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

Fantastic Four (2015) review

Debuting in November 1961 as the first major superhero team developed by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Fantastic Four have been one of Marvel’s most famous franchises as far as the comics are concerned. But as for their track record on the big screen, Marvel’s First Family has not been as successful compared to other Marvel franchises such as Spider-Man, The Avengers, X-Men, or even lesser-known characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy. It all began in 1994 when famous B-movie producer Roger Corman produced a low-budget adaptation of ‘The Fantastic Four’. But because either the production company behind it, Constantin Film, just made it to keep the film rights or Marvel stepped in so that it wouldn’t ‘ruin the franchise’, that film was never released in theaters and is currently only viewable on the internet in bootleg quality. 20^th Century Fox would eventually get a ‘Fantastic Four’ film into theaters in 2005 with the Tim Story directed ‘Fantastic Four’. The film was successful enough financially to warrant a sequel, ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’, in 2007. But while both films performed solidly enough at the box-office, they were also generally disliked by both critics and audiences, primarily for their overtly goofy attempts at humor, some questionable casting choices (i.e. Jessica Alba as the Invisible Woman), and, in the case of the sequel, one of the worst changes from the comics in superhero film history in regards to the portrayal of Galactus.

Cut to 2015, 8 years after the release of ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’. Fox is back again with their second major attempt at launching a ‘Fantastic Four’ film franchise. And compared to the previous two films, this one really showed some potential due to who was working on it. It was to be directed by Josh Trank, who was fresh off of 2012’s excellent found-footage flick ‘Chronicle’. It was to be produced by Matthew Vaughn and Simon Kinberg, who were both fresh off of playing a major role in the resurrection of the ‘X-Men’ franchise with 2011’s ‘First Class’ and later ‘Days of Future Past’. And it would feature an excellent group of leads playing the Fantastic Four in Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell. But, as is typical with any film in the superhero genre, this one was subjected to some heavy scrutiny by comic book fans in the months leading up to its release. As is also common with this genre, the casting was one of the major points of controversy amongst fans, primarily the casting of Michael B. Jordan in the role of the Human Torch, who is usually portrayed as a white man in the comics. Additional rumors including major deviations from the source material (including the supposed change of Doctor Doom into a hacker), confirmed reshoots, and rumors of Trank being ‘abrasive’ during the shoot also aroused suspicion that this was going to turn out to be nothing more than a mess. And now that the film has come out… well, unfortunately those fears are well-founded as this new ‘Fantastic Four’ ultimately ends up being a ‘fantastic’ disaster.

In 2007, young Reed Richards dreams of becoming the first human in existence to teleport. With the help of his best friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), Reed (Miles Teller) starts to develop a prototype for a teleportation device. That prototype ends up attracting the attention of Professor Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) of the Baxter Foundation, who recruits Reed to help work on a special teleportation device developed by Storm’s old protégé Victor von Doom (Toby Kebbell). Along with Storm’s children Sue (Kate Mara) and Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), Reed helps get the machine operational but is disappointed to learn that he won’t be part of the initial voyage to the alternate dimension (referred to as ‘Planet Zero’) that the teleporter is set to head to. But the night before this is set to happen, Reed, Johnny, Victor, and Ben end up taking an unsanctioned trip to Planet Zero so that they could have their chance at using the machine that they created. Once there, chaos ensues and Reed, Johnny, Ben, and Sue (who didn’t come with them but was affected when the device returned to Earth) find themselves with strange new abilities; Reed can stretch his body to great lengths, Sue can turn invisible and generate force fields, Johnny can engulf himself in flames and can fly, and Ben is transformed into a powerful rock-like creature. With these new powers, the four must band together when Victor returns from Planet Zero hell-bent on the destruction of the Earth.

It is very much clear that the theatrical cut of this film was the result of Fox taking away creative control from Josh Trank, which I presume was due to them not having any faith in his vision for the film, which probably included all of those alleged major deviations from the comics (i.e. Doom being a hacker). As a result, the film as it is now definitely feels like the haphazard final product of this meddling. There are quite a few instances of continuity errors (most notably Sue’s changing hairstyle) and the film’s pacing feels off. Ultimately that leads into the film’s biggest issue… it is extremely dull and lacks the visual spark that one can expect from films of this genre. From what I hear, Fox actually cut out at least three major action sequences from the film just days before shooting was set to begin. Uh Fox, you do realize that action sequences are the bread and butter of this genre, right? But apparently they forgot about that because this has to be one of the most boring superhero films that I’ve ever seen in my life. Pretty much all of the film’s action sequences (all 2 of them) happen at the end, which means that basically 80% of this ‘superhero film’ is nothing more than just scenes of exposition. The very much-dragged out buildup to the Four gaining their powers ultimately leads to terrible payoff and the final fight between them and Doom is laughably bland and insignificant. This emphasis on exposition instead of action was also an issue with the 2005 ‘Fantastic Four’ film but even that film had better pacing than this.

