[Review] Warcraft (5/10)

Warcraft was lauded as one of this year's movies that would finally wake Hollywood up to gaming titles. I can now say that all hopes rest on Assassin's Creed.

The movie opened up with massive potential, introducing the Orcs and getting the audience to feel for the race. And when the first battle ensued in the forest, that too foretold what was to come. Sadly, nothing that came after ever reached its potential.

I will say there were a few bright spots. I really enjoyed the story of how Orcs and humans needed to work together for a common goal. I appreciated how both races needed a translator in order to communicate - because that's one of the main essence of the game as well. And there were some sacrifices made which, as plot points, were done very well.

Travis Fimmel, Dominic Cooper and Ben Schnetzer, though nothing fantastic, were the best parts playing the humans. I found myself not caring that much for Ben Foster here, and that's crazy because he's probably the most talented of the bunch.

At first I didn't understand why Daniel Wu needed to be in this movie, all CGI'd up; but I saw what he did with voicing the character and I really enjoyed it.

The downfall of this movie was with the choices made in creating it. The whole movie was shot in front of a green screen so nothing looked real. It was difficult to get into that world when nothing looked real. Even the humans looked textured because they needed to fit in with their surroundings.

I was hoping the movie would have gone the direction of The Lord Of The Rings, a good mix between CGI characters and real actors; shot in real location. But instead it went the route of the prequels of Star Wars. Even the pacing followed that of Episode I through III, where each scene and the characters' interactions barely lasted a minute. There was no time at all for the audience to digest.

And that's why the first half of the movie felt very confusing.

But the worst thing about this was the action sequences. Characters only took one swing with their weapon and their opponent fell - from start to finish. The CGI suffered even more during the first big battle scene. It was so bad that I almost laughed out loud because the lightning storm looked like a B-grade movie from the 90's! If it was done on purpose, it was a terrible call. If it wasn't done on purpose, then it begs the question of: Who approved that crap?!

After all that being said, I have to say that director Duncan Jones was the wrong choice for this movie. He did the drama well, but the action pieces were a failure. This is Warcraft. Action has to be a major strength of the entire movie.

A lot of potential but ultimately it's a let down.