Before I dive into this review, I would like it to be known that I have not played any of the titles in the World of Warcraft series and neither have I played any from the Warcraft series, with the exception of Warcraft 3 which I only played for an hour. Now you must be wondering why you should even bother continue reading this review. After all, I know very little about the franchise and even less about the lore it’s built upon. Thus, I wouldn’t be in a position to talk about whether the movie was able to properly emulate the mythos of the Warcraft series. And that’s very true. But my counter-argument to that is – shouldn’t any movie, regardless of whether it adequately uses the source material or not, be able to follow some basic tenents of what makes a film watchable? Thus, I write this article from the perspective of a common movie-goer. A movie should be able to stand on its own two feet without the gimmicks of Easter eggs and subtle references to posture its narrative, and that is what I will critically cover in this review.
Warcraft tells the story of the Horde (they are a large group of different orc clans) as they try to escape their dying world of Draenor. Their escape must be made into Azeroth, but it will not be one without a fight. The story shifts between Durotan, an orc chieftain of the FrostWolf clan, and Anduin Lothar, a commander of the humans. Durotan is a just and calm-minded chieftain who only wants to find peace for his clan and his family. Anduin comes off as a strategic maverick on the battlefield but his attitude towards the invading orcs is nothing less than hostile. Thus, the narrative tries shifts between the main plot of this battle and a few sub-plots, while at the same time trying to flesh out each of the main characters and their supporting members. The magic word that you will notice throughout this entire review is ‘tries’.
The film tries to do many things and it achieves that goal of stuffing the script with multiple plots and themes but in the process it loses out any sense of rhythm and flow. The movie starts off on a good footing, to the point that I broke cinema norm and turned to my colleague just to exclaim to him how excited I was for the rest of the film. Sadly, after the first ten minutes Warcraft completely throws any logical pacing out the window and sort of rushes through the whole plot. And consequently, it throws off every other aspect of the film out of whack. As the plot progresses, there is very little back story given to many of the characters or even lore, with just one liners rarely dropped here and there to satiate our curiosity. It was at that point I knew this was a movie meant for fans of the Warcraft franchise; a lot of the plot points that needed more clarity seemed to bank on you knowing a good chunk of the lore before stepping into the theatre.
Warcraft tries to make you care and understand for both sides of the battle, yet somehow it ends up doing a marvelous job of making the audience relate to the plight of Durotan and his clan. Meanwhile the Humans come off as a bunch of plastic figurines. Yes, the CGI characters seemed more alive and real than their human counterparts. Everything for the latter, from their personalities to their motives, felt vapid; it became so hard to relate to any of them. This was especially felt during the “emotional” scenes of the movie because it was at that point you realize you don’t care about the human kingdom! Even the one intimate scene thrown in the mix ended up being immensely cringe-worthy and uncalled for, it literally appeared out of nowhere and was purposely done just to make it clear to us that those two characters in the scene apparently had the hots for each other up until that point. Juxtapose to this void of emotion and character is the surprisingly life-like relatable Horde. The interactions between Durotan, his family and his clan was fleshed out, with each of their actions making sense towards their character’s personalities. Even how the Horde as a whole feels organic, due to the way they react to certain situations, which is them responding through their collective principles. Even the overarching villain of the film, Gul’dan, is formidable and malevolent; this can be felt within the first five minutes of his screen time. The Horde did not feel out of place or out of touch, they came off as well-written and well-planned.
Where the movie lacks in consistent narrative, it makes up for in visuals; which are nothing less than spectacular. One would think that for a film like Warcraft the prowess in the visuals would been seen through how the landscape and environment is rendered but it’s most vivid in the way the creatures (especially the Orcs) are designed. Each of the Orcs, even those who were just background extras, were heavily distinguishable. Everything from physical features to the way their armor and clothes were designed truly helped make each of them appear unique. This is not to take away from how well designed each of the environments appeared especially Azeroth. From the snowcapped mountains to dense forests, all of it coalesced to leave the viewer breathless and with a hint of curiosity as to what else lurks and lives in this grandiose space. Even the majority of the battle scenes are all the more epic because of how well the CGI was rendered, with only few moments where depth perception sets in and you can tell there is obviously a green screen behind some of the characters. Yet, those moments are forgivable and can easily be overlooked.
Warcraft is a movie that tried too hard, it hamfisted a lot of characters with multiple subplots that never came to fruition once the credits started rolling. Shallow character developments, meaningless relationships and interactions plague this movie; mostly from the human side. You’ll find yourself more enthralled in the mortal coils of the Orcs than anything else. The biggest problem with this movie is that it’s a half-measure. They set out to create immensely believable and relatable Orc personas, only to forget that they still have to deal with another half. It would be great disservice to say that this movie is bad, for it is not, but it would also be great disservice to say that this movie is good, for it is not. Warcraft somehow manages to find itself in the middle ground. It sets up a lot of great plots, themes, and characters for the upcoming titles in the franchise but to use to a whole movie just to set up every other upcoming film, even after failing to execute it well, is a great unkindness to the viewer. I was told by many of my colleagues who saw the film that it stuck pretty well to the source material; that if anything it was one of the best films to adapt a video game so far. So, if you’re a fan of the franchise then this movie is what you should be catching at your local cinema over the weekend. But if you’re like me, a man who has barely dipped his toe into the ocean that is Warcraft, then this is a film that should be seen with little expectations as possible.
