Warcraft (2016) review

In the world of PC gaming, Warcraft is easily one of the most famous franchises in the history of the platform. Developed by Blizzard Entertainment, the series first started out with a trilogy of real-time strategy games; 1994’s Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, 1995’s Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and 2002’s Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. But since 2004, the franchise’s arguably most popular installment has been the ‘massively multiplayer online role-playing game’ (MMORPG) World of Warcraft. As of October 2015, around 5.5 million players have active subscriptions to the game, which has obviously become a worldwide pop cultural phenomenon. Thus, it’s only fitting that we now have a feature film set within the world of Warcraft (no pun intended). And for a film that’s part of the controversial ‘video-game based film’ genre, and by ‘controversial’ I mean the fact that most of the genre’s output has been absolutely savaged by both critics and audiences, it certainly has some major credentials in terms of its crew. Specifically, its director, Duncan Jones. The son of the late rock legend David Bowie, Jones has made a name for himself in the film industry thanks to two critically acclaimed sci-fi films in 2009’s Moon and 2011’s Source Code. With Warcraft, however, Jones takes on what is easily his biggest project to date and with that comes a lot of pressure. Not only does the film have to appeal to the longtime fans of the franchise but it also must do enough to appeal to those who are generally unfamiliar with the franchise, me being one of them. So, with that said, does it achieve this? Well, ultimately, I’d say yes and no…

When their homeworld begins to be destroyed by a dark magical force known as ‘Fel’, the orcs of Draenor, led by the powerful and sinister warlock Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), travel via a portal to the human world of Azeroth. Once there, the orcs begin to attack various settlements all over the area, kidnapping large amounts of humans to use as sacrifices for Gul’dan so that he can reopen the portal and bring the rest of the orc Horde through it. This eventually ends up attracting the attention of the kingdom of Stormwind, ruled by King Llane (Dominic Cooper). When traces of Fel magic begin to become noticeable all over Azeroth, Llane sends his military commander, Sir Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), to investigate. Enlisting the aid of Medivh (Ben Foster), a powerful sorcerer known as ‘the Guardian’, and young mage Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer), Lothar begins to investigate further into the matter, which ends up resulting in him and his men coming into conflict with the orcs. However, at the same time, some members of the Orc race, namely Durotan (Toby Kebbell), the chieftain of one of the primary orc clans, Frostwolf, begin to consider breaking ties with Gul’dan, who wields Fel magic, so that the orc race can truly survive. And to do so, they decide that the best option is to form the unlikeliest of alliances with the humans, who likewise work to stop Gul’dan before he can summon his Horde army and take over Azeroth.

As I noted in the intro, I’ve never played any of the Warcraft games. Thus, this film has the challenge of making it so that newcomers to the franchise can at least understand what’s going on. And for the most part, the film does succeed in doing so. Now, granted, it’s not a complete success as I’m sure that are some references to the games here and there that I most definitely didn’t get. But as far as establishing the, again no pun intended, ‘world of Warcraft’, the film does do a solid job of establishing the primary ‘story’ of the war between the humans and orcs. In fact, the plot of the film is basically the set-up for said conflict that is the backbone of the entire series. While some critics have noted that the plot was rather incoherent, I personally didn’t really notice that. Still, like I said before, those who have played the games are no doubt going to get more out of it, specifically in terms of how certain moments factor into the franchise’s lore. As for the visuals, which have been one of the most talked about aspects of the film, well, all that buzz was warranted. The visual effects in the film are outstanding. Now sure, some will probably take issue with the fact that, like the latter half of the Star Wars prequels and the Hobbit films, there are quite a lot of visual effects in this film, namely in terms of the environments that it creates. And while I have read that there were some actual sets that were constructed during filming, overall I think it’s safe to say that most of the action sequences in this film are primarily computer generated. Still, it’s hard to deny how much detail was put into these visual effects. From the grand environments of Azeroth to the impressive motion-capture work for the Orc characters, this is easily one of the best-looking films of the year and it does lead to some impressive big-scale action sequences.

But while the visuals are great and the story at least isn’t as confusing as critics are claiming, the film does lack in terms of character development. I don’t want to go as far as to say that this is a case of ‘style over substance’ but still, emotional depth is very slim here. And, no, this has nothing to do with whether you’ve played the games or not. Certain character moments in the plot (e.g. a tragedy that befalls Sir Lothar) just don’t have the emotional impact that the film is trying to achieve. Still, the film’s cast does do a decent job with the material that they are given. Of this cast, there are two main standouts. The first is Toby Kebbell in the lead orc role of Durotan. Kebbell’s become a major figure in the world of motion-capture performance work in recent years thanks to his great turn as Koba in Dawn of Planet of the Apes. And while Koba is easily the stronger character, Kebbell does do a good job in the role of Durotan, the lone orc who decides to stand up against Gul’dan because, unlike him, Durotan cares about his fellow orcs. The other major standout is Paula Patton in the role of Garona, a half-human/half-orc slave who is captured by Lothar’s forces and subsequently joins them in the fight against Gul’dan. Again, while character development is rather lackluster in the film, Garona does at least get more of it than most. She’s probably the most interesting character in the entire film; a half-human/half-orc who is obviously torn between worlds. And the film does a good job of exploring that internal conflict, primarily represented by a key decision that she makes during the finale.

I will admit that this film is a hard one to recommend because it all depends on the audience. If you’re a fan of the Warcraft series, I think it’s safe to say that you’re probably going to really like this film. From the perspective of a Warcraft outsider, it seems like Duncan Jones and his crew did do a solid job of respecting the source material, particularly in terms of the production design. But for anyone like me who went into this being generally unfamiliar with the franchise, it is quite a bit of a hard sell. At the very least, the film does a decent job of establishing the universe so that it’s easily accessible to newcomers. But at the same time, you really do have to be a fan of the franchise to get the most out of it. And while the plot isn’t as convoluted as some critics have said, at the same time it is very simple and character development is rather lackluster save for a select few characters. At the very least, the visuals are fantastic and I think that they at least deserve some attention come awards season (and yes, I’m fully aware that this would be the ONLY real way in which this film gets recognized during awards season). So, in conclusion, while the hunt for the first universally beloved film based on a video game still goes on, this will no doubt please fans of the franchise, at least more so than any other entry in the genre. And while this is nowhere near being one of my favorite films of 2016, at the very least I will say that this isn’t as bad as its current 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes suggests. Granted, it isn’t exactly a film that I plan on re-watching anytime soon but, for the most part, I liked it fine.

Rating: 3/5