Being a longtime fan of the "Warcraft" video game franchise, both the older RTS games and the now almost 12-year-old MMO game, the word “excited” didn’t come close to explaining how I felt toward a movie being made about "Warcraft." From my knowledge of the lore of the franchise, I had already walked in knowing what would happen, yet I still couldn’t contain my giddiness to see it all unfold on the big screen. After having viewed the film, I will admit I left the theater with conflicting emotions and feelings. I had no real idea how to review this film; from a film lover’s perspective or a "Warcraft" lover’s perspective. To make it easier, I have broken down the review from both angles.
"Warcraft" follows the perspective of multiple people, but centrally focuses on the two main characters from opposing sides. One character being Anduin Lothar (played by Travis Fimmel) on the side of the Alliance and the other being Durotan (played by Toby Kebbell) on the side of Horde. The overall focus of this film between the central characters was to unite the two factions to fight against a greater evil. What unfolded though were multiple plot points following different storylines all related to various random things within the film.
The film critic in me thought the movie was average at best. There is a lot of ambiguity with the overall plot, the purpose of a few characters and their actions, how some of these actions even came to be and where the film was leading. It was obvious that a lot was riding on this film to set up possible future sequels. Though I don’t necessarily think the screenplay was bad nor did I think the directing was bad; I just believe that they tried to cram too much story and character into one film. Or perhaps rather, maybe they chose a bad spot within the "Warcraft" timeline to start off their film franchise.
For anybody confused, the overall story and lore of "Warcraft" spans nearly half a century; that being said, we only got a glimpse of that timeline with just this one film. Despite the fact that I knew all the answers, I still couldn’t help but feel bad for any average movie goer with no prior knowledge of the "Warcraft" universe. The film felt like one giant inside joke that only I could understand, sitting in that half-empty movie theater.
As a longtime "Warcraft" fan, however, I believe it is certainly above average. It was amazing to see all of these characters that I’ve known for so long finally get their big screen debut. It was enthralling to witness such an interpretation of that franchise on film. Many of the nods to the video games brought me nostalgic joys that I haven’t felt in years. Being the fact that I knew what was going on behind the curtains, I understood every plot point precisely. To that avail, I had no confusion watching the film, hence why I rate it so high as a "Warcraft" fan. They even perfectly encapsulated the feeling of "Warcraft" in the movie. When I watched it, I wasn’t thinking to myself, “This is a 'Lord of the Rings' rip-off,” but rather, “This is a 'Warcraft' movie.”
The CGI was surprisingly extremely well done. It never seemed over-meshed despite that a good 70-80 percent of that film is CGI. The fights were always entertaining, giving off that sense of epic fantasy combat like no other film has done in years. Every actor and actress in "Warcraft" were great; in particular, Ben Foster as Medivh stood out to me the most. "Warcraft" was certainly an interesting spectacle, with great merit in some avenues and lackluster in others. For the fans of the video game franchise, this is an absolute must-see. But for the many others that know nothing of "Warcraft," I do believe the film at least deserves one viewing. Even though it may be extremely confusing, nobody can deny the entertainment value that this film brings to the table. It is certainly a film that will draw discussion amongst "Warcraft" players for many years to come.
