Spoiler-Free Review - Warcraft

By Eduardo A. Viera

Should a movie based on a video game be faithful to its fanbase, or try to branch out towards the more casual cinema-goer? This is a question that director Duncan Jones tackles face on with his new movie Warcraft. And what does he decide? Faithful, faithful, faithful! 

I - Character Development

The director seemingly forgot what makes a movie so great: caring about the characters. Throughout the movie, many characters are introduced, and each of them has a problem going on.
As you might think, this ends up being too much for one movie, and thus the audience stops caring about what happens with the characters.

So many things happen in this movie. My guess is that the characters in this movie have already been introduced in one of the Warcraft games, because their introductions are slim at best, and non-existent at worst. You’d think that after each new person (or orc) appears, there would be some type of explanation on who this is, but no, the movie just gallops through, expecting the audience to understand. I’m all for making smart movies for smart audiences, but this is not the case and if you’re not a super-fan, chances are you won’t care much about the dilemmas the many characters face. 

II - Plot

The fact that the characters were underdeveloped affected the plot horribly. But, at least the movie had a “blockbuster-type” pace (meaning that it moves fast), so the film ended up being quite watchable and doesn't drag. But what’s the main issue with Warcraft? It was too faithful. If I’d never heard that Warcraft was based on a MMORPG, the name of the actual movie would make no sense at all. Hopefully, that shows the incoherence of this film. 

But for all its plot issues, I respect what Duncan Jones has tried. This is a guy that knows his material (again, maybe too much) and made a movie he would love, and all Warcraft fans would too. I don't doubt that if you played Warcraft, and have a general knowledge of the world of Azeroth, you’ll enjoy the film. But for the casual moviegoer? There’s better stories out there, folks.

III - Special Effects

This movie is not all bad though. If you’ve seen the trailers or posters, the effects certainly looked realistic. I was curious to see if this would translate throughout the entirety of this film, and this is one front where the movie passed. The orcs look as real as the humans, the magic effects are well linked with the physical movements of the actors, and the cities/environment looks amazing. The way I see it, if I enjoyed the look of the cities without ever playing Warcraft, then fans are in for some big fun. 

In all honesty, the special effects are probably what saved this movie. The major fighting sequences and the intuitive feel of the effects make this movie faster and more exciting. For all its worth, at least its budget wasn't thrown down the drain. 

To conclude, it makes sense why this movie succeeded in the box office the way it did. Even though Warcraft (and World of Warcraft) was a huge hit a decade ago, the amount of players logging in to play has decreased drastically in the USA, but in China and Russia there’s still a solid fanbase. This is a movie by the fans, for the fans (BvS style). Anyone who wishes to get in the way will probably end up having at best a regular time at the movies. So my final recommendation? Enjoy the movie, fans! And for those non-players like me? Now You See Me 2 and the Conjuring 2 are in theatres. 

This is Joe Daven, signing out. Have a great day people, and always enjoy life