While I can't say much about the first two Warcraft games -- released in the mid-90s -- Warcraft 3 is perhaps one of the most influential video games of the 21st century, giving birth to the MOBA genre of video games and the multi-billion-dollar e-sports industry that followed it. It was also the foundation of perhaps the most successful online game in history, World Of Warcraft, which -- at its peak -- had over 12 million players paying monthly subscriptions to play it. If any video game franchise could break the trend of the horrible video game adaptation films, it should be Warcraft.
But no. Despite being directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code; he's also the son of David Bowie) and having a CGI budget seemingly the size of a small country's GDP, Warcraft the movie never quite manages to come together as enjoyable. While fans of the franchise can most likely derive some satisfaction out of seeing the faithfully recreated video game settings, the wooden acting, breakneck pacing and excessive amounts of fantasy jibber-jabber mostly renders the film nonsensical to everyone else.
Without a preamble of any kind, the audience is dropped right into the action as the Orc Horde -- led by the warlock Gul'dan (Daniel Wu) -- prepares to step through the Dark Portal to escape from their dying world. Without enough live-sacrifices on their desolate planet to keep the Portal open long enough for all of them to pass through, the Orc vanguard immediately begins attacking human settlements, taking the people as live-sacrifices to allow the rest of their war-band to follow. This draws the attention of Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), the commander of the human army, who must now muster the forces of Azeroth to stop the Orcs from bringing over their reinforcements and taking over the world.
The film's aesthetics is perhaps one of the most faithful adaptations of a video game I have ever seen. From the motion-captured Orcs to the prop and costume designs, Warcraft definitely looks the part. However, casual viewers who're not into the original source of Warcraft (or just fantasy in general) may find the costumes excessive, what with the ornate weapons and armour donned by the humans of this world, not to mention the over-the-top magic effects (yes, somebody gets turned into a sheep). Sadly, that's pretty much all there is to enjoy in the movie.
Warcraft feels very distinctly like a second film in a well-established trilogy, when it is in fact the first. That is to say it explains pretty much nothing, taking us to new fantasy locations at a dizzying pace, where we meet an ever-growing list of characters with abstract names spouting poorly explained fantasy concepts. Words like "the Fel" and "Kirin Tor" are thrown around liberally, without any good explanation from any of the characters as to what they actually mean. The film takes a very "tell, don't show" approach to all of its plot points and characters, making the whole film just feel empty of any real tension or emotion. Characters like the guardian Medivh (Ben Foster) or the noble-hearted Orc chieftain Durotan (Toby Kebbell), both of which are central characters in the plot, are simply described to us by other characters, while the film doesn't really do anything to make us see those character traits.
For example, Durotan is described as a noble and capable leader who is concerned with the degradation of his people at the hands of Gul'dan. Yet, we never really see any real comparison between those Orcs that "have the Fel" and those who don't. We never see him address his men, or lead them in heroic combat, inspiring them with his battle-cries. Instead, we have those things told to us by characters like his wife (Anna Galvin) or his right-hand man, Orgrim (Robert Kazinsky), pretty much the only two Orcs he has any kind of meaningful interactions with.
The film's rather erratic pacing and dispassionate approach to storytelling made me feel detached from everything on-screen, feeling like I've missed a movie or two before this one, missing out on lots of pre-established plot points, even though it should be the first movie in what I assume is (at least) a trilogy of films. Strangely enough, this film feels to me like a series of video game-cut scenes stitched together, cutting out all the gameplay parts that actually give everything meaning and context. Perhaps the next film will be better, now that we've had this one to build upon. We know it's going to feature everyone's favourite human-raised Orc after all.
Warcraft
Starring Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster.
Directed by Duncan Jones.
