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| A bearded man and a brutish orc with paint-splattered faces divided by a sword make up this poster for Duncan Jones' Warcraft |
Warcraft is the long-awaited computer game adaptation, based on the popular Blizzard Entertainment games and novels, which is the 3rd film for great English director, Duncan Jones (Moon (2009)).
An alarming number of brutal orcs crash into the human world through a portal, but it may be in collaboration that man and orc should have to secure the future.
The good news for WoW (World of Warcraft) fans is that Warcraft isn't as bad as some critics make it out to be, - and the critical video game adaptation ridicule seems to have become somewhat tiresome and ritualistic by now, I think, - and that many fans of the universe seem to be delighted with it.
I have never played the game, but the film only achieved status as an okay time-filler in my opinion.
The script, by Jones and Charles Leavitt (Seventh Son (2014)), tries to create an ambitious story where we are introduced to, and supposed to care for an orc family, a steadfast, human commander, a human wizard, a human guardian, a half-human/half-orc female, and the king of the humans. Those are many characters, and also too many, I think. I still can't tell you who was the protagonist of Warcraft, a film that clearly should have elected to focus on one of its stories.
The film presents a bombastically sounding, war-crazed universe, (befitting its title, I suppose), with muscular, often ugly characters. The CGI, landscapes and orc designs are mildly interesting. The fantasy universe feels like a thin cup of The Lord and the Rings with such place names as 'Stormwind' and character names as 'Orgrim Doomhammer'. The film has to move fast to tell its wide story, which happens at the expense of scenes, which play out fast, - so fast that characters rarely get to show personality and the locations never get to sparkle or impress any charm. Backgrounds shift again and again, and nothing sticks with you.
The actors do mostly well: Travis Fimmel (Vikings (2013-16)) is intense as the commander, Ben Foster (Rampart (2011)) is engaged as guardian Medivh, (though it takes a minute to get used to his look), and Ben Schnetzer (Pride (2015)) brings a much-needed whiff of lightness and humor to the film as the guardian who might have made a good protagonist. Paula Patton (Deja Vu (2006)) looks fierce while struggling to act and look attractive with massive orc incisors, and Dominic Cooper (Need for Speed (2014)) seems conspicuously uninvolved as the king, especially if compared to Fimmel.
The voice-over in the beginning of the film states that man and orc have fought as long as anyone can remember. The king of men later claims no knowledge of orcs at all. This is another head-scratcher.
SPOILER Finally I was puzzled to see that the film eliminates so many of its characters in the end: Both likable orcs die, the guardian and the king.
Whether we shall see more Warcraft, (which is called Warcraft: The Beginning in many countries so as not to cast any doubt that the companies behind it would like it to be the first in a lucrative franchise), on the silver screen after this venture seems dubious at best, - but of course it is ultimately up to audiences across the world, and their willingness to purchase tickets, - or lack thereof.
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Watch the trailer for the film here
Cost: 160 mil. $
Box office: 31.7 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Warcraft premiered May 25 and runs 123 minutes. It has been in development since 2006, with directors Uwe Boll and Sam Raimi earlier in talks to head it. Jones' involvement was marred by his wife's breast cancer in 2013 and his father, David Bowie's death due to cancer in 2016. Filming took place from January - May 2014 in and around Vancouver. Warcraft has opened in much of the world already, but will not open stateside until June 10, going up against other new titles Now You See Me 2 and The Conjuring 2, while also battling the holdover powers of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, X-Men: Apocalypse and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Warcraft is rotten at 18 % with a 4.4 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Warcraft?
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