Can’t we all just get along?

Now hang on, how long ago was this one released?

Yeah, it was back before the summer right? Just before that silly thing we did in the UK, which we’re all still puzzled as to what it actually means; Brexit. Yeah, that’s it. How did Warcraft do? Not well? It bombed? It only did well in China because they are obsessed with World of Warcraft anyway and therefore that would be the only way a sequel gets made now? Damn! I must admit, I was hoping that the film would do much better than it actually did, because let’s be honest, when it comes to Blizzard Entertainment, I am a fanboy like many many others.

I mean for crying out loud I play their games live once a week at least! But that doesn’t mean they are above reproach, far from it, if anything that means they would be under closer scrutiny for any projects that they do. While various people heaped huge amounts of praise on Overwatch, their first 1st person shooter team game, I hated it. I just couldn’t get to grips with how most of the characters played and even with some practice, it’s just annoying to me beyond belief. Diablo 3 on release got raked over the coals for the “Error 37” issue which stopped anyone playing it. And of course, this film is the first attempt by Blizzard along with Legendary Pictures and Atlas Entertainment to bring one of their games to the big screen.

Given how much story they’ve created through the original Warcraft to World of Warcraft itself, and the many characters they have to work with now, you’d think Blizzard would get this knocked out of the park and set up a long franchise? Well ish, depending on what group you fall into.

What do I mean? Well there are two groups this film about Orcs invading a Earth like place called Azeroth needed to appeal to in order to be successful;

1. Fans of Blizzard’s games, who are wanting to see their pastime come to life on the big screen.
2. The general public, who won’t have a clue about anything Blizzard and will need a good introduction to the world of Warcraft (yeah, I know, obvious!)

Miss Azeroth 2016

It became obvious from watching the film, that in no ways was this ever meant for the general public. The plot and pacing of the film’s events left me struggling to understand what was going on at times, and I played the damn games! This film sets up what should come from Warcraft 2, 3 and of course World of Warcraft where the Orcs come through to a new world because their own world was dying.

A nasty bugger called Gul’dan uses “Fel” magic to kill things in order to make other crap work, including a giant Stargate and turn the orcs into green fighting machines. The story also follows some of the other Orcs as well, who have it seems much more of a human personality than the actual humans in the bloody film!  Durotan, Draka and Orgrim Doomhammer head through with their clan and proceed along with others to raid various places.

This comes to the attention of the humans, who basically then get jolly annoyed and then seek a wizard bloke (badly miscast I also must say) who confirms that sh*t is going down. Sir Anduin Lothar is a warrior who has a really dodgy accent (probably because he was played by Travis Fimmel) and pretty much is f*cking annoying at times as a chracter, and yep his son follows in his footsteps. So you know he’s going to die at some point for some “emotional” plot point to come in. Oh and Lothar gets a nice romance type thing with a half-orc woman….Which actually raised a question of how she was half Orc, Half-Human in the first place given the Orcs just arrived…..err…..plot hole?

There’s actually not much War shown as it goes in Warcraft which seems to be odd at times really, and the simple fact is, there was too much in this to get through. It made it all the more difficult to follow and some of the cast chosen for roles, were just bad choices. Yet, there are clear indications of love in this film from someone who knows Warcraft. The murlocs making a small appearance, the inn at Elwynn having a Wanted: Hogger poster on the wall. As a fan of the games, these touches were excellent. When there was fighting and the focus went back to the Orcs, it became much more interesting. But that in itself doesn’t save this from being overloaded with too much crap. Hell, at times, the CG is really well done too, really bringing the orcs to life. The locations from the game too that they bring are wonderfully recreated and it looks wonderful.

However, I can only say to people who are fans of the Warcraft games, that they can watch this, with the caveat that they will have to pay close attention to know what’s going on. If you buy the DVD or Blu-Ray, you got some extra codes for Blizzard’s games so at least there was an extra value proposition with the package. But for anyone else? Stay away from it as you will just get lost in all that goes on It’s a hell of a lot to take in at once, and you will just end up turning the brain off and looking at the pretty visuals.

Will they get another chance to do it better? I hope so, but given the returns so far, this so far seems to be the end of Warcraft at the very beginning.