance

Draenor, Stormwind, Azeroth, Karazhan, Mak'gora, Dalaran; if these words mean something to you then guess what, you can probably pay attention to the plot with relative ease. Those of you who did not do the homework however will have to sit in the corner and feel the acrid pangs of being ostracized; like naively showing up to a party you're not invited to. It's even all the more punishing when characters speak in paragraphs of exposition and explanations. We get all the trappings of a fantasy adventure including palace intrigue, otherworldly artifices, fantastical creatures and sword-to-flesh chest pounding, yet the narrative fails to give us much reason to care. That's a pretty large feat considering the amount of death that surrounds Gul'dan and his horde.

So why then do I say Warcraft is not that bad? Well for one, Duncan Jones's visual cleverness and attention to detail is still present, despite the film's need to frustratingly skip any honest-to-goodness emotion or characterization. Jones is not of the MTV generation of action filmmakers who use shaky cam, fast editing and dynamic camera angles to slam their audiences against the wall. Instead Jones litters his action with a fast processional of setups and payoffs broken up by tracking shots of people hurdling towards each other. That along with an affinity for epic wide shots of battlefields prove he may be among the forefront of a new generation of directors who take their inspiration from video-games.

Anyone remember this abomination?

There's no value judgment here on whether lifting ideas from video-games is a good idea though it is refreshing to see a director take a different tact. The visual grammar is primordial and a little clunky at times but when it works, it really works. Warcraft could have ended up like the much maligned Dungeons and Dragons (2000). As it stands Warcraft is more of a bargain bin Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) providing some interesting visual thrills though using bland characters that might as well be made of clay.

In summation, Warcraft is kind of like the Dungeons and Dragons starter set. The one where you first create your character class, roll for ability scores, determine statistics and alignment while forming a solid backstory. It's a whole lot of setup and ironically very little actual war-craft but at least it leaves you with a lot to work with. Oh, you have no idea what I'm talking about? Do those last few sentences make little sense? Well then, you know how I feel.

Final Grade: C-