Review: Warcraft
Will anything ever surpass, much less match, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which has cast a gargantuan shadow over the adventure fantasy epics which came before and after its wake? Jackson's masterful blend of breathtaking spectacle and well-rounded characterisation is one not so easily achieved as evidenced by Warcraft: The Beginning, which boasts impressive technical work but fails to craft a consistently engaging and emotionally powerful fantasy world.
A solid if uninspiring foundation on which to build a potential franchise, Warcraft plunges viewers deep into the origin story of the war between the orcs and humans. Audiences are pelted with a slew of names, settings, and various magical powers. There's Draenor, the dying homeland from which the orcs, a race of mighty warrior beasts, must flee. The green-skinned, randomly apostrophed Gul'dan (Daniel Wu who, like all the actors portraying orcs, is rendered unrecognisable by by CGI-enhanced prosthetics) unites the various clans into one called the Horde. Wielding a mysterious power called the Fel, he opens a portal into another world, one called Azeroth, through which a small warband passes. The plan is to capture enough human prisoners to fuel the Fel in order to re-open the portal for the rest of the Horde.
One of the Horde, Durotan (Toby Kebbell), has percolating concerns about Gul'dan's intentions. Conflicted between his loyalty to the survival of his tribe and the conviction that it was Gul'dan and the Fel that caused Draenor's demise, Durotan brokers a tentative alliance with the humans who inhabit Azeroth, led by King Llane (Dominic Cooper), ruler of Stormwind, and his trusty knight Lothar (Travis Fimmel), who is also brother to Llane's beloved Queen (Ruth Negga). Also on hand to help are Medivh (Ben Foster), the current Guardian of Tirisfal, and Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer), a young mage who is the first to suss out that the Fel is behind the recent village attacks. Lastly, there is Garona (Paula Patton), an enslaved half-orc, half-human who must decide if she will side with the orcs or the humans.
The sheer scale of the film is remarkable. Director Duncan Jones and his production team cram every frame with innumerable bits and bobs. The orcs are particularly eye-catching with their immense physiques resembling nothing so much as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and The Rock fused together with room to spare for a thoroughbred and a golden retriever. With hands larger than their heads, oversized fangs jutting out from their jaws, armour decorated with mementos of their various kills, they are fearsome figures. Durotan's wrists bear bones held in place by chains; Blackhand's (Clancy Brown) attire boasts an animal skeleton the size of a baby dinosaur. Garona's outfit, meanwhile, seems recycled from Sheena's cast-offs. (Patton, with the green make-up, somehow resembles Jennifer Lopez to distracting effect).
Yet for all the thundering clashes and flashes of wizardry, there's something not quite there. Warcraft simply does not have the narrative heft or the depth of characterisation to overcome its artifice. All of the actors flounder with the self-serious but risible dialogue. Admittedly, one doesn't go to these types of movies for the acting but basic skills are still a requirement to distinguish yourself from the surroundings. Kebbell manages by film's end to stir some empathy for Durotan, but Schnetzer is frequently painful to watch and listen to as Khadgar. Still, the film may please fans of the profitable franchise of video games and novels. For novices, it's third-rate Tolkien.
Warcraft: The Beginning
Directed by: Duncan Jones
Written by: Duncan Jones, Charles Leavitt; based on the story and characters created by Chris Metzen
Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, Clancy Brown, Daniel Wu, Ruth Negga, Anna Galvin, Callum Keith Rennie, Glenn Close
