Warcraft: The Beginning

This review may contain spoilers!

Warcraft was an opportunity to have the first good video game film, sadly it did not deliver. I would give Warcraft: The Beginning a 6/10.

This is a film that will have some really interesting scenes, there are several instances in the film that made me stop and really appreciate what I was watching; scenes like the King allowing Garona to kill him or the fight between Durotan and Gul'dan. The cinematography that was used in this film looks incredible, the director really captures the scope of this fantasy world. The score is also really good, it has such an original sound and redeems the film completely from the terrible trailer music used in marketing.

Paula Patton, who played Garona, is essentially the perfect female lead in this film; Patton presents the perfect blend of the orc and human character traits while also demonstrating the consequences of having allegiance to both sides. Ben Foster, who played Medivh, does a great job in this film despite being saddled with a disappointing plot twist; Foster plays quite a likeable and compassionate character in this film who is also notably distant and lonely. Robert Kazinsky, who played Orgrim, has a great chemistry with Kebbell and you feel like these two are as close as brothers; Kazinsky's role betrays Kebbell's in this film and you feel his regret and his pain for conducting this act so strongly. Daniel Wu, who played Gul'dan, makes for a great antagonist in this film; his performance borders the stereotypical but you can't help but feel how intimidating he is when he's onscreen. Ruth Negga, who played Lady Taria, plays one of the kindest and easily the most likeable character in the film; her generous actions towards Patton's role are some of the better character interaction in the film. Anna Galvin, who played Draka, is a very good-humoured character who has a lot of chemistry with Kebbell; I appreciated the fact that she appeared to be a warrior who was as fierce and strong as her husband.

However the best performance came from Toby Kebbell, who played Durotan. My pick here is interesting because going into a film like this you expect to enjoy the live action characters over the CGI characters; I found I had a lot more interest in the Orcs and their story. Kebbell portrays an amazing, selfless protagonist who is a great leader and the true champion of this film. I mentioned earlier that one of the best scenes of this film was the fight between Durotan and Gul'dan; at this point you feel like Durotan has lost so much and just the sheer amount of willpower he shows in this battle makes it one of the more impressive scenes.

This film dumps you in the middle of a world without establishing much in terms of lore and backstory, frankly you are either expected to just accept a rather threadbare plot or you are supposed to be a World Of Warcraft fan. Unfortunately this push for fan service makes the film slow and sluggish, sure there are spikes of excitement but nothing's going on for a lot of this film. Warcraft doesn't even display the capacity to conduct a good plot twist, the Guardian Medivh betraying the humans is hinted at throughout the film pretty blatantly so when it does actually happen you aren't even remotely surprised at all. The special effects in this film aren't nearly as impressive as everyone seems to claim; ultimately there were just too many things going on and it all started to look a bit simple, the golem and the magic in this film all looked terrible. The editing also was pretty questionable, the way scenes moved around wasn't consistent at all and tarnished the visual style of the film.

Travis Fimmel, who played Anduin Lothar, made for a rather uninteresting protagonist; he never made much of an impression nor did he stand out as a leading role. Dominic Cooper, who played Llane Wrynn, gave a weak performance in this film; Cooper didn't have the strong screen presence or resolve to portray a king. Toby Kebbell, who played Antonidas, demonstrates that Kebbell has the capacity to be a great performer and a weak one; this high mage type role is a rather weak minor character. Ben Schnetzer, who played Khadgar, is a rather annoying main role in this film; he's given far too much importance and ultimately is one of the weakest characters of the film. Clancy Brown, who played Blackhand, is one of the only Orc performances I didn't like in this film; Brown presents yet another war-mongering bloodthirsty creature that is rather two-dimensional. Callum Keith Rennie, who played Moroes, is a rather forgettable servant character; I wish he'd been given at least the opportunity to form some kind of relationship with Foster. Burkely Duffield, who played Callan, had a lot of importance placed upon his role but sadly due to his weak performance failed to live up to it; the father/son bond between Duffield and Fimmel was one of the weaker storylines of the film. Ryan Robbins and Dean Redman, who played Karos and Varis, were treated as background performers and didn't really serve much purpose in this film; there was a lot of wasted talent and these two are strong indicators of that. Michael Adamthwaite, who played King Magni, is an example of what the film did wrong; there were so many races like the Dwarves in this film but these characters are never explored which is horribly disappointing. Glenn Close, who played Alodi, is a weak red herring to divert from the Medivh betrayal that comes far too late into the film; this entity is a strange part of the film and was maybe one new character introduction too many.