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    Warcraft

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    I bet if you’re a fan of the “Warcraft” and “World of Warcraft” games, you’ll be delighted with this film adaptation. If you’re like me and all this is new to you, then it’s adequate at best. At least the film looks great on the big screen!

    Draenor, the homeworld of the orcs, has fallen to ruin. Their only hope for survival is to escape through a magical portal into the rich world of Azeroth. But the magic employed for this voyage comes at a terrible price, one that Durotan (voiced by Toby Kebbell), the chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan is uncomfortable with paying. As the orcs ravage Azeroth, knight Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) and a young, inexperienced sorcerer named Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) stand on the front lines, ready to defend their world from these invaders.

    Writing the outline for this film makes it sound very silly. Basically, the premise is that we have one group of people (the orcs) whose world is dying. They need to annihilate another group of people (the people of Azeroth) to survive. It’s less complicated if you just watch the movie, although there’s a lot to digest quickly. Now that you’ve got that we can dig into the film.

    I admire the fact that there’s an effort to be more than just a generic fantasy film with one-dimensional bad guys and heroes in shining armor. Does it succeed? Not entirely, but at least there are hints here and there that not all orcs are bad and that these people have things to do besides wage war. I want to say that these characters are fleshed out, but they’re not. Take the villains, there’s nothing to them. As soon as they walk on-screen, no matter what the other characters might say, you know immediately that they’re pure evil. You can’t help but feel that someone should raise their hand and question what’s going on and say “Are you sure there’s REALLY no other way? ” To be fair, some characters do just that, but not in a manner that feels realistic. I get the feeling that this film was written in its entirety and then handed to some higher power. They came back to Duncan Jones and Charles Leavitt and forced them to go through a list of things to improve the film by showing the various relationships and emotional conflicts between these characters. You see inklings of personalities here and there, but not enough. Merely having one scene where the one-dimensional bad guy is questioned by his followers, where the heroes reflect upon their violent actions or the young sorcerer alludes to a troubled past does not make the film feel truly alive, it just rolls a pencil underneath the surface and prevents it from being completely flat from a technical standpoint.

    There are cool elements to this story. Too many in fact. There are so many characters, locations, and events in this film that there’s no breathing room. As such, the stories given to the humans and orcs are basic or clichéd. There are several characters thrown in who have only one purpose: to advance the plot. I don’t mean that they do stuff that makes the story go forward, it’s more like that youngster who unknowingly pushes a button inside a tomb and sets off a mechanism that flattens them and forces the hero to pick up the pace and get to that magical jewel. Was their purpose to die? Not really, but they’re not characters per se. They’re just a bunch of moments and actions that stand out just enough to allow you to recognize them and know exactly how you’re supposed to feel in that one scene. It’s like this film was massaged at the last second and they simply didn’t have the time to write real characters so they threw in the easiest answers to get you to know where the plot is going next.

    On the upside, this is a good-looking movie. The CGI/motion capture warriors are detailed, they have weight to their movement, they’re very expressive, there’s a nice variety in the action, a multitude of locations and fabulous monsters populating this world. I even thought the 3D was pretty good. What will turn you off from this picture is that “Warcraft” encompasses every element of an epic fantasy story, to a fault. The only thing this film DOESN’T have, is dragons. It makes the whole thing seem generic. Compare this film to “The Lord of the Rings”, which also has orcs, humans, wizards, dwarves, elves, big battles, giant wolves, magic. “LOTR” has personality. This film’s an all-purpose fantasy.

    From what I can gather, “Warcraft” serves as a prequel to the games. Even as someone who isn’t familiar with them, I can’t help but feel underwhelmed. There’s no way this does justice to the fans who have been eagerly waiting for this project. Not with the been-there-done-that characters or the derivative story. I know some will enjoy it. The film looks good, I was never bored and often it is genuinely exciting. I don’t think “Warcraft” deserves all of the negative comments it’s been receiving, but unless you just happen to catch it, or your friends are paying for your admission, I can’t help but feel that there are much better things you could see. (3-D Theatrical version on the big screen, June 26, 2016)

    5
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    adamwatchesmovies@  30.6.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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