MOVIE REVIEW: WARCRAFT (2017)

Warcraft is a movie based on the popular Blizzard entertainment games that have spawned real-time strategy and MMO games. This is essentially a story right at the beginning of the games, and that is probably one of its major failings. There may be some spoilers below.

The story follows the Orcs and the Humans as they make contact with eachother. The Orcs are massive beasts that easily overpower the humans as they invade. The humans are struggling to defend their lands, learn about the threat, and form the Alliance made famous by the games.

The movie moves along at a good clip. The main characters are the human Guardian, the kings brother, an Orc female runt or half-orc or something, an orc shaman, and an orc chieftain. The plot mainly suffers from 2 things. One of them is that it is just too convuluted for a movie.

There are so many subplots going on and intertwining that the movie struggles to make any feel particularly important. For example, the close of the chieftains final arc is designed to expose a truth to the Orcs. However, he exposes that truth.... and it leads to nothing. Because the other plots and the movie demand a fighting climax. Similarly, there is a big showdown that happens after the final climax that makes no sense in the course of the movie and how other events wrapped up.

The other problem is it is set before the games. This means that "open for sequel" is splayed across the middle and ending of the movie. For example, the races are reluctant to form an Alliance with the outmatched humans, for no discernable reason. Similarly, one Guardian is given high status in the council and deferred to for all... but for no real reason. No story arcs are really concluded for the movie, which is a major problem.

Which is a shame. Because, when the movie works, it works incredibly well. It looks great, the fight scenes are visceral, and the characters are done well (for the most part). However, what this movie needed was to choose a tighter, more focused story and cut some stuff out. Instead of trying to set everything up for a future movie, it needed to be a good self-contained movie.

2 out of 5 For The Waffles!