Warcraft

Duncan Jones’ Warcraft is an adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment’s real-time strategy videogame series of the same name. The plot revolves around the unfolding of a war between the Humans of a world known as Azeroth and an invasion of Orcs from a dying world called Draenor. The film follows two heroes on opposite sides who fight for their people or home: Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), a Human Warrior of the city of Stormwind who is called upon to investigate the invasion, and Durotan (Toby Kebbell), an Orc Chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan fighting for his family and the survival of his race.

The first thing one might notice is the design, which is beautifully accurate to that of the games, from the imaginatively crafted Humans’ armour to and the general design of the Orcs as well as the motion capture technology to bring the Orcs to life. The design of the games even translates to that of other races of Azeroth, in minor appearances, like the general shape of the Dwarves and the glowing eyes and long eyebrows of the Blood Elves.

For one unfamiliar with the Warcraft series, its lore and characters, the film has the task of introducing the world to the audience. It can be difficult for the uninitiated to remember the names of some of the characters. It familiarizes the audience with the locations, their names, what they are, who lives there or any general defining features. Some details are vague, but not altogether confusing. The politics of the world are not always clear, such as why a Mage would need to conceal his identity in Stormwind at the beginning of the story – does Stormwind not have Mages in its employ, and if not, why? The design of the locations are also very creative, perhaps overly CGI’d but also nicely colour graded.

The overall performances are fair, but either to their merit or detriment, the facial expressions of each character appear to be constant. Fimmel has received positive feedback on his performance, his character Anduin described as ‘steadfast and charismatic’, and often playing jokes on Khadgar, a Mage, whom Ben Schnetzer portrays well as wide-eyed, nervous and intellectual. The Orcs, like Durotan, are expressive, owing a lot to their huge computer-generated tusked mouths. Durotan is the one the audience can most identify with, given his relationship with his wife Draka (Anna Galvin) and his friend Orgrim (Robert Kazinsky). The Orcs are depicted as they are later on in the videogame series, with a sense of honour instead of simply being brutish beasts. The voice acting on the Orcs is good, having deepness and sometimes gruffness to compliment their size and muscular frames, but also smoothness for an element of sympathy towards characters like Durotan and Orgrim. Paula Patton plays as Garona, a half-Human-half-Orc, who does a fair enough job as a tough, multilingual, somewhat aggressive and compromised character – though how Garona speaks such fluent Human in such a short time on Azeroth is a little unbelievable. Ben Foster plays as Medivh, a powerful Mage and Guardian of Azeroth, portrayed as reclusive with a stiff disposition, whom the film makes no secret of his being pulled to the dark side. The villain of the film is Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), a constantly scowling Orc Warlock, who is quite a scary villain with his ruthlessly draining the life force of others to fuel his magic and harsh influence over the Horde.

There is a flaw in the story in that the audience may not form a connection with the characters. In Durotan and Draka’s case, we’re introduced to their family from the start, but Anduin’s son Callan (Burkely Duffield) has no appearance or mention until halfway through the movie, so any drama with this relationship is a little difficult to get invested in. At one point the film tries to materialise romantic chemistry between Anduin and Garona, but said romance does not appear in any other part of the film before or after, and it seems somewhat inappropriate given the moment. If some parts of the story are rushed, like for example when characters are killed and the audience doesn’t know who they are, they’re unlikely to feel for the moment. One might feel a little iffy about the ending. While not idealistic, which is actually the point of a series like this, the setup to the climactic battle feels a little conflicting with the Orcs’ sense of honour in this story.

The action itself is a great rush of fantasy violence, with swords, sorcery and monsters. The resolution to the final battle between the armies is simultaneously tragic and serene, though one of Anduin’s duels is a bit of an anticlimax.

As the first film in an intended series, one of Warcraft’s purposes is to set up sequels, doing so in such a way that the story may not be self-contained, but perhaps in the same way George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode IV (1977) left some loose ends before parts V and VI. The tone of the story is perhaps not what one would expect for a movie this visually colourful, the storytelling isn’t great and there are a few things that are rushed or don’t seem to make sense. That said it is possible this movie is mainly made for fans of the game series, but even for those uninitiated it is moderately easy to understand and even more so sit through. The special effects are impressive, the cinematography is fine, the action is satisfying, and the character design, location design and fantasy elements are marvelous. One has mixed feelings on whether the film is actually good or not, but it is at least enjoyable.