Warcraft
Warcraft
By Hiram Trillo
Ok, so although I knew about the game and at one time played a little, I am by no means a WoW expert (World of Warcraft). What I do know is that Blizzard the parent company/maker of WoW is an expert at making incredible trailers for their games. This can be seen in the film, but that is not necessarily a good thing.
If you do not know what World of Warcraft is by chance you might have been hiding under a rock or maybe have a life. However for the kingdom of Nerdom that I am a proud member of, game films are the upcoming thing, with more and more hitting the screen. Warcraft is based on the earliest of the original strategy game by the same name which has not developed into what is better known World of Warcraft or WoW which takes place years after this story. Look, I will not bore you with the full description, for this is better seen on IMAX 3D than read. But basically, director Duncan Jones’ film tells the beginning of the story and the first contact between orc and human. Orcs live on the planet Dreanor which is basically dead due to shaman leader Gul’dan’s magic who feeds off of life to stay powerful. After destroying it’s own planet Gul’dan must now find a new one to continue feeding. So he creates a portal from Dreanor to the world of Azeroth, a world that has lived in peace for many years due to a pact between the 7 races.
Now one might argue that this story fits well with in our current times where stories of refugees cover the front page world wide almost daily. The heart of this film is relatable and beats loudly in our present state. As a film it is full of plot holes and although the CGI and special effects are top notch, it just felt flat. It seemed that Blizzard had a huge influence on the direction of the film, since by the end it felt like a 123-minute game trailer. However I will say that because of that reason the attention to detail is above average, it is unapologetic in its depiction of magic and fantasy. For that reason I applaud its willingness to go all in on the genre. But with so many problems I just could not bring myself to call it a good film, so I’ll keep it at it works but perhaps needs a bit of a “magic touch” to reach the game franchise potential.
4/10
Rated PG-13
Running Time 123min
