My Rating: 6/10
Should I watch this?
It’s amazing to enter the stunning world of Azeroth and witness the skillful animation and rendering power of ILM and Blizzard combined, but leave any high expectations for character development, good dialogue, and storytelling at the door.
I can’t express how excited I was when this film was announced several years prior to its release, or the intense speculation I subjected myself and my friends to about Blizzard’s move onto the silver screen. I imagined a two hour version of one of their spectacular cinematics, which boast attracting a wider audience than the people who play their games. I’ve heard of several instances where people would simply watch the cinematics as they would a film, as these people don’t like to play video games. This was a good sign of the things to come. The sequences Blizzard has released with their games has maintained a high level of quality, and never disappointed.
I should preface this review with the fact that I’ve been playing World of Warcraft (MMO) on and off for around 10 years, and have an alarming obsession with the lore. There’s so many amazing stories that you get to play through in the games, as well as novels, comics, and short stories-sometimes in animated form.
My excitement for the film had me following the slowly released information about Duncan Jones finishing the script(s), to when production had started, getting information from friends at Blizzard who knew which artists had moved onto the movie, and the eventual trailer and subsequent posters were released. Travis Fimmel signed on (YES!), Ruth Negga (even better!), and Paula Patton (…wait, what?). Paula Patton was a confusing choice for me, especially seeing her cast as Garona. Oh well, I told myself, ignoring this first warning sign. The second warning sign came with the release of Garona’s character design. The image to the right is the design of how she appears in the game.
The image to the left is how she appears in the movie.
Okay, I know what you’re going to say-she’s half-orc, she’s part human, so it’s FINE that she looks so gorgeous even with green skin and tiny tusks. Movie Garona would definitely lose to game Garona in a fight. Orcs are not supposed to be physically attractive in a human way, and I think the most interesting parts of Garona’s appearance were somewhat sacrificed-the harsh facial features, for example. This was the first speed bump that slowed my excitement caravan, but images of Durotan among the other Orc Warlords comforted me. It’s going to be fine, I told myself. Just because Garona looks more like she belongs on a runway instead of on a battlefield doesn’t mean she can’t regulate.
I also feel really frustrated that the “sexy-non-human girl with green and/or colorful skin” role is usually given to a black or mixed-race actress. I’m looking at you, Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy. I can go on for pages about how inappropriate it is, probably because it gives production companies a reason to tout diversity without actually having any black characters in their movies. That’s a separate post, I think, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring it up regarding the movie version of Garona.
What helped me overcome this initial red flag was a picture of Draka.
Draka has long been one of my favorite characters in the WoW universe, since she leads you on a quest chain in the Warlord of Draenor expansion, and shows you the way of the Frostwolf clan, and appears in the novels The Rise of the Horde and Lord of the Clans. So looking at Draka’s design (f*** yeah badass) was enough to keep me satisfied as long as I avoided looking at Garona. There was an opportunity with the orcs in this film to present them from a unique perspective that hasn’t really been done before in film. In The Lord of the Rings, orcs are “intelligent”, but corrupted and enslaved. In Warcraft, they have a rich culture and codes of strength and honor that are well-constructed. They didn’t miss this opportunity to design their orcs in an approachable way, without making them too human-sexy.
So far, so good. Everything was pointing to the film being a success. I even dismissed film reviews calling it “…an unmitigated disaster.” I consoled myself.
I know I haven’t even talked about actually watching the movie yet, but I think the buildup is important, because it’s a franchise that is so beloved by millions of people, and has been around for 20+ years. There has been a call for a movie for a long time, so I think the anticipation and pressure was really high. My heart reaches out to you, Duncan Jones.
The film starts out fine. We’re treated to some great images of orcs, and we’re introduced to Durotan, Gul’dan (the main antagonist), and Anduin Lothar, the human “protagonist”. Since this is mostly an ensemble film, the protagonist role is split between Durotan and Lothar, and sometimes Garona. It’s risky business, but not impossible.
Things get a little out of hand right off the bat. The story is told from two perspectives; the Alliance, and the Horde, or the Humans and the Orcs. Gul’dan wants to conquer the world of the humans because he trashed the world of the Orcs, which is all right if you’re into that sort of thing, but his motivation for initially trashing his own home is never explained. First bummer; villain without depth. The lore explains more thoroughly how Gul’dan is seduced by an evil force that gives him this “fel” power, but there wasn’t time for that in between the scenes of inconsistent dialogue.
One minute it was really high fantasy language:
“I’ve led thousands of warriors into battle, but I fear being a father. Does that make me a leader, or a coward?” – Durotan
Then it’s pretty casual:
“Hi, dad!” – Callan, to his father Anduin.
There’s a lot of cringe-y, expositional dialogue. It’s understandable, seeing as how they probably felt the need to explain the world to people who aren’t familiar with the games or lore. It’s clumsy and pretentious, and the performances of all the human characters came through as contrived (Ruth? Dominic? Please forgive me). Travis Fimmel has the best performance of the live action characters.
Of course, the animated characters like Durotan are perfect, because Blizzard’s technical and creative abilities are perfect, but I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for the actors who portrayed them. It seems their own personal voices or appearances were totally swallowed by that of their characters. At that point, it’s almost as if they’re placeholders, but it’s unavoidable with such differently proportioned characters, and at least there’s motion capture technology to preserve their acting. (Can we give Andy Serkis an Oscar now?)
There was just too much going on. Of course, the film has some incredible storytelling moments, like the fight between Gul’dan and Durotan, and Draka’s sacrifice to save their son. I think too much was crammed into the film, and it made it harder to achieve an organic flow of story rather than an orchestrated sequence of events.
I haven’t even begun to discuss the rushed (and unfounded) romance between Anduin and Garona, Khadgar’s irrelevance though he actually plays a vital role in the downfall of Medivh, oh, and Medivh and his duality, how in reality he is a tragic character whose mother was unknowingly infected with dark forces that she passed down to him. But there was no time for that. We didn’t have enough time to watch the characters change and evolve based on their circumstances. The only one who really makes a choice about anything or changes throughout the film is Durotan, when he decides to stand up to Gul’dan, but this is a bit of a stretch, as his doubts about the leadership of the Horde are expressed early on. I guess Medivh does decide to use his powers in the end to help the human soldiers escape at the end of the film, but an opportunity for thorough character redemption and understanding was missed.
I was mostly disappointed because I knew it could’ve been so much better, as the source material is legendary.
A better path to take would’ve been to separate the films into two, one from the Orcs’ perspective, and one from the Humans’. Just imagine….Warcraft: Warriors of the Horde, and Warcraft: Defenders of Azeroth.
This would’ve been so appropriate, since the first thing players must do when they start the game is choose their allegiance. I later found out that Duncan Jones had written two scripts initially, but was shot down by higher-ups. I knew I liked you for a reason, Duncan.
This would’ve given us the time we needed with those characters to appreciate them the way they deserve, and experience their perspectives without being rushed into action scenes. I’m relatively certain many of the fans would’ve been happier with two, better quality films, instead of one that polarized fans and confused non-gamers. Plus they would’ve made twice the money.
Success?
Not quite.
Cry Count: 1
- My girl Draka dying a heroic death to protect her son from her own people.