Warcraft

Before I begin this review, I want to state that my entire knowledge of the World of Warcraft franchise begins and ends with the South Park episode "Make Love Not Warcraft." So, yes I went into Warcraft a total noob, so be kind as I make my way through this review. Basically, a couple of my friends were going and I figured I enjoy fantasy movies, so why not? Besides, it has Dominic Cooper in it and that's always a selling point with me. 

Draenor, the home world of the Orcs is dying due to the use of fel magic by Orc warlock Gul'dan (played by Daniel Wu). Fel magic is a dark and evil force that gains it's power by draining the life out of others. He uses a large quantity of this magic to open a portal between their world and the world of Azeroth with the intent on invading and conquering it as the new home for Orcs. Among the initial war party to go through the portal are Durotan (played by Toby Kebbell), a chieftan of the Frostwolf clan, his pregnant wife Draka (Anna Galvin), and their friend Orgrim Doomhammer (played by Robert Kazinsky). Once there, the Orcs begin raiding nearby villages taking prisoners that Gul'dan intends to use to fuel his Fel magic so he can keep the portal open longer and the remaining Orcs can come through. Also among the Orcs is Garona Halforcen (played by Paula Patton), a half human, half orc woman who is not sure where she fits in. 

Meanwhile, in the Azeroth kingdom of Stormwind, military commander Anduin Lothar (played by Travis Fimmel) is looking over some of the fallen soldiers when he discovers a trespassing mage, Khadgar (played by Ben Schnetzer). Khadgar explains he was there investigating the presence of traces of fel magic. Khadgar convinces King Llane Wrynn (played by Dominic Cooper) to consult Medivh (played by Ben Foster), the Guardian mage of the kingdom. King Wrynn sends Anduin  and Khadgar to consult with Medivh in an attempt to offset the Orc invasion. Back at the Orc camp, Durotan has come to the realization that the reason their old world died was because of Gul'dan's continued use of the Fel magic and that the same thing will happen here unless he is stopped. Seeing the humans at the best chance to helping him accomplish this, he needs to figure out how to contact them and form an alliance, with Garona being the best possible person to help him do this. 

I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Warcraft. Yes, I went in with rather low expectations, but I found a rather entertaining fantasy adventure. Yes, the characters are rather one dimensional and each fall into their designated fantasy archetype (Hero, Fearless leader, apprentice wizard, older, wiser wizard, assorted canon fodder that might as well have "Dead Meat" tattooed on their forehead, etc.), but this is a fantasy adventure film, not a character drama so I'm not complaining too much. Duncan Jones, who previously directed the sci-fi films Moon and Source Code, does a decent job managing all the different plot lines so things are at least reasonably coherent. I was able to follow along fine and I've never played the games. Then again, I have some experience with the "High Fantasy" genre, so that may have helped. If you're not a fan of the genre, this may not be the place to start.  

The film is well cast, with the majority of the Orc actors performances being done through motion capture with the exception of Paula Patton. The performances are well captured and the actors behind the Orc characters were completely unrecognizable to me, which is all the more impressive. On the human side, the two characters that really stood out to me were the two mages. Casting Ben Foster as the older, wiser mage Medivh was an interesting choice. Typically in these types of movies that role goes to a much older actor, but instead contrasting the youthful good looks of Foster with the hidden pains of the character that Foster does a good job of portraying is something unique. He really shows how the character has aged internally and has grown weaker with age. Likewise, I really liked Ben Schnetzer as Khadgar, the young mage that at one point was destined to take over Medivh's role as Guardian but renounced his vows and left order that was teaching him. Of course, it may just be that I've been a fan of Schnetzer's since 2014's Pride (more on that one later) and seeing him in this type of role was fun for me. Travis Fimmel and Dominic Cooper do a decent job in their roles as well, but nothing that I haven't seen in these types of movies before. Likewise, Paula Patton does a good job with her role, letting her character's uncertainty about where she belongs play out well. 

There are a couple nitpicks though. The first is that the plotting of the film seems very rushed from one scene to another with little time given to developing any of the characters as we move pretty much from one action sequence to another. I've heard reports that roughly 40 minutes was cut from the film to meet a required two hour runtime from the studio. I'd be curious to see a director's cut of the film to see if it improves the narrative any. The other thing that stems from this has to do with a larger trend among blockbuster films these days and is only getting worse. The film has a solid beginning and middle but it only has part of an ending before meandering out to leave the door wide open for a sequel. It's gotten to the point where this has become extremely annoying. I miss the days when a film came to a satisfying conclusion and was a complete film unto itself. Especially since it is likely there won't be a Warcraft 2 based on the box-office performance of the first film. My other nitpick is a more minor one in that the entire film is played so deadly serious. I'm not saying the film needs to The Princess Bride silly, but some lighter touches throughout the film could've helped make the film more entertaining overall. 

Overall, Warcraft was a bit of a surprise for me. It's not a great movie by any means but it was a reasonably entertaining one with mostly decent effects, especially with the motion capture work on the Orcs. It's nothing groundbreaking but if you're a fan of the genre, you'll probably enjoy yourself.