"Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of War!" I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Even after the first ten minutes I was trying to find issues with it, because I just had it in my mind that it was going to be terrible, but I found that I was struggling.
Before I continue I should probably say that I have never played even five minutes on the Game that this film is based on, so I am looking at it purely from the view of a film fan.
Despite it being a good watch and for the most part, very enjoyable, I did think that there was a pace issue and I could have done with a bit more of a back story for the Orcs and maybe more of a set up in general. I don't understand why there was such an issue for pace, because the geeks that follow these things, myself included, would quite happily sit and watch it for 3 hours, so why make it just over 2?
It also needed a bit of sex and a little bit of down time to show what they were all fighting for - Why did the Orc's think they could just take the land and need it at all and what was the human side of the gate like before the war was brought?, But it really wasn't a bad storyline at all.
I can understand that the original idea was made for an XBox and not a cinema screen and that as a result there are bound to be similarities to things like 'Lord Of The Rings', Thor and even Harry Potter (Hippogriffs/Giant Birds/Orcs), but some of the settings seemed to have been lifted straight from other films. At one point I thought that Khadgar was in Boss Nass' Council Chamber (Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace).
There were other issues with the CGI as well, the Orc men seemed alright, but Gul'dan and the women were definitely distorted in an obviously computer generated way.
The story is good though. It's a new take on this genre and I generally liked it. Would I say that it's as good as The Tolkien films? No, but it's pretty close to 'The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies'.
As for the actors- I don't know who cast Dominic Cooper, but they were just so wrong to do so. He just doesn't have the presence to be the King.
Lothar played by Travis Fimmel however was very good and I believed in his character.
Khadgar was also very good, played by Ben Schnetzer, he provided a sort of view from an audience perspective, before becoming integral to the plot. I wasn't sure about him at first, but he seemed to fit right in after a short while.
The other Ben (Foster) who starred as Medivh was another that I thought would be terrible, but surprised me. I haven't liked some of his other work, but he did this quite well. Maybe he should stick to fantasy, although I didn't like him as Angel in 'X-Men: The Last Stand'.
There were also some other good actors in there, but they played Orcs which seemed a bit of a waste of their talents actually. Either Clancy Brown or Robert Kazinsky would have been better to play The King, although Clancy does have a good voice to be an Orc.
I'm not sure that the studio believed in this one as the stars seem to be slightly B-list, but they all seem to do their jobs well.
I would certainly like to see a sequel, but with the few issues ironed out.