Warcraft

When Draenor, the orcs’ homeworld, begins to wither and die, orcish warlock Gul’dan (Daniel Wu) uses life-draining fel magic to open a portal to Azeroth to give the orcs a new land to conquer. Durotan (Toby Kebbel), chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan, is suspicious of Gul’dan and the fel, but he nevertheless joins a raiding party to ensure a future for his wife and child. On the other side of the portal, the use of fel magic is detected by Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer), a young human mage, who persuades military commander Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmell) to alert his brother-in-law, King Llane (Dominic Cooper) as well as Medivh (Ben Foster), the mystic guardian of the realm. As battle lines are drawn between the humans and the invading orcs, there are those on both sides who realize that things aren’t quite what they seem.

Warcraft has been a popular computer game franchise for more than two decades, and a film adaptation has been in development for nearly half that long. Given the repeated delays, the required budget, the inevitable comparison to Lord of the Rings, and the dismal track record of movies based on video games, it’s a small miracle that a Warcraft movie was released at all. And while that much is a victory, not even the franchise’s most powerful mages can erase this flawed film’s many glaring blemishes.

Though the character design is inescapably cartoonish, on an aesthetic level, Warcraft acquits itself fairly well. The journey to Medivh’s spire in the sky provides some breathtaking views, battle scenes are competently choreographed, and Ramin Djawadi’s score evokes the grandeur of the games’ music without shamelessly mimicking it. On a superficial level, the movie delivers as expected.

Ironically, some of the film’s problems stem from a desire to transcend that superficiality. Director/co-writer Duncan Jones is an avid gamer, and though by necessity he streamlined and simplified some of the Warcraft mythos, he also showed a lot of reverence for the source material, which broke from some genre clichés (orcs here are a proud warrior society rather than simply dumb muscle for the forces of evil) while reinforcing plenty of others. Unfortunately, instead of 90 minutes of lightweight fun, this fidelity resulted in a solemn, occasionally leaden two-plus hours that still felt underdone.

Jones wasn’t helped by uninspired, cliché-ridden dialogue, thin characterization, and questionable casting decisions. Ethiopian-Irish Ruth Negga and white Australian Travis Fimmell are unconvincing as siblings, and Ben Foster’s American accent sounds very out of place. Among the few cast members who come off well here are those who take more liberties with the source material: Cooper plays Llayne with heroic gusto while Schnetzer’s Khadgar is somewhat bumbling (at first) and constantly disrespected and underestimated, a needed counterpoint to the stone-fisted solemnity.

Ultimately, Warcraft is unlikely to win over anyone who isn’t already a fan of the franchise, and even the latter group may find themselves disappointed. But there between the nostalgia factor and the visual flair, there is enough here to make it worth their time, albeit barely.

6.5/10