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| Copyright: Universal Pictures |
Great young directors will often be provided with a chance to enter the realm of huge Hollywood blockbusters and showcase their ability to tackle projects on this scale. Duncan Jones, whose talent after films like Moon is indisputable, got his break with the first feature-length movie adaptation of the Warcraft video game franchise.
Jones should have said no, but he instead tried to do the best he could, which wasn’t that great when all is summed up. In the film, the beginning stages of the orc invasion of the realm of Azeroth begins, all masterminded by Gul'dan – if this doesn’t mean a lot to you, you probably won’t enjoy the rest of the action-packed film which is not that action packed.
Jones should have said no, but he instead tried to do the best he could, which wasn’t that great when all is summed up. In the film, the beginning stages of the orc invasion of the realm of Azeroth begins, all masterminded by Gul'dan – if this doesn’t mean a lot to you, you probably won’t enjoy the rest of the action-packed film which is not that action packed.
Lead by a weird assembly of actors, some of which are both very good and poorly cast, which is presented perfectly with the case of Ben Foster, the Warcraft film is lacking clear direction and some final sense of purpose.
Instead of being an epic fantasy film, it feels like an epic pilot episode for a new TV show. In the dynamic of the film, the perspectives are switched between human side and the orc side, showing a series of both internal and external power struggles, all of which kind of make no sense in the global scheme of things.
Visually, things never stop looking great, in spite of some plastic-looking props that are painfully not made out of metal. Here, some magic of being in the realm of Azeroth is there, cropping up periodically, but it is not enough. Unlike the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, the film has a hard time making the audience believe that it’s worlds are not only CGI stages filled with Styrofoam weapons. The plot suffers from the very same thing and this is not improved by the “it shall continue” ending.
I’m not sure who pulled whom and who much during the decade-long production of this movie, but in the end, everyone came up short. Warcraft is not a boring experience – however, it does its source material and creators no justice whatsoever.
