Warcraft

To begin with, I have to say I'm not Warcraft fan. I played the game occasionally, but I never gave too much thought to it nor read anything related to this lore, so I'm not competent to say if movie is faithful to original story or not. But I am fan of epic fantasy and it's my favorite genre. The only thing that somewhat bothered me was that two hours is not nearly enough to tell this story proper. Fact that movie feels incomplete is acceptable, cause it is obvious this is just the base for movies that will follow and this franchise looks very promising. But even just introduction to this world can not fit in only two hours. It needs at least three hours, or even two movies for this part of the story to be told right. Beside that I have no other objections. It is very good movie. But they call it The Lord of the Rings for the new generation. That's where I must draw a line. However good this movie is it is not worthy to be even compared to LOTR. Not only it is blasphemy to say that Warcraft is better or equally good, but they are beyond any comparison. Even after fifteen years nothing came even close to LOTR, let alone overthrow it from the throne of the genre. Maybe this movie standing alone deserves higher rating than what I rated it, and if there was no LOTR maybe I would rate it much higher, but LOTR set standards so high for this genre and in every single aspect it so much better than Warcraft, that on the scale where LOTR is ten, I simply can not give this movie more than seven. Still, I warmly recommend this adventure to all genre lovers and I can not wait for the sequels.

7/10

I had no idea what was going on most of the time because I'm not particularly familiar with Warcraft's story. That being said, this is a decent movie, especially considering it's a video game franchise film...90% of the time video game films are very badly adapted to the screen.

David Bowie's son Duncan Jones is the brilliant mind behind the film Moon (2009). It was also his debut film. Warcraft was his second.

I have watched this film 3 times over the past few years, and it never has lost its magic. The acting, story and visual effects are mind-blowing. It is dark and brutal, with a glimmer of hope. In contrast, Rotten Tomatoes and other "esteemed Hollywood critics" decided to bomb this film, with a ridiculous 29% rating. They were dark and brutal, without that glimmer of hope.

I know a bit about the background of this film, and that it was made outside of Hollywood structures, with major funding coming from China. It seems the only reason for them to be so unreasonably and selfishly venomous towards the film.

I have played the stand-alone game and liked it, but I am not a fanboy of the game. The film is an origin film, and the storyline is easy to follow, not so complicated as many critics allege. Duncan Jones is an extremely talented director, and I can only think how these reviews destroyed his intentions of a follow-up.

To give Warcraft 29%, and the infantile, by-the-numbers film Bumblebee (2018) 91%, you just know that RT is very much ROTTEN TO THE CORE.

There were several constraints that the movie had to work with. There was the already established Warcraft mythos and stories, there was the terrible stigma of game adaptations and finally there was the matter of so many main CGI characters that had to look realistic, not like something Pixar or Disney designed. Given that, I was not expecting much.

Yet the movie exceeded all my expectations and gave me hope for the future. The story is something placed at the end of chapter III of the mythos and the beginning of chapter IV. In game, it is the story of Warcraft I, which was another bold move, considering the hordes (heh heh heh) of World of Warcraft players that weren't even born when that game was published. It pits the peaceful kingdom of Azeroth vs the war clans of the unknown Orc, fleeing from their dying world through a portal fueled by the very thing that destroyed it. A half human, half orc girl is instrumental in providing information about who the Orcs are, what they want and how they have reached the kingdom.

Characters were well developed, graphics were good, the script had few holes and the mature story was clearly well smoothed out. The only problem one could have is that it's just the first part in many, with the main conflict point resolved, but none for the character story lines.

Actors came from all kinds of TV series, Vikings, Preacher and Legends of Tomorrow to name a few. The only predominantly big screen actor out there was Ben Foster. It shows both the direction of cinema and TV blending together (and perhaps with games) and the fear of well established cinema actors getting caught in unsuccessful game adaptations. Perhaps with the success of this and - one may only hope - Assassin's Creed, things will begin to change.

I am not sure why there are so many bad reviews and low reviews. If you're a fan of mystical worlds and fantasy, wizards, kings and queens, mythical creatures such as deserts, orcs, elves and more, then already this has the foundations for a good film. It's not anywhere near Lord of the rings or The Hobbit, but it isn't cheesy and keeps you entertained. The fight scenes are really entertaining and I felt choreographed well. The CGI is really good with this film to the point where the creatures feel real and you forget they're fantasy creatures. The film is well-paced, and although it is just over 2 hours, the film never seemed to drag for me. I felt the film had the right balance of dialogue, action, fantasy and humour. I personally enjoyed it and recommend it is worth the watch.