Another big issue is that the film is also pretty darn downbeat compared to, well, pretty much every other superhero film ever made. If I haven’t made it clear before, I’ve been rather hesitant about DC’s more serious approach to their superhero films to the point where they are apparently enforcing a ‘no joke’ mandate. But after watching this film, I can safely say that I’m pretty confident that DC will never go as far as this film did in terms of its overall tone. Trank has stated that David Cronenberg was a major influence in regards to how he approached how the Four would react to their transformations; in other words, it’s very much reminiscent of body horror. Now I do think that this is an interesting take on these characters and you can definitely see that in the initial scenes of them with their powers, which are arguably the best scenes in the entire film. But ultimately those are the only moments where this concept is utilized. As a whole, the film is very drab in its overall look and feel, lacking the humor and charm that one can expect from, say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are some attempts at humor throughout the film but most of them end up falling flat. Hell, what I’d argue is the best line from the trailer, where Johnny remarks about how he’ll need ‘a heat-resistant workshop and a big-ass sunroof’… isn’t even in the film. Whereas the previous ‘Fantastic Four’ films were a bit too goofy, this film is just too damn serious.

Now I wouldn’t be ‘too annoyed’ with the darker approach if the characters were well-developed. But unfortunately they aren’t and again it’s due to the film’s terrible pacing. Not long after the initial incident they literally cut to one year later, glossing over what should have been essential moments of character development. In fact, it isn’t even until the end of the film when the Four are actually all together on-screen. As a result, you never get a sense of the familial relationships between the main four that define who they are in the comics whatsoever; the friendship of Reed and Ben, the romance between Reed and Sue, etc. And it’s sad because, contrary to popular opinion, I think that the film was well-cast in regards to the main Four. Teller, Mara, Jordan, and Bell have all proven to be some of the best actors/actresses of their generation but unfortunately they’re all pretty much wasted here. And I think that they did a good job in casting Doctor Doom by going with Toby Kebbell, who last year really stood out as Koba, the main villain of ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’. It’s too bad then that Kebbell is majorly underused here. After the incident, Doom is not seen again until the end of the film and by that point there’s absolutely no motivation for his actions other than ‘he’s just evil’. For the record, that is the third straight time that one of Marvel’s most iconic villains has been butchered on the big screen, from being an absolute wuss in the 1994 ‘Fantastic Four’ film to the overly cheesy Doom of the 2000’s ‘Fantastic Four’ films to finally the highly underdeveloped baddie of this ‘Fantastic Four’ film.

Now let me be clear; while it’s obvious that Josh Trank was majorly screwed over by Fox in regards to him losing creative control over what would turn out to be a quite aimless final product, at the end of the day we may never know if his ‘version’ of the film would’ve been any better. This may have just been a case of a young director who was simply unprepared to handle a big-budget blockbuster like this, hence why Fox seemed to have had little faith in what he did with it. Ultimately though, I don’t blame Trank for the fact that this new version of this new ‘Fantastic Four’ film that we got is… just terrible. This film is just not entertaining and not just because it is severely lacking in terms of action sequences, which is something that you really don’t want for a film in the superhero genre, but because it’s also quite dour. Ultimately, it’s just boring; thankfully the film is only 100 minutes long and it actually does fly by rather fast. But at the end of the day, that also means that the film fails to make any major impression whatsoever. And that’s really sad given how many good people worked on it and while I know that a lot of people were hesitant about this film, I was actually really optimistic and hopeful that this film was going to be good and prove its critics wrong. But at the end of the day, it just ends up being a major disappointment, continuing the mediocre track record of the ‘Fantastic Four’ on the big screen. On the bright side, maybe Marvel’s First Family will have greater luck when their film rights are inevitably reacquired by Marvel Studios.  

Rating: 1/5

(P.S. To put this rating into perspective, I gave both the 1994 unreleased low-budget ‘Fantastic Four’ film and both of the early 2000’s ‘Fantastic Four’ films higher ratings than this… now that’s saying something)