Review: Warcraft

Synopsis:

From Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures comes Warcraft, an epic adventure of world-colliding conflict based on Blizzard Entertainment’s global phenomenon.

The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: Orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize another. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people and their home.

So begins a spectacular saga of power and sacrifice in which war has many faces, and everyone fights for something.

What We Thought:

Warcraft was better than I thought it would be, but I still don’t think I liked it that much.

The trailers for the film didn’t look good at all. I’m not a fan of CGI and this looked all CGI. The trailers didn’t help advertise the film whatsoever.

It did look better on the big screen though. Sure most of the film is CGI with live action characters (at least the humans), but some of the effects do look amazing. I saw it in IMAX 3D and the size of the film is great in IMAX. I hate 3D and the 3D isn’t good in this. There’s no need for it.

The effects, especially the magic parts with Ben Foster and Ben Schnetzer’s characters, are pretty breathtaking. It’s all computerized, but it still looks cool. The backdrops and environment do look good, but super fake.

I do like the cast as well. I’m a big fan of the TV show Vikings so I was happy to see Travis Fimmel in a big movie. He plays a similar character to King Ragnar, but I’m ok with that. I like Paula Patton a lot and her character is a mix breed Orc. Dominic Cooper and Ruth Negga work together well as they do in Preacher. Ben Foster is pretty over the top, but I like him anyways.

The Orc characters are all CG. Toby Kebbell plays the lead and you really can’t tell it’s him. Same for Daniel Wu from Into the Badlands and Clancy Brown. You can hear their voices, but you really can’t tell it’s them.

I’m not a huge fan of these types of movies to begin with. I didn’t like The Hobbit films and I’m not a Lord of the Rings diehard. I like some epics, but when they are loaded with computerized worlds and characters, they don’t do much for me. I didn’t like Avatar for that reason.

I never played World of Warcraft so I have no idea if any of the characters in Warcraft are from the game. It reminded me a lot of The Hobbit films and even had characters that looked identical. I thought it was going to be terrible and it’s not, but I doubt I’d ever watch it again. It looks good on an IMAX screen, but the story and characters are nothing new. If you liked Avatar, The Hobbit and the video game, you might like it.

FANS MIGHT LIKE IT, I DIDN’T THINK MUCH OF IT!

Cast & Crew:

• Travis Fimmel
• Paula Patton
• Dominic Cooper
• Director Duncan Jones
• Ruth Negga
• Ben Foster

Recommended If You Like:

• World of Warcraft
• The Hobbit
• Avatar