| Warcraft (2016) | |
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Rating: 6.7/10 (278,684 votes) Director: Duncan Jones Writer: Charles Leavitt, Duncan Jones Stars: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster Runtime: 123 min Rated: PG-13 Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy Released: 10 Jun 2016 |
| Plot: As an Orc horde invades the planet Azeroth using a magic portal, a few human heroes and dissenting Orcs must attempt to stop the true evil behind this war. | |
When a load of computer game cutscenes pass through a portal to a cartoony landscape world, a group of LARPers see their homes threatened. So, a band of generic adventurers team up with some of the good cutscenes to stop the bad cutscenes.
A film based on the Warcraft franchise was, at one time an exciting prospect. The lore and history of the world of Azeroth (whilst initially just being ripped off from the Warhammer Fantasy lore due to the game initially being planned as an official tie in) is quite detailed. From the storyline of the old strategy games, to the wealth of lore that can be read in tomes scattered around World of Warcraft (yes, those books that you look at, skim over, then ignore…they have some great depth of background in them). It was possible a franchise of films drawing from the lore could be something grand. When the director of Moon, Duncan Jones, was attached, it would be safe to say I was quite enthused by the idea. Then production seemed to drag along, and it went quiet for a while until the first trailer came out…and it looked like a computer game! That was when the concern set in. I didn’t want a computer game on screen – I wanted something that takes the lore seriously and makes for a damn good film.
Not embarrassing CGI moments that look more dated than Beowulf
There are various problems with this first film in the proposed franchise, and most of the problems become apparent within the first fifteen minutes of the proceedings. The mixture of live action and CGI doesn’t work. The cartoony aspects of the creatures and landscapes clashes terribly with the live action cast. In addition, the cast appeared to have problems working against so much green screen and conversing with CGI creations as many of them deliver their lines in such a flat, uninspiring manner that you wonder if they thought it was a dress rehearsal, not the main event. Then you get to the forced attempt to please fans of the games. In the first fifteen minutes we are thrust from one location to another for no apparent reason other than to make players of the games get excited at seeing places they visited in the game series. The worst of these moments is when, for no known reason, the hero has to go to see the King in Goldshire, for a conversation that could have taken place in the throne room of Stormwind (which is where they report back to him five minutes later anyway). Deliberately forced in “Ooh, look….this is from the game!” moments such as this serve only to alienate those not versed in the game, and who were hopeful for a decent film to watch.
The cast, as mentioned, struggle to raise the level of acting above that of…well..the type of acting you get in a video game cutscene. They are further hindered by costume design straight out of a cosplay convention, making their self important exposition delivery seem quite ‘amateur dramatics’ in nature. The dialogue itself is pure exposition to fill the gap before the next spectacle, kind of like the cut scenes in a game, only this time we can’t press a button to skip them.Like cialis for sale uk any other function, the sexual function might need regular consumption and training. In the cases of nerve compression these symptoms are more often early than urinary symptoms , such as fever can be as early 2 to https://drscoinc.com/testimonials/ viagra sans prescription 6 months as the appearance of hematoma . It releases certain hormones and neurotransmitters to signal the penile organ for levitra sales online https://drscoinc.com/action/rentals/ an erection. The cause may be https://drscoinc.com/contact-us/ viagra canadian pharmacy any, but the solution lies in taking of Kamagra.
I’ve read comments that the film was confusing to follow. Now, on this I don’t agree, but it is a crammed in mess. Enough story is here to have filled twice the run time, if allowed to grow, develop, and make us actually care about any of the characters. However instead we get a rushed attempt to blast out as much story as possible in a short time, in order to again make fans of the game series see as much of the stuff they remembered on screen.
If done as a TV series instead, some of the flaws could have been overlooked. The production looks like a TV series, and given, say, eight episodes to play over it could have worked so much better, but as a film it is of the standard of the Dungeons and Dragons movie from 2000, only without the humour. Duncan Jones is apparently a fan of the games, perhaps he should have concentrated on making a film rather than churning out his version of a greatest hits of the things he enjoys playing.
Warcraft is a film aimed squarely at the video game fans, and the kind of people who think 3D is still a thing and are easily swayed by some flashy CGI, and does nothing to lift video game adaptations out of the mire that they tend to dwell in. Overblown, self important, and decidedly cheap looking, it is a waste of talent that are all capable of so much better.
