My thoughts on the Warcraft movie . . .

Warcraft movie

Warcraft movie


So I saw Warcraft yesterday. Here are brief my NO SPOILERS thoughts on the movie.

I’m still divided on the movie, and I’m not sure I can give it a general recommendation. But … it wasn’t terrible. There were some good things about it. It was interesting, and different, and the visuals were well-realized, although I’m still not convinced the orcs needed to be CGI. The whole thing was CGI, really, except for some partial practical sets and the human actors. But it was well done for what it was.

The main problem I had with the movie is that the characters weren’t given any time to develop, with the possible exception of the main orc character (I forget his name). He was actually pretty likable and was performed well. The other characters didn’t fare so well. The Vikings TV show star did what he could in his role, the ostensible main character of the piece, but his character was given so little definition that it was hard to root for him.

It’s been said before that he is the Aragorn figure of this movie, and I suppose he is, but Aragorn is given a great deal of screentime in LOTR . . . before we even learn his name. The Warcraft guy — I think the character’s name is Lothar — is simply one of many moving parts to the movie, and they all move too fast and too chaotically to get any emotional grip on them before the end credits roll.

The movie needed to be more focused, more streamlined, or else it needed to have been split into multiple movies so that we could have the time needed to come to love this world, the people inhabiting it, and the orcs that want to claim it.

The villain is pretty solid, and I would consider him a bright spot except that he’s constantly checked by underlings who say things like, “If you kill X, the horde will turn on you”. A truly villainous leader would be less concerned about his P. R.

Anyway. The movie is deeply problematic, and it’s not great, but is is a loud, fast good time at the movies, and if you see it in Imax 3D like I did it is a true assault on the senses, in both a good way and a bad.

So do I recommend it? No. But . . . I can’t discourage anyone from seeing it, either. Final synopsis: it’s fun when it doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.

For further thoughts on the movie, check out Io9’s article HERE.

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