'Warcraft' Movie Review

​Hello, fellow moviegoers!
   As I've discussed many times before on this blog, films based on video games have a very good chance at really hitting a gold-mine soon. There are several films from this year that have been giving video game fans hope that they can make a good transition to the big screen. Ratchet and Clank ended up being a forgettable mess, and Assassin's Creed comes out in December, but Warcraft hit theaters this past weekend.
   Warcraft is directed by Duncan Jones, and it stars Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbell, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, and Dominic Cooper. When a tribe of fearsome Orcs travels to a new world in search of a home, the men who live there have to fight them and defend the lands that they live in. However, things may not be as they seem as there may be a third party in play. So is Warcraft the first truly great video game film? 

   Unfortunately, Warcraft fails to meet expectations. Despite all of the fan service and great visuals, the film doesn't quite pull together a plot strong enough to sustain the adaptation of World of Warcraft.
   This film has so many things going on throughout it, but it fails at the one thing it needed. Great characters. A majority of the characters in this film were two-dimensional cutouts that were portrayed by very flat acting. Lothar (Fimmel) was the cliche "warrior" that you'd expect in any fantasy film. Plainly, he wasn't interesting. Whenever he was on screen you felt no emotional tug. He was just kind of there. All of the characters in this film followed that trend. The magician. The king. The outcast. They were all exactly what you'd expect. There was no dimension to these characters. They didn't bring any depth to the film. 
   The only exception to this was Durotan (Kebbel). Durotan was the chief of one of the warring Orc tribes, and he was by far the best part of the film. They actually spent time fleshing out his character. He had flaws, but he learned from them. He was such an interesting character, and I can't help but wish that there was more of him. 
   For the most part, this film is visually stunning. This fantastical world was so lush and full of color that it was just interesting to look at. That being said, there were some spots here and there that the visuals were extremely noticeable. For example, there are scenes with Lothar flying on a bird through the mountains, and it was painfully obvious they had added him in digitally.
   Another big strength the film had was in its action sequences. These scenes were so well directed and choreographed that you couldn't help but cringe at some of the violence. Speaking of the violence, they got away with a lot of it in this film despite its PG-13 rating. I was shocked at how much they got away with showing on screen. A majority of these shocking scenes happened due to the brutality of the orcs. So, the blood splatter that was shown was fine because it was green? Because that makes total sense...
   Before I go on a tirade about the terrible system the MPAA has in place, let's talk about the music. When watching this film, the music really stood out to me, especially the Orcs theme. However, when the movie was done, I couldn't really remember it that well, and I felt no need to actually go out of my way to listen to it. So, in one aspect, the score did its job fantastically. I just wished it would've been a little bit more memorable. 
   The one major thing on my mind leaving this film was that I was curious to see where they go with this story because there is a good story in there. It just got covered in the mud. If they do end up making a sequel to this movie, will I be first in line? No, but I do think that I would end up seeing it within the first few weeks of release. 
   Was Warcraft as amazing as it could've been? No. Sadly, Warcraft is less than magical. However, it was still an enjoyable film. Most of the characters were cardboard cut-outs, and the acting wasn't anything special; but the action sequences and most of the visual effects make the experience worthwhile. You don't necessarily need to be falling over yourself to see this movie, but I'd still recommend it, especially if you're a fan of fantasy.

6.5/10

​   So what'd you think of Warcraft? Were you more interested in the characters? Let me know by commenting on this post! Also, if you enjoyed this review, share it on Facebook and Twitter. It really helps! Don't forget, I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so check back then for more movie reviews and miscellaneous movie thoughts! 

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