Reelworm Watches: Warcraft Review

Reelworm Watches!

Warcraft 

Produced by Blizzard Entertainment and Universal Pictures

Directed by Duncan Jones

Written by Duncan Jones, Chris Metzen, and Charles Leavitt

Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky and Daniel Wu. 

****

The Story: The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize 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. (From IMDB).

****WARNING!!! THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!****

The Review: Warcraft. It is a likely assumption that everyone in the western world has heard of warcraft. The reaction would most likely be “that’s an online game right?” Indeed it is. 

While Reelworm does not have the time or the money to commit to World of Warcraft or any other MMORPG, he has been a longtime fan of Warcraft Lore and owns close to a dozen of the novels with several more on his wish list. One of his favorites was the Rise of the Horde which told the story of Durotan and the first Orcish Horde. This film takes several of the details found in that book, and integrates them into the story of the movie. 

The Lore geek in Reelworm was having a fangasm. Seeing places like Ironforge and Stormwind come to life on the big screen. We also saw Dwarves, Elves, and magic spells. It was all a visual feast. 

Unfortunately, that is often the biggest flaw with movies such as this: their core appeal is with fans of the subject material and not the average movie goer who only recognizes the term Warcraft. As much fun as it was to see Orcs and the Knights of Stormwind brought to life outside of cyberspace, it all felt a bit glanced over. The Dwarf City of Ironforge is only seen once and the dwarves themselves are only seen twice in the entire film. While the special effects were very good, Reelworm couldn’t help but feel a bit ripped off. 

Finally…it follows too closely to the book as the whole thing feels like a prequel when the possibility of a said sequels feels exceedingly low.  You can’t really blame Hollywood for this trend. Movies are expensive and sequels and series make big money. Using well-established franchises such as comics and video games all-but guarantees an audience. 

World of Warcraft has become such a vast and colorful universe, that to be honest, the original games seem a little bland compared to what is today. The purpose of the movie was to go back to the beginning but Reelworm would liked to have seen a few more Night Elves or even some Gnome technology. Otherwise it could be mistaken for another Lord of the Rings movie. 

One aspect of the film that stood out while watching does give this film some credibility where crediblity is due. It is an issue that has nipped at the heels of Hollywood for quite some time: Diversity. This film has a large amount of it and makes it worthy of mentioning. First off, there are several female leads who get a fair amount of screen time. In addition, one of them, the queen, Lady Taria, is played by a woman of color, Ethiopian descent to be precise. The Orc warriors, while the majority are big, buff males, have several warrior women among them. The most significant of course, being Draka, Durotan’s mate. There is a woman among the soldiers of Azeroth as well as several people of color. 

One could make the fair argument that background characters are all well and good but the leads are still caucasian males, and none of the aforementioned female or minority soldiers get any lines of any significance, but change rarely happens all at once, and frankly that’s probably for the best. 

It is a start, that is all. 

When watching this movie, Reelworm got the impression that the creators really felt passionate about this story. 

Reelworm could sense real emotion in these actors, even through all of the CG. The story they are telling on its own, is a dramatic one. Its a story of betrayal, love, spirit, damnation, and the small spark of hope when the darkness falls. 

But that could not save the film in the end, there just wasn’t enough. That is the ultimate downfall. There just was not enough. Not enough lore, not enough acting, and frankly not enough foresight on behalf of the studio. 

Also…the story felt very predictable. There is a traitor in their midst and we can guess who it is halfway through. 

Final Verdict: Warcraft is not very good. It seems the curse of the Video Game Movie has been lifted yet. It has plenty of heart but not enough brains to really succeed. 

Three Hordes out of Five

thecultureworm.blogspot.com