Director: Duncan Jones
Cast Headliners: Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbel, Paula Patton, Daniel Wu, Ben Foster
Original Release Date : June 10th, 2016
The
Warcraft franchise could be argued to be one of the most iconic video game
series of all time, helping to define and popularize both the RTS and MMO genres.
Its extremely dense and rich colorful world of orcs, elves, dragons, magic, and
more could be said to be ripe for a film take. Finally after almost a decade of
development and iterations, the movie version is here. And while it is on the
upper end of the scale of video game adaptations, it falls victim to those
common traits as well. However to a game fan, it’s surreally awesome to see key
locations brought to life while also offering some cheesy fantasy fun to
newcomers as well. It’s an ambitious undertaking to tackle this franchise, and
it gets many things right and wrong.
Perhaps
what sets it apart from most game films is that the story here is largely
directly cribbed from the 1994 video game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans with some
fleshed out perspectives, retcons, and changes giving a modern look at the “First
War” event in the game’s lore from two decades ago. While it is not the most
exciting and unique heights of the saga (no cosmic space spirits or pandas
here), it is a straightforward base that offers a solid starting point for a
film franchise and to newcomers. The
movie, unlike some in the fantasy genre, gives the perspective of two very different
factions.
The
orcs (imagine Lord of the Rings’s equivalent mixed with the Hulk from Marvel)
are shown in semi-sympathetic light as they invade from their dying world to
the human dimension of Azeroth. There’s
noble orcs like Chieftan Durotan(Toby Kebbel) and his wife Draka(Anna Galvin),
the conflicted and awesomely named Ogrim
Doomhammer(Robert Kazinsky), and the pure vile evil of war leader
Blackhand(Clancy Brown) and the primary antagonist in the warlock Gul’dan(Daniel
Wu). All of the orcs are portrayed through motion capture needed for their
frames, and their effects and characterization are some of the film’s best
aspect. Drawn right out of the game and compelling in their own right, their
scenes are intense and barbarically fun. Kebbel as Durotan is a cool sort of
progratonist with a motivation that creates empathy for his rebellious
reasoning. Most great from the orc side of all is Daniel Wu, who gives Gul’dan
a fearsome vile demeanor right from the cd-rom and brings an orc to life to
seem real. On their own, they feel like and rival the best of Blizzard
Entertainment’s original video game cinematics.
The
film uses an extreme amount of CGI effects, which perhaps makes sense with the
source material. But while it makes sense for orcs and other creatures, and the
at times beautiful vistas/locales(created 100% right from the World of Warcraft
MMO in some cases, which to a fan is the one of the film’s best aspects
recreating its vibe) it can be cheesily jarring
when mixed with the film’s weaker aspect, the humans. It ranges from neat to
weird to see live actors with CGI medieval armor or riding fake horses
alongside real ones.
That’s
not to mention the human characters and actors are mostly lame. The “hero” of
the overall film is the knight Anduin Lothar(Travis Fimmel). He gives an ok
look into the film and an very slight emotional connection with his son
Callen(Burkely Duffield). But he has a weird performance that ranges from extra
unlikeable jerk, awkward forced romance nearly Anakin Skywalker tier with half
orc Garona(Paula Patton), or lackluster “humorous” moments with mage
Khadgar(Ben Schnetzer). He is not a hero
one cheers too much for, nor many of the other humans in the kingdom of
Stormwind. Patton’s Garona has some unconvincing makeup clashing with her orc
peers and an even worse mediocre performance. Schnetzer’s Khadgar throws a cool
spell or two but does not incite laughter. King Llane(Dominic Cooper) and queen
Lady Taria(Ruth Negga) semi-lacklusterly
are there to speak exposition text and move scenes along. It’s ironic that
these live actors have less impact than CGI creations. One standout human, interestingly a bit of the
magical counterpart to the Orc’s Gul’dan, is the Guardian wizard Medivh, played
with game perfect larger than lifeness by Ben Foster who could have used more
screentime.
The
director Duncan Jones has never really quite something as visually ambitious
and epic scale as this film. He trades in his previous twisting storylines from
other works for a mostly straightforward tale setting up decent action. The
live and CGI mix becomes more digestable in the battle sequences which is a
credit to him but becomes apparent when things slow down. But the thing about
game movies is they may always have cheese, coming from a arguably different
source of enjoyment than movies. He did what he could and while some pacing and
effects mixing are hazy , when it’s good its decent, especially for a fan. But
also to his credit, the elements are used as to not be( but almost just barely)
overwhelming to an outsider.
It’s
far from a perfect fantasy, game, or overall movie. But that was always going
to be the case adapting this huge and varied world. For life fans it will
deliver that “feeling” that’s been wanted if making some lore changes and not
bringing that same goodness of orcs to all aspects. To an outsider, it’s hyper
fantasy to a level even beyond Tolkein may take some effort to swallow but the
action and most visuals will excite. Hopefully a potential sequel can learn
some things and go to cooler places, and while its doubtful this is the one to
kick off the wanted games to movies trend, for what it is Warcraft delivers on
the most important aspects it should if not without some moderate missteps.
7.75 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment