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Warcraft (2016)



Warcraft (2016)



6/10



Starring
Travis Fimmel
Paula Patton
Ben Foster
Dominic Cooper


Directed by Duncan Jones
                                                   

For someone who hasn’t played the Warcraft game before, the movie was my first introduction to the franchise, and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

This Warcraft film is an adaptation of the video game series set in the world of Azeroth. It’s an action-fantasy that blends CGI and live-action to tell its tale. The most fun I had in the movie was during the fight scenes, where the orcs take on the humans. What’s supposed to be a walkover for the orcs turns into a thrilling showdown, with the humans holding their own and even taking down some orcs. Add to that the visual effects and cinematic thrills, and you’ve got a visually stunning experience.

Now, critics have panned this film for Duncan Jones’ directing and writing style. But I liked how he decided not to play it safe. He dove right into the movie with little to no introduction about where we are, what we’re watching, or where these things come from. He just started making things happen on screen.

This style can be annoying, even for me, because a story with no depth isn’t much of a story. But I guess the visual effects and thrilling action had me hooked. Every character gets a shallow intro to who they are and what they stand for, but the movie didn’t fully win me over with how Medivh was good, then bad, then good again.

One more thing I enjoyed was the fight choreography in the Mak'gora (a traditional orcish duel to the death). When our protagonist, Sir Anduin Lothar, takes on an orc, the fight is over in five seconds—but it’s an exhilarating five seconds.

Warcraft starts its introduction in the land of Draenor, the homeland of the orcs. There, we see Draenor being destroyed. Gul’dan, an orc who knows magic, convinces the orcs to band together with him, forming a mighty army known as the Horde. He tells them he can move them from their dying world to a new one where they can conquer—Azeroth.

To accomplish this, a portal must be opened using the sacrifice of souls. Gul’dan uses captured Draenei as his sacrifice and moves into Azeroth with a small band of orcs to capture enough humans to open the portal again and bring the rest of the orcs into Azeroth.

The King of Azeroth, a human, and his men seek the aid of their guardian, who also knows magic, to help fend off these attackers. But during the battle, loyalty becomes a problem on both sides.

With an ending that makes the whole movie feel more like a TV series pilot for what’s to come, I hope the box office returns are fair to this movie.

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